Coding and Programming
New technologies and their various applications are increasingly present in twenty-first century society. Children have early contact with computers, tablets and smartphones, using programs and apps. Creativity and experimentation are innate characteristics of children, who also exhibit a great ability to learn new language forms. It is our role as educators, to match students’ pleasure of working with modern resources to their ability to innovate and create.
Rather than remaining mere consumers of the technology offered them, students learn to develop their own animation and games, assuming the role of product creators. In order to sharpen creative thinking skills and incorporate another technological tool into our educational proposal, we have implemented Programming classes for elementary school students. These classes, given in English, take place in the Technology Lab equipped with computers for students to use. A coding program called Scratch, developed by MIT (USA), is used in class to make language more dynamic, enjoyable and affordable. Programming encourages children to work with the concepts of logic, experimentation, making hypotheses and finding solutions.