This week in the Digital Technology we were introduced to ‘coding’. To be successful in coding, means you must have the ability to input ‘communicate’ information in a specific sequence, which will lead you to an end result, a finished product. I think coding is similar to building a jigsaw, each piece plays a part in creating the finished jigsaw and with a piece missing the jigsaw is incomplete, in other words, it is unsuccessful. Coding works in a similar way, therefor in order for young learners to do this successfully they need to challenge their problem solving and communication skills.
It is crucial that young learners today learn about coding and also most importantly that they understand coding, this is because technology is ever changing, ScratchJr (n.d). Education must keep up to date with digital technology on the same level that they keep up to date with mathematics, literacy and science. It is vital for future generations that this is understanding is actioned now, “The reason is that there’s no better way of helping someone to understand ideas such as recursion or algorithms than by getting them to write the code that will implement those concepts”, according to Naughton (2012, p.3).
The application we were using today was ScratchJr, which is used by educators and children across education. ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children from 5 years old to create their own interactive stories and games. Skills developed while using ScratchJr include:
- Creative thinking skills
- Logical reasoning skills
- Problem solving skills
- Collaboration skills
As part of class today we were asked to create an interactive story for a literacy lesson using ScratchJr. Some thing that would promote literacy skills such as missing out the end to a story in order for children to predict an ending. By doing this children can then explore their thoughts and ideas, get creative! The lesson I planned today will be aimed at for around early level, which is roughly nursery aged 3 yrs – primary 1 aged 5yrs. The literature is based around a mission to space, traveling through the solar system which includes a moon landing and the potential to explore the moon.
LIT 0 – 19a: I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other text, sharing my thoughts in different ways.
TCH 0 – 01a: I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems and share ideas and thoughts.
SCN 0 – 20a: I can talk about science stories to develop my understanding of science and the world around me.
Looking back over class today and having the opportunity to use the iPad and ScratchJr I can see how beneficial this type of technology is to young learners. It really engages your creativeness and it also allows you to correct any mistakes you have made therefor there is an opportunity to learn and progress further from making mistakes and fixing them. I am happy that I am being introduced to yet another coding device that I can use in the classroom, in this case the device was assisting mostly with literacy where as before I used coding with the Bee Bot for mathematics.
I understand ways in which these technologies can be used across the curriculum and that they will develop over the years, allowing our young learners to be confident in the future when dealing with digital technology in various context.
References
- Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 3 February 2018].
- Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 3 February 2018].
- ScratchJr. (n.d) [Online] Available: https://www.scratchjr.org/about/info [Accessed: 3 February 2018].
