Tuesday 29th January

This week in digital technologies we learnt all about coding. I was looking forward to this input as we were going to be using Scratch Jnr. I had previously experienced using Scratch and really enjoyed it and felt I had a bit of background and knowledge on this topic. Scratch is a great interactive way to teach children about simple coding. They are able to have a finished product at the end to show their work. It can be used for maths and literacy learning. In this case we were using it for literacy purposes.

There are many benefits of teaching coding in classrooms. One being that coding can teach many skills needed for problem solving and communicating ideas. The Lead Project 2014 stated “As young people create Scratch projects, they are not just learning how to write computer programs. They are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively” (The Lead Project, 2014). This shows that by using Scratch Jnr pupils are able to get creative and think outside of the box, developing their thinking and sharing skills. Also, children are a lot more interested in learning about coding as it is interactive and allows their brains to work. I read an article all about a school integrating coding through ‘Codecademy’ into their learning. It stated, “They are more responsible for their own progress and enjoy the challenge, and subsequent sense of achievement, from tackling the programming tasks provided by Codecademy.” (Curtis, 2013). Pupils are able to take pride in what they created and are able to feel more confident in this field.

Scratch Jnr also fits in with the curriculum for excellence extremely well. Those who are first and second level are able to demonstrate their use of programming and can use it as a way to demonstrate ideas through sound, texts and images. It could be link to TCH 1-04b which is “I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, texts and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways”. This shows that Scratch and other coding games can be used to develop on these skills.

For my Scratch Jnr project, I decided to make a farm adventure. I asked questions through-out so it could be used as a learning tool. I aimed my project at early level. I asked questions such as ‘what animal is this?’ or ‘What colour is this?’. Simple questions like this allowed me to make sure children would be interactive in my game. The following photo shows the different coding I used to create my Scratch Jnr project.

Overall, I think Scratch Jnr was a really easy way to learn and teach coding. It is extremely appropriate for the age range of children in primary school and I believe would be really enjoyable for pupils to sit and work on.

References

The Lead Project (2014) Super Scratch Programming Adventure: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games! No Starch Press.

Curtis, S. (2013) Teaching our children to code: a quiet revolution [Online] Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/39846/mod_resource/content/1/Teaching%20our%20children%20to%20code%20a%20quiet%20revolution%20-%20Telegraph.pdf [Accessed 30 January 2019]