Booklet Z Generation İn Digital Classroom Booklet Z Generation | Page 46

Coding and computational thinking.
Coding is an English term, which corresponds to an approach that puts programming at the center of
a path where learning, starting from the first years of life, takes new paths and is at the center of a lar
ger project that breaks down the barriers of information technology, stimulates an approach devoted
to solving problems. In fact, we speak of computer programming not in the most traditional sense of
the expression. We talk about computational thinking, which is an unprecedented approach to solving
problems. With coding, children and adolescents develop computational thinking, the ability to solve
more or less complex problems. They do not only learn to program but they plan to learn, too.
They are fun tools, such as Scratch or Scratch Jr. for the little ones. Or they are exercises of the code.org
site are. More than exercises, they look like games. Children play and when they win every challenges, it
means they have solved some problems. To solve each problem, they must commit themselves to
understand what the possible solution may be and, if they reach the goal, they learned how to do it.
Meanwhile, unknowingly they have written lines of computer code, even though they have not actually
written even one and have only moved rectangular blocks, where each block corresponds to a function
and to a code. We are talking about block programming, also called visual programming.
Coding and computational thinking, in primary school or in other contexts, are “brothers” of
educational robotics. It means that children can learn by assembling a robot kit to built. After having
built it, in fact, they have to program their robot. So, sometimes, coding and educational robotics are
a unique thing.
Coding and computational thinking in primary and infancy school:
the tools.