How Should We Teach Children Coding?

The question of how we should teach children to code is constantly on the agenda with different approaches. With coding, many applications and workshops are everywhere.

Coding; a fixture of the digital world.

Each area of ​​our lives is developing and changing rapidly by creating a harmony with technology. When we look back and look at the past few years, we are actually making a lot of effort to keep up with, use and even understand this constantly developing technology.

Most of us have witnessed, albeit partially, the development of phones that are large enough to cover our entire work desks, from computers that are now in our pockets, from keypad phones with antennas to touch-sensitive phones that are now even a voice assistant. But children are now born into a rapidly growing and developing system.

We can easily observe that most children can use many social media accounts and play games before they even start school. Experts constantly state that the childhood period is the easiest to learn and the most creative period in human development. Changes that begin in childhood make them a part of a whole new world in every field, including their career choices.

Here in this ever-changing world, the most popular topic of recent times: Coding!

Coding, in its simplest definition, is speaking in a language that computers can understand. Just as people use various languages ​​(body language, spoken languages, etc.) to communicate with each other, the way to do this with computers and machines is to know coding. In order to teach children the concept of coding, in the first step, we can start by playing daily routines as if they were made by a computer.

Computers complete the tasks assigned to them step by step in a certain order. This way of working is called an algorithm. At the stage of teaching coding, our priority should be to carry out coding activities. If we wish, we can create these activities by writing them on a piece of paper and use them in various applications. For example code.org, scratch, various maker works)

With the algorithm, children are actually given a thinking skill. In this way, when there is a difficulty in any period of his life, he will be able to find easily how to solve it.

to children how should we teach coding

We know that almost all children around us play games with tablets and computers and they are incredibly interested in these games. People (especially children) are always more open to learning about the things they love. The things that are loved and wondered are wanted to be discovered more. Based on this feature, there are various coding platforms and various applications that aim to both teach coding and entertain while teaching children. With these applications, children can easily create their own games and animations.

So what are these applications? Let's give a few examples.

  • Scratch
  • Kodugame lab
  • Minecraft Education
  • Alice

We recommend that you use block-based (drag and drop) applications in order to enable children to learn coding and programming more easily in the first applications created and to be able to say that I can do it. Although incredible games are created with block-based applications, after a certain period of time, they aren may not be enough. It is also possible to develop advanced applications with platforms where you can use various programming languages ​​to develop more professional and comprehensive applications, and where you will be stepping into being a software developer for the first time.

So what are these applications? Let's give a few examples.

  • Checkio
  • CodeMonster
  • Tynker

It is also very important to prepare our future for a world where they can better understand, manage and, of course, live in a constantly changing and developing system. That's why we should be teaching children coding in a fun way that they won't get bored by playing it at an early age. Children are incredibly creative compared to adults. Given a tool and a user manual, we have full faith that they can do amazing things for the future, just like the games they create on their computers.

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