Code: the new literacy in the 21st Century

This kit aims to give a broard framework that will help you to define and prepare an eTwinning project that involves coding to promote Computational Thinking.

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Today due to the, Fourth Industrial Revolution (RI4), we are facing tremendous changes across many aspects of our lives, i.e. social, economic, cultural and, consequently, in the labour market. In all these massive changes coding is considered a new literacy that will be as important as writing and reading. So, we should not only consider coding a new trend in Education but we really need, and many studies show how important this is in developing students capabilities in critical and computational thinking, to create the most adaptable and adequate educational contexts to help students develop new ways of solving problems by using coding as a framework to develop other important competences. All this must be the trigger to make schools change and offer new educational challenges to students, giving them the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills to face these new challenges. This kit aims to give a broard framework that will help you to define and prepare an eTwinning project that involves coding to promote Computational Thinking.

Objectives

• Gain a deeper understanding of how coding works and how the code you write gets converted into an instruction that a computer can ‘understand’. • Guide your students in accessing information through various electronic and printed sources efficiently, in evaluating information critically and using information accurately and creatively. • Provide an adequate level of motivation to learn coding and gives students a better understanding of how computers work • Provide access to learning tools, technologies and resources, expanding the learning environment and create solution to problems. • Gain a deeper and more complete understanding of logic and abstraction • Involve your students in daily problem solving within a framework of PBL

Introduction of partners

The introduction of partners could be done using some coding solutions, such as the ones suggested below. This does means that partners should have already some basic experience with coding. Teams At the beginning of the project teachers create international teams and each team must find a solution to present themselves by using one of the following tools. Suggestion 1. Students can use a Virtual Reality (VR) Platform to introduce themselves. One option is CoSpacesEdu, an online VR platform that can be used to develop Virtual Reality Experiences, where students can use code (Blockly) to develop interactions. This platform allows students to create a simple VR experience combining VR and code. Students could record audio presentations and upload them as .mp3 files instead of only using text. The VR experiences can be embedded in the TwinSpace and easily shared through social networks. CoSpacesEdu (https://cospaces.io/edu/) Suggestion 2. Students write a description about themselves using an online simulator of the Sense Hat for Raspberry Pi. Sense Hat for Raspberry Pi has an incorporated LED Matrix (8x8). With simple code instructions we can challenge students to write a welcome message for the projects partners. For partners to be able to see the message students must save the code and send it (open a page on TwinSpace where all partners can add their code). Teachers can also create an online shared folder where all students will upload their “code presentation” to allow other students to watch it. Sense HAT Online Emulator (https://trinket.io/sense-hat) Another tool that can be used for presentation of students is Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/)

Orientation

Computational thinking is “the ability to think logically about problems and solve them by applying different techniques” and is the principle of developing algorithms when creating software products. Computational thinking asks us to apply the same techniques we apply when we are solving problems, using digital devices such as computers or mobile devices. There is a set of techniques that are involved in this process such as: collecting data, analyse the data, breaking big problems in smaller ones, looking for patterns that can be solved using the same digital process, the ability to apply knowledge to different problematic situations (abstraction), creating algorithms to the identified problems and once a solution is found we have to test it and look for possible errors (debugging). Also it is important to mention that this project requires a Project Based Learning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning) framework approach, in order to develop the activities and tasks proposed. Phase 1 - Computational thinking At the beginning of the project, the partners will show a video, explaining what Computational Thinking is about, to get students familiar with the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxUJKn6TJOI Teachers can the lead a discussion with their students on what they have learned from the video. Students should be able to identify some key word like problem solving, computation, decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, algorithms, attacking problems. Phase 2 - Problem to algorithm When developing coding activities teachers should consult and listen to students about what they want to create taking into account the main topics of the project. Teachers should involve students in a brainstorming discussion where their voice can be heard. These are the steps that students should follow in order to design an algorithm: Problem/task: each team should think about one problem (can be one daily task) that they would like to see coded/automated that could be done by a computer or a robot. Decompose: student should start to decompose their problem into smaller problems, breaking down the problems into small parts. Pattern recognition: in this phase the student should be able to find similarities and difference between things. They should pose questions like: are there any steps that need to be taken repeatedly? Then students should discuss with each other and find pattern recognition in their solution. Abstraction: students should identify general principles and find all unnecessary information in their solution. The teacher should explain the concept of an algorithm* that is a set of rules to follow to solve a problem. Algorithm: Step-by-step instructions: each team will write a group of detailed instructions to develop an algorithm and share it with their partners’ team to see if they understand their solution. Each team should analyse and give feedback about the algorithm designed, asking: Is everything ok? Are all the steps needed in the algorithm? Is there any step missing? Are all the steps described precisely and concisely? For example: Create a robot to wash my teeth (algorithm): • step 1 - Open the toothpaste • step 2 - Squeeze the toothpaste and put a bit of toothpaste over the toothbrush • step 3 - Open your mouth • step 4 - Repeat (this will pattern recognition) Brush your teeth gently Rinse your mouth with water until teeth are clean • step 5 - Smile into the mirror *Easy explanation of algorithm https://www.tynker.com/blog/articles/ideas-and-tips/how-to-explain-algorithms-to-kids/ For teacher support: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/algorithms/intro-to-algorithms/v/what-are-algorithmsPhase 3 - Implementation - Coding There are many tools that can be used to programme and the teacher and students should select the one/ones that bet apply to creating the interfaces, developing the code, to work with hardware, to promote the project and to find the solution. To develop the solution for the project these are some tools that can be used: • Scratch - https://scratch.mit.edu/ - a free kids programming language developed by MIT. • Alice - https://www.alice.org/ - a free 3-D programming tool designed to teach the concepts of object-oriented programming languages like C++. It uses the familiar approach of building blocks to allow children to create games or animations by programming camera motions, 3-D models, and scenes. • Blockly - https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Blockly - Google's refinement of Scratch using the same interlocking building blocks metaphor, but it can output code in several different programming languages. • APPInventor - http://appinventor.mit.edu/ - an intuitive, visual programming environment that allows everyone – even children – to build fully functional apps for smartphones and tablets. • Solutions such as Arduino (http://www.arduino.org/), Raspberry PI (https://www.raspberrypi.org/) or even the typical programming languages such as C, Java or Python should be considered.

Collaboration

Regarding the plan proposed during the “Orientation” phase these are some activities that could be implemented to develop the ideas described there: Phase 1 Teachers ask their students to use a Word cloud tool like Answergarden where all students write the key words related to the topic at hand: Answergarden - http://answergarden.ch Students use a Padlet wall, where they reflect about what they learned about Computational Thinking Padlet: https://padlet.com/ TIP: Each team should read their partners works and add some positive comment. Phase 2 In this phase students work in international teams and propose their ideas. To brainstorm in teams, students can use an online tool such as Tricider Tricider: https://www.tricider.com/Phase 3 During implementation, each team should consist of students with different abilities and talents. Once the different roles are assigned to the team, each team member should have specific responsibilities and work collaboratively with the other members of their team. For example, one student is good at designing interfaces, another students is good at programming. The team leader could be a student who can easily identify the solutions that already exist and who has communication and digital marketing skills.

Evaluation & Assessment

At the beginning of the project initial surveys concerning students’ knowledge, foreign language skills, use of collaboration online tools, teamwork capabilities, communication skills should be applied. In order to collect data to compare the evolution of students learning and competences gained, the same survey should be used at the end of the project. Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are tools that allow teachers and students to easily create surveys: https://www.google.com/forms/about/https://pt.surveymonkey.com/ The project should be evaluated during its execution because we are mainly proposing an approach of developing a project/solution based in the principles of Computational Thinking and Project Based Learning (PBL). So, at the end of each phase partners should discuss the progress of the project. They can do this by using online conferences using the Adobe Connect option in the TwinSpace or other tools such as Skype, Google Hangout. Also, intermediate surveys should be applied to allow each partner to collect data and compare it with the initial goals defined when the project was being planned. To follow the development of the project each team should share an online document on the cloud (Google Drive, One Drive) where students can document how the project is being developed, the main tasks carried out, the difficulties they had, the tools they used and how they solved big challenges. This will allow each partner to have a report where the work flow of the project is described. At the end of the project, each partner can record a video to collect the feedback and opinion of the students about the final product they developed during the project.

Follow up

All the documentation produced during the project activities should be made public, so other teachers and students, who are interested in developing a similar project, could have access to the structure of the project. This documentation can be made public on the project’s TwinSpace, allowing teachers and students to access it and use as a “background data structure” for other projects related with code. Students could organize school events where they present the project results to other classes. They could also invite parents and other members of the community and share their work with them. Teachers could also contact local media and promote their work through the school’s social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc). The results of this project could be the starting point for other projects with more complexity and involving other type of partners, such as local and national companies that develop their core business based on software development. Another interesting approach could be search and contact local institutions that need software solutions for their daily business and an eTwinning project could be the used as the “lab” to develop that solution. Another interesting follow-up will be to use all the acquired experience and background knowledge to apply for an Erasmus+ Key Action 2 project. Also, the experience gained from the eTwinning project could be used to enter in national and international competitions related to coding.

Additional information

Age from:

13
Age to:

17
Difficulty:

Intermediate

Code: the new literacy in the 21st Century

Code: the new literacy in the 21st Century

Additional information

School subjects

Key competences