Nov 26, 2021, Dinolab News

Coding is a technique to instruct the computer to perform a specified or specific task to produce a result. In technology today, codes are the main element in the design of everyday items. As technology is now part of our daily life, coding has become more important in every aspect than ever—in banking, social media, home appliances, automobiles, etc. Considering that, it is natural that we should introduce the subject to the kids at an early age, but how do we get around to doing that? Let’s take a closer look.

People think coding is just for adults, but it’s not true. Coding can be also for primary-school or preschool kids. There are lots of schools that teach kids coding. Introducing coding to kids will empower and make them creative developers of technology. Teaching kids to code is the best way to teach them to express their creativity technologically and nowadays, making them learn to code is an essential part of their education.

Teaching coding to kids has numerous benefits:

• It enables them to solve problems efficiently.
• It increases logical thinking skills.
• It helps to enhance writing and creative skills.
• It helps to boost confidence.
• It develops persistence, determination, and resilience in kids.
• It shapes a promising career.
• It develops computational skills.

Coding is not only a technical skill; it also enables students to interact with the digital world more smartly. Coding is a great way for students to express themselves and enhance their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, which boosts confidence.
Coding is a new medium to combine thoughts with technology to communicate. When students learn to develop the code, they can create different projects that improve their writing and creativity. Learning coding will cultivate a desire for creating and an experimental mindset.
Coding is not an easy task as it has its own challenges. Teachers and parents need to put an extra effort to provide coding education for kids. Not all students show interest in coding, but it is the teacher's and parents' responsibility to create interest in coding at school and home.
Kids must understand the need for coding and how coding is applied in their daily life.

Teachers should teach basic vocabulary for primary coding. Vocabulary helps in understanding concepts and their context. For example, using the term ‘decomposition’ to specify the context of breaking down a given problem into multiple smaller ones.
Teaching coding vocabulary is a good start and a perfect introduction to coding for students.

Some tips to explain coding to students:

• Relate coding to what students already know: Making coding relatable to what is already known makes coding easy and understandable for students. For example, to explain the concept of a database, teachers can relate a database to a book.
• Make coding simple to understand: Coding definitions are difficult to understand. Explain the coding definitions with an example. It helps students to understand the concepts of coding.
• Make coding fun and enjoyable: Explain coding in an enjoyable way as it will keep students busy. For example, explain coding by considering their favorite game characters.

While teaching coding at schools, it is important to choose a suitable programming language for the age group. When introducing coding to kids below 10 years of age, text-based and block-based programming languages are suitable.
The table below specifies a list of block-based and text-based coding tools.

Coding needs to be enjoyable to engage kids and draw their attention. Start coding with a visual-based programming language. It helps kids to understand and visualise the procedure used in the program. It is a fun way to start coding.

Ask kids what they want to learn and create with codes. Kids have different interests—developing video games, programs, interactive stories, etc. Without knowing their interests, the teaching plan will not be very successful because coding is interest-based. Following the kids’ interests will make the learning interesting and fun.

Games are a good start for kids to learn coding. Games create interest and engage kids. Through games, various coding concepts are interestingly introduced to kids and thus they learn age-appropriate programming languages.

Kids of different age groups need different teaching strategies. Programming can be introduced using videos and manuals and this method also helps kids understand how to use coding language.

Encourage kids by providing source codes for hands-on practice. Make kids take charge of solving problems. Provide enough guidance and encourage them when they lose interest. While guiding them, tell them to apply a trial-and-error approach to solve the problem.

Use less technical approaches as kids may not understand programming deeply yet. Let them first have fun with less technical concepts and introduce the more complicated concepts later.

There are different ideas to introduce and teach coding:

• Coding games: Computational games will create interest and develop logical thinking in students.
• Start coding by playing games: Use platforms like Scratch, Tynker, etc. that enable kids to develop games and animations visually and allow them to change the games or animations of others. CodeCombat is also one of the popular games that help kids to play and learn coding languages.
• Robotics: Robotics teaches kids so much about coding. Here, there is no need to build a robot. Lego Mindstorm is a platform that helps students in building a robot.
• Provide source codes to kids: Instead of explaining coding concepts to kids, provide them with some source code. These source codes act as a reference to check what they have learned. This idea is suitable for kids of the age group of 11-18 years.
• Provide a computer to each kid: Provide a computer to each kid if there are a group of students and let them do their task. Providing a separate computer will encourage kids who have less confidence.

• Dinolab.in

Dinolab offers a coding course specifically designed for primary school students. The gamified nature of the tasks makes them accessible even to slow learners.

• Code.org

Code.org offers a number of resources to kids that help them to learn codes. It was featured by Honor of Code and used in many public schools.

• Scratch

Scratch was designed by MIT and helps lots of kids in learning to code. It provides a fun visual block platform that enables kids to learn coding concepts and provides a lot of creative freedom. It helps to develop games, stories, and animation.

The table below provides some student-friendly programming languages, their uses, levels of difficultly, and appropriate age groups.

Coding relies on a hands-on type of learning. As with any skill, the key to mastering a programming language is actually to try it yourself. That’s why platforms like Dinolab.in that offer coding courses for primary school students are such a good thing for educators around the world. Using such platforms, teachers can let their students create code, learn algorithms, and acquire the needed logical skills, all within fun gamified tasks that are engaging and naturally interesting for the younger kids.

Coding is not only a technical skill, and there is no age limit to learning to code. Coding can be introduced to students at the primary level to enhance their math skills, computation thinking, problem-solving skills, logical thinking skills, creativity, and soon. Coding acts like a medium for students to interact with the digital world. While introducing coding at the primary level, less technical approaches are helpful for students to understand as they may not yet understand the complex concepts of programming. Initially, start coding using text-based or block-based coding approaches to keep students interested by making coding fun and interactive.