Coding for learning

Index

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

1

About the project ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2

Aims of the project .............................................................................................................................

3

Characteristics of computational thinking ..........................................................................................

4

Coding and Non-formal Education .....................................................................................................

5

Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) ………………………………………………….

7

How to tackle employability skills with Scratch and its extensions ……………………………………………

9

Participants’ output ............................................................................................................................

10

Links ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Introduction It is a fact that digital technology has nowadays a huge impact on our daily life. Then, it is becoming more and more important to understand its functioning and, especially, its language.

As highlighted by European Commission (1), “coding is the literacy of today” and it helps to bring technology closer to people.

Indeed, “each and every interaction between humans and computers is governed by code.

Whether you create a web app, follow GPS directions when driving or wish to revolutionise social interactions”.

Possessing digital competences, in general, and programming skills, in particular, is considered an asset not only for the individuals (such as higher job opportunities, higher ability of problem solving, teamwork and analytical thinking) but also for the global competitiveness of Europe.

This is why increasing basic coding skills is a relevant part of the whole strategy set by European Commission to shape Europe’s digital future.

(1) Source: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/coding-21st-century-skill

1

About the project The technological progress have led to the digitisation of many daily practices that are affecting our way of living, social interacting, learning and working. It is possible to stay at home and live our regular day: working, studying, purchasing, doing duties, selling, buying, and so on. Even though the ability to use technologies has increased, the awareness of how to use technologies, in terms of acquiring knowledge that leads to build the digital culture, remains less developed.

Moreover, digital advances are creating new opportunities in the personal, professional and educational fields which cannot be excluded while preparing young people for their future carrier.

With the aim to change young people mindset into digital creators rather than just simple users, the training course Coding for Learning was created by a group of NGO’s and High schools from nine European countries in order to explore the computational thinking concept and link it to transversal skills, such as team work, problem solving, creativity, sense of initiative, positive attitude, finding for improvements.

2

Aims of the project The project Coding for Learning encompassed a training course targeted at youth workers, teachers and educators willing to explore coding and computational thinking concept to transfer acquired knowledge to young people to ease their participation in the labour market and society.

The training course involved 21 participants from 9 countries (Italy, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey) and was held in Palermo (Italy) during the Europe Code Week (2) in October 2019 .

The project aimed at: ❑ improving youth workers, teachers and educators’ digital skills and basic knowledge of computational thinking to transfer these to non-formal education and daily work with young people, including those with fewer opportunities ❑ promoting the use of coding to develop digital skills useful for strengthening young people’s transversal skills (such as problem solving skills, teamwork, creativity, commitment, etc.) ❑ stimulating youth workers’ use of coding to develop a positive attitude towards programming, computational thinking and STEM in young people, particularly those with fewer opportunities who do not have access to courses on this topic ❑ increasing digital tools knowledge to promote active use of the media (2) https://codeweek.eu/view/251994/digital-tool-fair-metodologie-digitali-per-leducazione

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Characteristics of computational thinking Computational thinking is a skill which does not refer necessarily to computer programming, but more broadly to the capacity to solve problems in a systematic manner.

As stated by Wing (2006), “it represents a universally applicable attitude” and for this reason can be considered a “fundamental skill” which everyone should possess or learn in modern society.

Indeed, this is “[..] a way humans solve problems”, and computers are powerful tools which allow humans to find solution to problems at a degree we could not even imagine before the age of computing, but which are anyway driven by human cleverness and imagination. What is important, thus, is not the software and hardware devices which impact on our daily life, rather the “[...] computational concepts we use to approach and solve problems, manage our daily lives, and communicate and interact with other people.”(3) Main features of computational thinking (4) can be sum up as follows: • logic: analysing problem and predicting solutions • algorithms: developing steps-by-step solution to a problem, or rules to solve a problem • decomposition: breaking down the problem into smaller parts • abstraction: focusing on the important information only • patterns: identifying similarities or relations between the parts of a problem, thus identifying causes and effect, and eventually predicting solutions to similar problems • evaluation: making judgement about the process These concepts are complemented with so-called computational practices • experimenting and iterating • testing and debugging • reusing and remixing • abstracting and modularising

(5), that is:

Several coding programmes, such as Scratch, are based on both computational concepts and practices.

(3)

Source: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/publications/Wing06.pdf Source: https://digitalpromise.org/initiative/computational-thinking/key-concepts-of-computational-thinking/ (5) Source: http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/ct/defining.html (4)

4

Coding and Non-formal Education Coding: definition Coding is the primary method for allowing intercommunication between humans and machines.

Coding refers to creating computer programming code.(6) Each computer application needs a properly written code to know what to do. The code gives computers a step-bystep guide on how to function.(7)

Scratch as a tool for understanding computational thinking Several are the chances to use Scratch for understanding programming, the logical thinking and increasing creativity.

It is getting more and more common to have special events dedicated to coding and Scratch all around Europe, usually organised by “CoderDojo” clubs or by organisations promoting the STEAM education.

At schools, usually at elementary or high schools, Scratch is more popular and has been used since more than 10 years, with a great success.

Why to bring coding into non formal education environment Since coding has already had good records into formal education when it comes to practice trasversal skills like team group, problem solving, creativity and others, the group of NGO’s involved in the project wanted to explore Scratch in order to expand their background and get to know more innovative tools for boostering trasversal skills in young people.

(6) Source: https://www.techopedia.com/ (7) Source: https://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/

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Why to use Scratch?

Scratch is a software that allows visual programming, it is intuitive, and easy to get into even for those who are not much familiar with IT. It offers debug-exercises that give possibility of practicing and understanding more the “order” behind. It is based on open source giving accessibility for all.

Moreover, it is possible to use extentions like App Inventor, Arduino, Makey Makey, etc, allowing to adapt activities to any ages and target groups.

Which soft skills, attitude people can develop by using Scratch?

It depends on the activities you are going to implement. During the project, participants had the chance to develop some among employability skills, such as teamwork, problem solving, creativity, sense of initiatives, cooperation, positive attitude, fair competition. However, Scratch can be used also for teaching history, science, math, literature, foreign languages, etc.

EU Code Week Every year in October, “the European Code week” takes place. This is a perfect occasion for organising activities to promote digital competences and coding. So, if you plan to implement a project or a smaller activity/workshop around this topic, schedule it during the official week, and register your event in the official website. We did it, and we offered a digital tool fair to the local community. Also, if possible, get in touch with “Code Dojo clubs” in your city for cooperating.

When organising digital/coding activities, it is highly recommended to include girls, young people with fewer opportunities or with low education level, among the others.

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Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) DigComp was first published in 2013, as a reference framework to support the development of digital competence of individuals in Europe.

DigComp describes which competences are needed today to use digital technologies in a confident, critical, collaborative and creative way to achieve goals related to work, learning, leisure, inclusion and participation in our digital society.

1. INFORMATION AND DATA LITERACY

2. COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

3. DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION

4. SAFETY

5. PROBLEM SOLVING

1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content To articulate information needs, to search for data, information and content in digital environments, to access them and to navigate between them. To create and update personal search strategies.

2.1 Interacting through digital technologies To interact through a variety of digital technologies and to understand appropriate digital communication means for a given context.

3.1 Developing digital content To create content in different formats (e.g. data, text, multimedia), to edit and improve existing content,to express oneself through digital means.

4.1 Protecting devices To protect devices and data, to understand risks and threats in digital environments, to know about safety and security measures and to have due regard to reliability and privacy.

5.1 Solving technical problems To identify technical problems when operating devices and using digital environments, and to solve them (from trouble-shooting to solving more complex problems).

1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content To analyse, compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources of data, information and digital content. To analyse, interpret and critically evaluate the data, information and digital content.

2.2 Sharing information and content through digital technologies To share data, information and digital content with others through appropriate digital technologies. To act as an intermediary, to know about referencing and attribution practices.

3.2 Integrating and re-elaborating digital content To modify, refine and integrate new information and content into an existing body of knowledge and resources to create new, original and relevant content and knowledge.

1.3 Managing data, information 2.3 Engaging in citizenship through and digital content digital technologies To organise, store and retrieve To participate in society through the use data, information and content in of public and private digital services. To digital environments. seek opportunities for self-epowerment To organise and process them in and for participatory citizenship through a structured environment. appropriate digital technologies.

4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy To protect personal data and privacy in digital environments. To understand how to share personally identifiable information while protecting self and others from dangers (e.g. fraud). To understand that digital services use a “Privacy policy� to declare how personal data is used.

3.3 Copyright and licences 4.3 Protecting health and well-being To understand how copyright and To avoid health-risks related with the licences apply to digital information and use of digital technologies in terms of content. threats to physical and psychological well-being. To be able to protect self and others from possible dangers in digital environments (e.g. cyber bullying). To be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and inclusion.

5.2 Identifying needs and technological responses To assess needs and to identify, evaluate, select and use digital tools and possible technological responses to solve them. To adjust and customise digital environments to personal needs (e.g. accessibility).

5.3 Creatively using digital technologies To use digital tools and technologies to create knowledge and to innovate processes and products. To engage individually and collectively in cognitive processing to understand and resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments.

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Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) In DigComp, the competence areas 1, 2 and 3 deal with competences that can be retraced in terms of specific activities and uses.

Competence areas 4 and 5 are “transversal” as they apply to any type of activity carried out through digital means.

Problem solving elements, in particular, are present in all competence areas, but a specific area was defined to highlight the importance of this aspect for the appropriation of technology and digital practices.

1. INFORMATION AND DATA LITERACY

2. COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION 2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies To use digital tools and technologies for collaborative processes, and for coconstruction and co-creation of resources and knowledge.

3. DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION 3.4 Programming To plan and develop a sequence of understandable instructions for a computing system to solve a given problem or to perform a specific task

4. SAFETY

4.3 Protecting the environment To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use

5. PROBLEM SOLVING

5.3 Identifying digital competence gaps To understand where one’s own digital competence needs to be improved or updated. To be able to support others with their digital competence development. To seek opportunities for self-development and to keep uptodate with the digital evolution.

2.5 Netiquette To be aware of behavioural norms and knowhow while using digital technologies and interacting in digital environments. To adapt communication strategies to the specific audience and to be aware of cultural and generational diversity in digital environments.

2.6 Managing digital identity To create and manage one or multiple digital identities, to be able to protect one’s reputation, to deal with the data that one produces through several digital tools, environments and services.

How to tackle digital competences within non formal activities If you plane to implement workshops, activities for young people aiming to increase their digital knowledge/competences, we suggest to choose 2/3 competences from the tab <DigCompEdu> combining different areas.

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How to tackle employability skills with Scratch and its extensions MIT App Inventor

Scratch Description

With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.

Description

MIT App Inventor is an intuitive, visual programming environment that allows everyone – even children – to build fully functional apps for smartphones and tablets.

Source

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Source

https://appinventor.mit.edu/

Target

All

Target

All

Skills developed

teamwork, creativity

Skills developed

teamwork, problem solving, creativity, sense of initiatives, fair competition.

problem

solving,

Makey Makey

Arduino

Description

easy-to-use invention kits.

Description

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online.

Source

https://makeymakey.com/

Source

https://www.arduino.cc/

Target

All

Target

All

Skills developed

teamwork, creativity, positive attitude

Skills developed

teamwork, problem solving, creativity, sense of initiative, positive attitude, finding for improvements, fair competition.

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Participants’ output During the training course, participants put in practice what they learnt about coding programmes and created simple applications which covered different topics (such as healthy life-style, sustainability, cultural traditions, and so on) in line with their daily work with young people. Here, we are sharing brief description of the Apps to give an hint how coding can be transversally used for many purposes.

NAME

MOBILE TESTING

AIM / THEME

Increasing visibility and accessibility of testing services among LGBT+ population

TARGET GROUP

LGBT+ people aged 16+

DESCRIPTION

App for scheduling appointment for HIV testing in mobile medical unit.

Application is made to give basic information about HIV testing. It consists of lists of locations and time where mobile medical unit will be located, and interactive scheduling button (where anyone can choose appointment under a code name).

▪ The first screen has two buttons and web link to the organisation’s website ▪ The second screen has some basic information about testing ▪ The third screen has the list of the available time/locations (which are read from Google sheets table, so that they can be regularly updated) The tutorial we have used to understand how to send and read app with Google sheets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT6YXIUKTDA

FEEDBACK

Application is designed very carefully and visually, so it is easy for people to get to know the app easily. Moreover, the app itself is useful and relevant nowadays and it will surely become popular with people interested in undergoing testing.

SOFTWARE/APP

AppInventor

DEVELOPER

Jelena and Miloš

10

Participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; output PHOTOS

Photo 1: home page

Photo 2: information page

Photo 3: calendar options

Photo 4: booking test

Photo 5: confirmation

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Participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; output NAME

THE SECRETS OF CINCO VILLAS (LOS SECRETOS DE LAS CINCO VILLAS)

AIM / THEME

With this game, we would like to achieve two different goals. The product give us the possibility of being used for different purposes.

The first aim is to improve the knowledge of historical and cultural items of Comarca Cinco Villas among young students. They will learn playing.

Second aim is to explain them how the game is technically done and then, involve them in implementing contents and building new parts of the game. Scratch training would be necessary. The purpose is to involve them in working with new contents about their territory and to program new pages for the game with Scratch.

TARGET GROUP

Children from 7 to 12 years old.

DESCRIPTION

Multimedia game to improve the knowledge of students about Cinco Villas. It is a quiz with questions about history, nature, cultural heritage, traditional uses, etc. It is necessary to give the right answer for each question in order to continue and complete the game.

In a second phase of the activity in class, it would be possible to build more pages presenting more questions proposed by the students. A previous training in Scratch would be needed.

FEEDBACK

The product has been checked by 5 people.

Thanks to the game, children would be helped to retain the information and to remember it easily because every data is connected to a picture.

It would be possible to use like the test at the end of each lesson to test their knowledge and comprehension of the contents.

Perhaps it would be necessary to give the correct answer after the third mistake.

SOFTWARE/APP

Scratch

DEVELOPER

Alberto and Cristina

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Participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; output PHOTO

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/ZeHUCxqvwoA

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Participants’ output NAME

MyDailyBudget

AIM / THEME

To follow your daily budget

TARGET GROUP

People aged 15+

DESCRIPTION

When you spend some sum of money you write it on your app and in the end of the day you can check what is the amount of money you’ve spent and this way to follow your daily budget and to make a scheme how to save more money by spending less on things you actually don’t really need because we spend a huge amount of money on such things every day.

FEEDBACK

It’s nice that it works. Every person should have such app because it is important to control our budget. We also need this app.

SOFTWARE/APP

AppInventor

DEVELOPER

Donka, Dobromira and Efremcho

NAME

Cognitive Emotive Restoring

AIM / THEME

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

TARGET GROUP

People aged 10+

DESCRIPTION

The app basically is an artificial counselor that provides information and solution for the most typical emotional problems connected with the 5 universal emotions: Fear, Sadness, Enjoyment, Anger and Disgust studied by Ekman and Friesen in 1978.

FEEDBACK

Positive

SOFTWARE/APP

Scratch

DEVELOPER

Enzo

14

Participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; output NAME

Respect the food - someone else needs it more

AIM / THEME

To raise students awareness about the need to use as much food as it is necessary and not to throw more food

TARGET GROUP

Children and youngsters

DESCRIPTION

The animation shows the girl who is taking much more food then she actually needs and leaves a big part of it not used.

FEEDBACK

Nice purpose

SOFTWARE/APP

Scratch

DEVELOPER

Hamidou, Farhan and Petre PHOTOS

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/Tc2hb2XCxv4

15

Participants’ output NAME

Fruit machine

AIM / THEME

Emphasizing healthy nutrition

TARGET GROUP

Young people aged 11-16

DESCRIPTION

It is important for teens eat healthy food and make good habits by eating more fruits than fast food and snacks.

FEEDBACK

We think that this app is very useful and interesting. We all should be more interested in what we eat and installing this app on our phones it can help us to start leading healthier life. Give it a try! You won’t be sorry!

SOFTWARE/APP

AppInventor

DEVELOPER

Maira, Laura

NAME

Illustrating C language code using Scratch code

AIM / THEME

Expanding creativity

TARGET GROUP

Young people age 15 – 22, who are interested in coding and robotics.

DESCRIPTION

Simple code is asking users data: age, height, gender and favourite number.

C language code: We use program code blocks

FEEDBACK

Simple and attractive

SOFTWARE/APP

Scratch

DEVELOPER

Sirje

16

Participants’ output NAME

Plant Cultivation Guide

AIM / THEME

Providing support to farmers for cultivating

TARGET GROUP

Farmers or amateur green thumbs

DESCRIPTION

This app is a one simple part of the whole cultivation app guide. There is a list of plants for users to select. This list was created by the option of “ListPicker”. Each plant was associated with a separate screen so whenever user pick one option (cultivar), the associated screen pops up. Instead of picture, could be more text, info or more selection options for selecting date of cultivation or selection possible date of planting and calculating when to harvest ext.

FEEDBACK

Simple.

It can be replicated to create a variety of mini-guides or tutorials such as for DIY activities.

SOFTWARE/APP

AppInventor

DEVELOPER

Tefide PHOTOS

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Links WEB SITES All you need is {C<3DE} - http://www.allyouneediscode.eu/home The European Coding Initiative, or ‘all you need is {C<3DE}', brings together a wide array of stakeholders to promote coding and computational thinking at all levels of education, as well as in more informal settings.

Scratch - https://scratch.mit.edu/ With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.

Code.org - https://code.org/ Nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups.

Code Academy - https://www.codecademy.com/ Education is broken. Come help us build the education the world deserves.

The European framework for the Digital Competences of Educators https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcompedu CoderDojo Finder https://zen.coderdojo.com/find SOURCES Article: Computational thinking and thinking about computing. By Jeannette M. Wing https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696102/#bib12

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This report is the result of the project â&#x20AC;&#x153;Coding for Learningâ&#x20AC;? coordinated by Associazione InformaGiovani and funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.