Today’s world is powered by mobile applications. People use Facebook for connection, GrubHub for food, Waze for directions, Uber for transportation. New applications are created daily for the purpose of entertaining and supporting the population. It’s no wonder so many are drawn to computer programing and application development as a career.
Coding education can start teaching children a new language, introduce them to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), as well as instilling basic problem-solving skills. CodeSpark is just one of many platforms build for elementary-aged coding education. CodeSpark’s mission is to make “critical skills accessible to kids everywhere” by having the platform available for home and school-based learning (CodeSpark Academy). The accessibility of tools like this is going to create a whole new caliber of application developers.
Safe Space to Experiment
Parents are continuing to seek out ways to facilitate their child’s development in a safe environment. This space must allow them to celebrate their wins as well as learn from their mistakes. Coding platforms, like codeSpark, allows the child to build and interact with a play space all their own. The child can foster their creativity while building and rebuilding playscapes. Papert refers to this idea as constructionism and proposes that children learn better when they are actively involved in the process as opposed to being the passive receiver (Papavlasopoulou et al, 2019). This raises the child’s confidence in themselves and the concepts being taught fueling their intrinsic motivation to continue to build and play (Keller & Deimann, 2018). Success in coding translates into the child being confident to take on and solve new problems that arise in their life.
Below Elina Ingelande talks more about the power of children coding in her TEDxRiga talk (TEDxRiga, 2018).
Achievable Checkpoints Building Volition
These child-friendly learning platforms create micro-lessons to teach a new concept. CodeSpark specifically uses picture-based learning and introduces the different actions one at a time in a show, teach, practice repetition. This predictable structure and quick implementation builds the child’s volition to get the tasks complete and leaves little room for distractions in the learning process (Keller & Deimann, 2018). Each checkpoint to follow builds on the knowledge mastered in the previous checkpoint. Quickly the young programmer goes from teaching a character how to walk and jump to creating a whole environment for the character to play freely. CodeSpark even allows these playscapes to be shared with other users in their built in community. This is also further encouragement for the new programmer to continue to practice and learn.
Realtime Feedback
Feedback is key to learning and coding platforms like this is no different. The quick response allows for the player to complete the trial and error or achievement loop quickly. Keller and Deimann teach that experiencing satisfying outcomes, like leveling up in a game, will lead to increased motivation (2018). At this age, learning to code is not lead by extrinsic motivation to create a best selling application or get a promotion at work. Coding, and any leisure activity, is done for the joy of doing it. However, with any consumable product for kids, the developer can also leverage the extrinsic motivator for the parents. As mentioned previous, parents want to create a safe space for their child's development. Showing them how the application can support the child's growth into a top performing student with the skills above is hard to pass up.
References
About us codeSpark academy. codeSpark Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://codespark.com/about
Keller, J.M. & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, volition, and performance. In R.A. Reiser, & J.V Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 78-86). New York, NY: Pearson
Papavlasopoulou, S., Giannakos, M. N., & Jaccheri, L. (2019). Exploring children's learning experience in constructionism-based coding activities through design-based research. Computers in Human Behavior, 99, 415-427.
TEDxRiga. (2018). Elīna Ingelande: Coding for kids as a means of creative expression | TED Talk. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/elina_ingelande_coding_for_kids_as_a_means_of_creative_expression.
Erin Speight
July 2023
Case Study 2
Young Children Learning Coding
MOTIVATION
As described by Mr. Reiser in his book Trends and Issues in instructional design and Technology, Motivation to learn is promoted when a learner's curiosity is aroused due to a perceived gap in current knowledge. (Reiser, 20170110, p. 80) Due to the world being run by technology and it has advanced and become part of the culture, kids are becoming more curious about Mobile Devices. In the case study, Young Children Learning to Code CodeSpark is giving children the opportunity to learn how to code. The app allows children to have a safe learning play space of their own. The game is motivated by providing stimulating games with…
Mobile Learning
CodeSpark Academy is a tablet-based learning application that teaches children the problem-solving skills foundational to understanding computer programming. Software engineers and user experience experts have worked to simplify the mobile app experience for decades. As a result, many actions or procedures on a mobile device feel natural and second nature to most users. Today, many children have access to mobile technology as early as they can hold a phone and are already accustomed to interacting with mobile environments at a young age. Using simple gestures, like swipe, drag, and tap, they can navigate these interfaces nearly as well as their adult counterparts. These intuitive interfaces and navigational tools give young children more direct control than a keyboard or…
Allowing children to explore the world of technology is an amazing experience. Many times, children are not given the opportunity to explore and create anything other than a picture on a piece of blank computer paper. Code Spark allows children to explore their own curiosity and create their own world of animation. STEM learning is the new profound type of learning that allows children to learn from a different realm of thinking. A lot more parents are finding educational programs that allow their children to use the STEM aspect of learning to supplement the traditional classroom setting. There are so many new ways of learning and how it is introduced to students, the tradition textbook learning method is not always…
With the features CodeSpark has within the app, I can see it being a game-changer for children in the future. Teaching children to problem solve, think logically, use their creativity, and be persistent and resilient are great traits for children to learn early. The amazing thing I think CodeSpark uses animation to engage and drive positive behaviors. One of the features that Codespark has is allowing teachers to use the software in the classroom and remotely for ELA Projects.
Children build their own "foo character" during the remote activities and use it throughout the assignment. Children who leverage social domains might ascribe internal motivations to their animated characters before coding them.
(Strawhacker & Umaschi Bers , 2018) While Codemakers ha…
I enjoyed reading your post a lot. In today’s age of technology, its all shaped by coding. From viewing and interacting with web browsers and playing games on smart phones, Its all revolutionized with code. Your post really shows how coding is paving its way through into the future of learning capabilities while still making the subject of coding fun and enjoyable with kids by using games that showcase various skills. Coding, which many countries try to integrate into their education systems around the world, is a tool for students to adopt a problem-solving approach with the thinking techniques they have acquired in programming rather than being expert programmers and plays a fundamental role in the development of technology literacy.…