A new iPad app developed by researchers at Tufts and MIT teaches children to code before they've even learned to read.
It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
ScratchJr teaches children ages 5 to 7 to program their own interactive stories and games with graphical blocks — literal learning blocks of computer coding. The free app was developed by three collaborators — the MIT Media Lab, the Playful Invention Company and the Developmental Technologies research group at Tufts University, which studies the role of technology in child development.
"Learning programming also invokes learning sequencing, which is the foundation for reading and math," said Marina Umaschi Bers, professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts and head of the DevTech research group.
With ScratchJr, children snap together blocks that convey different functions upon the characters such as jumping, dancing and singing. Children can modify their characters, insert photos and record sound.
"If children are reading and writing stories in schools, they can create interactive books and choose different endings for the stories," Umaschi Bers said.
One way to think of ScratchJr is as a prerequisite for Scratch, a popular programming language for children ages 8 and up developed by the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten research group.
ScratchJr is also a versatile teaching tool, said Umaschi Bers. Already in use at schools in Arlington and Watertown, ScratchJr has been used to complement math and literacy instruction. Having now drawn interest from droves of educators, the app researchers have plans for a free webinar to instruct teachers on how to properly use it in classrooms.
For parents, this may all seem like yet another in a long line of mixed signals about the amount of screen time that is appropriate for kids. But the key is moderation. Teaching students computer programing is now akin to preparing them for the real world.
What about schools that can't afford to hand out an iPad to each child? Umaschi Bers is working on that, too. A separate project she's involved in, dubbed Kibo, enables young children to learn programing with wooden blocks.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
App that teaches kids 
to code is the future
Dengan url
http://wartawanlocal.blogspot.com/2014/08/app-that-teaches-kids-ato-code-is-future.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
App that teaches kids 
to code is the future
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
App that teaches kids 
to code is the future
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar