Road to Code: Let’s Discuss Coding in Early Years

ScooNews conducted an online seminar on 22 July 2020 in partnership with HABA India with expert panellists from the fields of Ed-Tech and Computational Thinking. The topic being Coding in Early Years. 

Panellists:

1. Samriddhi Sharma – MD & CEO, HABA India (Moderator)
2. Professor Dr Ute Schmid – Head of Cognitive Systems Group, University of Bamberg
3. Anders Fuchs – Manager, Digital Education, HABA 

HABA is a German brand that started in 1938 consisting of several other brands with a common goal of ‘shaping learning worlds together.’ With a reach in more than 50 countries all over the world, HABA has its own group of in-house experts and also partners with industry and domain experts for research and product development.

During the online seminar, the panellists shared thoughts on the significance of introducing younger ones to coding/Computational Thinking, how to bring them to comprehend such a complicated subject and what are the ways in which HABA games could help the process. According to these experts, children exposed to coding directly in higher classes do not help their case. Since younger kids can grasp concepts quickly, studying Computational Thinking won’t just open a new career path in front of them but also develop a problem identifying and problem-solving brain for the coming years. 

Excerpts from the presentation: 

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A common problem in modern education:

Having an LCD screen for children to look at in a modern classroom has become a concern all over the world today. In the same setup, as an authentic classroom, if we add one or multiple screens for children to look at and get educated, it does not count as the state-of-the-art model of education. What needs to be done is to engage them practically and provide them with a skill for the future.

Blocks for futuristic learning:

Blended Learning Block (BLB) 

1. Learning with Digital Media: To learn the background, how to cope with it is very important while learning Digital Media.
2. Learning about Digital Media: For the evolution of children from just users to also creators, it is necessary to also learn about Digital Media.
3. Learning Environment: According to the era, the time when children are going to school, the school’s learning environment should improvise to go along with the developing world and education.
4. Consulting and Training: For providing better education, there are consultations and training of teachers available at HABA. This provides educators with solutions to develop their skills for teaching.

While focusing on Digital Media:

Engagement of children should begin from the early years, due to children having the ability of high cognitive processing in their early childhood, it is imperative to introduce COMPUTATIONAL THINKING.

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What is Computational Thinking?

Computational Thinking in a generic definition could be determined as the ability to recognize problems, apply abstraction skills and identify the individual steps needed to solve them. The solution is intended to be implemented by both people and computers, it is the core of computer coding.

There are several parts of Computational Thinking skills:

1. Segmentation: To split a complicated task and divide them into smaller solvable problems
2. Pattern Recognition: Recognizing regularities in the stream of information
3. Algorithm: It is the core of Computational Thinking, to be able to think and systematically transform algorithmic inputs into desired outputs
4. Abstraction: Final step is learning to grasp the general principle abstract problem-solving scheme to apply in a new context

Starting directly to teach programming in front of the screen at school level is a problem. The children need to develop cognitive power to be able to deduce and solve the given computational problem.

Samriddhi explains, “Computational Thinking, when developed from early ages like 4-5 year, develops the child’s logical decision making and at the end of the day, leads to better identification of problems, deducing and decision making.” 

To bring about the said change in education regarding Computational Thinking, HABA came out with a learning concept with DIGITAL STARTER. For the development of the Digital Starter, FELI Research Group (for elementary and primary computer sciences) worked in partnership with the University of Bamberg and came out with five games for children of 4 years and older (accordingly), with NO SCREEN & NO BATTERY. All they have is just the analogue material. 

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About some of the HABA games:

1. Coding Architect: Since teaching children about codes and coding is difficult in early ages, this game brings the computer intangible codes to life in the form of blocks. There are instruction cards that have blocks’ pictures on them and the number for which block goes where. The end result should match the given problem in the form of a block model.

2. Search and Sort: This game comes with pieces to be searched in a bag and to be sorted according to colour, size, and weight. Children have to fish in the bag of pieces and place them on the board while sorting them. This teaches them to learn complex cognitive concepts like the principle of selection and sorting.

After an insightful presentation and hands-on show-and-tell by Prof Dr Schmid and Anders Fuchs, the latter talked about what is next for HABA and which new and cognitively stimulating games HABA plans to introduce soon. 

He says, “In this, Digital Starter meets Artificial Intelligence. The goal is to explain a very complex topic like AI with wooden blocks. AI or Artificial Intelligence is also about algorithms, intelligent algorithms. One class of these algorithms is machine learning which is AI." 

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Prof Dr Schmid added, "These wooden blocks would attempt to explain how basic machine learning algorithms work, but there will be other areas of AI also tapped into like, Heuristic Search, Planning, Reasoning, Deductive Reasoning and other domains.”

At the end of the session, Samriddhi discussed Computational Thinking and asked Prof Dr Schmid some questions on behalf of the live audience regarding how to start with early years of Computational Thinking, why it is necessary and how parents and teachers could facilitate such learning especially during this time of COVID.

Samriddhi Sharma: How starting early with Computational Thinking makes the younger generation future-ready?

Prof Dr Schmid: There are several points but the most important of them is Gender Equality. When we start early education with topics like Computational Thinking, it helps bring the female gender into the fields of STEM. Also, because the children do not have the gender bias stereotype in their minds, subjects like these become easier to teach. 

Another point, in my opinion, would be that different sets of skills are important for a successful career and life and they keep changing every ten generations. We are in the age of complex problem-solving, not just in academia but in our day to day life and I feel better cognitive development is helpful either way.

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Samriddhi Sharma: Given the current COVID situation, how can children practice Computational Thinking in daily life and how can parents and teachers help them with it?

Prof Dr Schmid: Look for a more creative, inspiring and quiet environment for learning children, which should not be confronted all the time with Digital Media. The environment should be encouraging and there should be no fear of doing wrong. Parents and teachers can help with encouraging them if and when they make a mistake to analyse it again. General problem-solving puzzles are a good way of teaching children. They include building bricks, toy train routes with different possibilities of intercrossing, etc. 

Samriddhi Sharma: What is that one advice you would like to give to the young generation?

Prof Dr Schmid: Please understand that the human species is the most powerful with respect to learning on this planet. Appreciate and try to enjoy learning something good and congenial, try to identify your interest in not just academics but all forms of learning like sports, music; and do practice to get better at it. 

Want to fetch more details on HABA products? Reach HABA India at samriddhi.sharma@haba.de

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