CODING
In accordance with current thought on teaching New Technology, we have added a unique new project to our classes: School IT.
Its main goal is to change the way students see technology, from being consumers to creators of technology through programming videogames.
We will achieve this by adding computer programming to our curriculum from 1st Primary to 2nd Baccalaureate. Every week, students have a practical lesson in videogame programming for one of the hours of their maths classes. Learning to programme and create software applications will prepare students for science and technology subjects, but also get them thinking like computers, which can be applied in other areas of their lives.
We will start with the Scratch tool, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is a visual programming system. It is designed to allow students as young as six to programme intuitively.
The main goals of this new study programme is to teach students to:
– Understand and apply the fundamental concepts of computing, including abstract thinking, logic, algorithms and data representation.
– Analyse problems in computing terms and get practical experience in creating programmes to solve them.
– Evaluate and use IT, including analysing new or unknown technologies to solve problems.
– Be responsible, skilled, prudent and creative in their use of ICT.
