There are two modes of combining programming and game spirit, one is "baby pen" and the other is "playground". What is a playpen? What is a playground? Get an explanation for everyone.
"Babypen" is a restrictive environment. In a real playpen, children have limited space for movement and exploration. "Babypen" is a metaphor, it is a metaphor that children lack the freedom to experiment, lack the autonomy of exploration, and lack the opportunity to develop creative adventures. "Playground" provides children with more space to move, explore, experiment and collaborate. If you observe children in the playground, you will surely find them playing their own games. In this process, the child will grow into a creative thinker. For playground-style programming, it is important for children to decide what to make and how to make it.
The purpose of gamified programming teaching is to build a "playground" to provide children with many opportunities for learning, growth, exploration, and creation, and to help young children master new skills and ways of thinking. In life, we may not always need to take children to the "playground"; because in addition to programming, there are other interests and skills to choose from, but when wandering in the "playground", we definitely hope that this is a It is a field that allows children to gain something and grow up, and gamified teaching gives children an atmosphere where they can learn knowledge easily and happily.
Gamification teaching conforms to the law of children's brain development. When we face children in the second grade (7-8 years old) of elementary school, we will find that they can actually understand the basic concepts and logic of programming, such as instructions, loops, branches, variables, and so on. This is because once the child's abstract thinking and logical thinking have developed to a certain extent, many concepts in programming can be quickly understood.
But conversely, if you talk about these things to a kindergartener (3-5 years old), it will take a long, long time. Because of the development of the brain, they have not been able to fully understand these abstract concepts. This needs to be achieved through gamified teaching, such as using various graphical and visual elements, setting level tasks and rewards, etc. to stimulate, focusing on play and attracting children's interest.
The core of programming thinking is actually to decompose complex problems into smaller modules, and some of these modules should be reusable. Design the connections between these modules in advance, implement these small modules one by one, and then integrate them all together-this ability is helpful for solving any problems, and it is also one of the biggest gains for children to learn programming. The second is the value embodied in the process of "debugging".
Almost no one can write a program right at a time, and once you run it after you write it, you will always find problems of this kind, and you need to "debug" at this time. Debugging is actually a very painful process for children, and sometimes it is very frustrating if the adjustment still fails for a long time. But this process can precisely exercise a lot of abilities: such as how to find the source of the problem, what skills and methods are there, and enough patience and keen observation. These are very useful abilities in any field.
In the programming "playground", a fairly relaxed environment can be provided to allow children to try and make mistakes. Children try and explore bravely in a relaxed atmosphere, which is more conducive to learning how to deal with setbacks and how to solve problems through programming, rather than choosing to give up easily at a challenging time. Children can learn to develop and debug project strategies, and can learn to cooperate with others, and get a sense of accomplishment from their own hard work. The third is to provide a medium for "self-expression and sharing with others."
Behind each program is a person with communication goals, passion and desire. Programming, like writing, is a medium of human expression. Through this process of expression, children learn to think, feel and communicate in new ways, and express themselves better. In the "playground" of programming, children create their own projects to exchange ideas and express themselves. They participate in solving problems and conceiving storylines throughout the process, acquiring sequencing skills and developing algorithmic thinking. Through the design process, the early ideas are realized and turned into shaped products that can be shared with others.