Apps, remote-controlled cars, vending machines – our world is increasingly shaped by digital technologies, much of which is programmed. Coding is becoming an increasingly important component of media skills in order to deal confidently with media and IT systems. Age-appropriate apps and programs introduce children to programming in a playful way with interactive games, animations and small coding projects. Let your child get started and conquer the world of ones and zeros at their own pace!
Scratch is an image-oriented, visual programming language and an online platform. There is also an app version that can be used offline. The program was developed by the MIT Media Lab especially for children and young people aged 8 to 16 and is designed and moderated by the Scratch Foundation. Scratch enables step-by-step, playful learning of programming. Young programmers can use building blocks to create motion sequences, interactive stories, small games and animations. Scratch is also increasingly being used as a learning medium in schools.
The great thing about Scratch is that your child can let their imagination run wild with characters, sound effects and backgrounds. The ability to create animations and games is extremely engaging and gives your child the opportunity to create their own worlds. Scratch also offers an online community where your child can share coding projects and be inspired by others.
More info: https://scratch.mit.edu/
ScratchJr is a programming language for younger children aged 5 to 7 and enables them to create their own interactive stories and games. In the program, children join graphic program blocks together to move figures and make them jump, dance and sing. The characters can be customized in the paint editor and your own voices and sounds can be added. If you like, you can insert photos of yourself and use the program blocks to bring your own characters to life. ScratchJr was inspired by the popular Scratch programming language and impresses younger children with its ease of use and child-friendly design.
More info: https://scratchjr.org
This website is aimed at children from the age of 8 and teaches programming basics in a playful way, inspired by“Die Sendung mit der Maus“. The popular TV character from the show arouses interest in coding and accompanies the children through the program. The web application uses Scratch as a basis, but does not allow you to publish your own project. Programming with the mouse focuses on entertaining games and activities to impart knowledge in an appealing way. The platform offers structured instructions that guide children step by step through the world of programming. Successfully solving tasks boosts children’s self-confidence and is fun. The website promotes creative learning and makes programming accessible to children.
More info: https://programmieren.wdrmaus.de/
Ronja’s Robot introduces children to the exciting world of programming and robotics – in an entertaining way! The app for iOS and Android was developed by the Kinder Forschen foundation and is suitable for children aged 6 to 12. The app consists of two clever games in which Ronja’s robot named Roberta is the superhero of the code!
In the game “Roberta rast”, children playfully explore programming concepts and steer the little robot through the digital garden. In “Speak like Roberta”, children learn the computer language (binary code consisting of 1 and 0) and talk to Roberta.
More info: https://www.meine-forscherwelt.de/spiel/ronjas-roboter
Does your child enjoy the app? For older children, the graphical programming language OPEN Roberta offers an even more in-depth way to enter the world of programming. Creative thinking is encouraged and your child can come up with their own solutions to tricky challenges. Who would have thought that programming could be so creative? Your child can earn badges and rewards in the game and create coding projects together with other children in teamwork.
More info: https://www.meine-forscherwelt.de/fuer-erwachsene/tipps-zur-lernbegleitung/ronjas-roboter
Coding is fun, but your child can also quickly lose track of time. Establish media time rules together with your child. Programming is learned entirely on screen and usually alone. Make sure that your child maintains social contacts and spends time outdoors to compensate. Occasionally your child may become frustrated when they encounter challenges. Program together with your child, encourage and support them – and learn something new yourself. There are now also school and leisure activities where children can learn these programs. With the search engine for children fragFINN you can find offers in your area.
A small bee with wheels moves across the floor in the children’s room or a small blinking robot follows painted lines on a sheet of paper – this is how playful it can look when children learn how programming works. Because many things are programmed these days, like the timer on the washing machine or the jukebox in the kitchen. Learning robots can help improve the technical understanding of media for children from kindergarten age and are fun at the same time.
In our everyday lives, we often use technical devices without questioning their mechanisms. As soon as we have repaired a broken object ourselves, we also see through its technical processes better. Similarly, with your child and digital media, understanding how to program a robot can enhance their technical understanding of devices. It can also help your child gain a more critical view of media and question how it works. This is conducive to his media competence. In addition to initial programming skills, these robots also train their creativity and logical thinking.
There are different learning robots, which all work similarly: With the help of a few basic commands, your child will develop its own instructions for the mini-robot. Once the robot has understood the instructions, it performs the steps in the specified sequence. We will briefly introduce two robots that function without further technology and with which even younger children can learn how programming works:
The Ozobot is a small learning robot that is controlled with colored lines. On the underside, it has sensors that recognize different colors like small cameras. To make it move, children use colored pencils to draw a roadway on paper and then place it on the line. The Ozobot follows this lane. In addition to simple routes, it can also drive spinning and dancing movements and make sounds. Advanced users (with English knowledge) can create their own programs and effects for the Ozobot using a PC/laptop or tablet and the programming language “OzoBlocky”. Ozobots are suitable for children from elementary school age.
For younger children (from about 4 years), the Bee-Bot is more suitable. “Bee” is English and means “bee” because the robot looks like a bee. It rides on wheels and has 7 directional buttons, such as forward or left. Your child plans the path of the robot. To do this, it stores the desired sequence of movements with the direction keys on the Bee-Bot. The Bee-Bot then executes these movements step by step. It can execute up to 200 commands in succession.
In addition to these models, there are other recommended learning robots, such as Cubatto, Blue-Bot or Dash (with tablet control). Learn more at lehrerweb.wien.
Children love to experiment with these learning robots. The operation is simple and they can quickly control it themselves after trying it out together with an adult and implement their own ideas. With the accessories, or other everyday objects, they can invent their own stories in which the robots move.
Support your child in exploring the learning robot until they understand how it works and can implement it themselves.
The selection of such robots is growing, and the acquisition costs for robots that can actually be used to learn something are at least 100 euros. Therefore, take a close look at the devices and try them out, preferably before buying. Only when you understand everything, you can also explore the robot with your child. Alternatively, you can also borrow a learning robot. Some libraries have acquired small robots, lend them out or offer workshops for children with them. This allows children to explore the robots together and develop ideas as a team. Learning robots are also suitable for kindergarten or school. There are inexpensive class sets for schools and many suggestions online for teachers to use these robots in classroom subjects.
A few years ago, there were still cassettes with which children could listen to the stories of Benjamin Blümchen, the little raven Sock and children’s songs of all kinds. Insert the cassette into the recorder, press “Play” and off you go! It was also child’s play to record your own sounds, music or stories on cassette.
Today, small listening boxes such as the tigerbox and Toniebox moved into the children’s rooms. These play stories as soon as an associated figure is placed on the box. A great thing for the kids, but also very expensive. Yet such a radio play box can be recreated with a little skill and a smartphone!
Now this all sounds very technical, but it’s not at all. The radio play box is replaced by a cell phone and the character by an NFC chip. The rest is done by the selected app almost by itself.
First, make sure that the smartphone supports NFC. NFC is short for near field communication. In other words, communication between two elements: the smartphone and the chip, which can only communicate with each other within a few centimeters. You can see if your device supports NFC in the smartphone settings by searching for NFC and activating it. The position of the NFC reader is in the center of the back of the device in most smartphones. Put the purchased NFC stickers ready.
Now it’s about the app, which is supposed to program the NFC chip. It’s easier than it sounds! The matching app is available in the Play Store or Apple Store. With the paid app NFC Tools PRO audio files that are on the smartphone can be programmed directly onto the chip. This doesn’t work as easily with other apps. The corresponding app will now open.
Hold the NFC chip against the back of the smartphone. After the chip has been recognized by the app, its properties are displayed in it (under READ). To describe the chip, it must be assigned a task. To do this, go to TASKS > Add task > Sound & Media > Play a sound file > and select the desired audio file. To program this command now to the NFC chip, Write must be clicked under TASKS. To do this, the chip must once again be held against the back of the cell phone. After that you will receive a confirmation of the overwriting.
Now the chip is programmed and the audio can be played when it is held on the back of the smartphone.
With these basic building blocks, you can now get creative together with your child. The NFC chip or sticker can be attached to game pieces, stuffed animals, etc. A container made of Lego, cardboard or wood for the smartphone can be connected and become a whole personal listening box with a speaker. For ideas on how to create your own audio content, check out our article “Listening Projects for Kids.”
Making your own listening box can be a fun family project. Children and parents learn about technology together and can get creative.
Even more ideas for homemade listening boxes can be found on the following pages:
Children are inquisitive and want to understand things. Perhaps your child has also asked you how the Internet actually works, what structures and processes are behind it. Adults and children come into contact with the Internet every day and are on the move online. For an enlightened approach to it, computer science lessons are increasingly on the agenda in schools as well. For example, children learn how to construct their own programs, known as software, and use them to build robots or transmit messages using small mini-computers called CALLIOPE.
Calliope-mini|Source: https://pixabay.com/de/calliope-mini-calliope-computer-2755554/
But what is software anyway? In order to work on the computer or tablet, it is necessary to install various programs or software. On mobile devices, these are called apps. For example, there are writing programs like Microsoft Word or Internet browsers like Google Chrome. Many of us use so-called “free software” such as Firefox, Chrome, OpenOffice or the VLC media player. Such programs are also installed on many school computers, since free software is mostly available free of charge and has a high level of quality. “Free” means that the program is mostly free to use and you can give away as many copies as you want. So anyone can use this software. The software of the mini-computer CALLIOPE is also included, so that all students can have access to it.
In this context, one often speaks of “open source”. This means the same as Free Software, but focuses on a different aspect. Translated, open source means “free source”. This means that it is disclosed how the software is programmed or how the hardware (i.e. the components of a computer) is assembled. Anyone can access the source and develop it further, modify it or draw attention to errors in the software or hardware. Among other things, students can use computers like CALLIOPE to learn how well-known open source programs like Firefox work. Very many people work on the same program, which allows it to constantly evolve and improve. Despite the mostly free use, there are various license conditions that must be observed (often related to the editing of the source code). A counter-model to open source is “proprietary software”, such as Microsoft Office. With these pay programs, you don’t know what programming is behind them. Also, you can often only install them on one computer – depending on which license you bought.
