Computational Thinking and Coding for Young Children: A Hybrid Approach to Link Unplugged and Plugged Activities

Abstract

In our increasingly technology-dependent society, the importance of promoting digital literacy (e.g., computational thinking, coding, and programming) has become a critical focus in the field of childhood education. While young children these days are routinely and extensively exposed to digital devices and tools, the efficacy of the methods for fostering digital skills in the early childhood classroom has not always been closely considered. This is particularly true in settings where early childhood educators are not digital experts. Currently, most of the efforts in standard early childhood settings, taught by teachers who are not digital experts, appear to revolve around “unplugged” activities that do not directly involve digital tools or devices, and it is not entirely clear how well these “unplugged” lessons promote the corresponding skills in “plugged” settings, such as coding and programming. This article discusses how, through further research, we may be able to devise an effective method for seamlessly building digital literacy among young children, transcending the “unplugged vs. plugged” barriers effortlessly.

Relationships between middle school students’ digital literacy skills, computer programming self-efficacy, and computational thinking self-efficacy

“…Although this finding has not been discussed together with digital literacy skills and computational thinking self-efficacy in the literature, it was seen that there are similar results obtained when compared with different research findings. For example, Akiba (2022), George-Reyes et al (2021 and Menon et al (2020) found that 'having digital literacy skills affects the academic achievement of secondary school students together with their computational thinking skills. Therefore, digital literacy skills play an important role in computational thinking skills to achieve learning goals (Fagerlund et al, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, it can be suggested that 21st-century skills such as problemsolving and digital literacy may affect computational thinking skills. To be able to use technology in education, it can be stated that having digital literacy and computational thinking skills, which are stated as two intertwined concepts, can be academically effective for middle school students (Menon et al, 2020;George-Reyes et al, 2021;Akiba, 2022). Therefore, it is thought that digital literacy skills can support computational thinking skills.…”

“…For example, they use digital technologies to solve the problems they face in the environments they live in and fulfill their duties and responsibilities in the schools where they study, especially in technology-supported courses. From this perspective, it has been stated that students need to develop digital literacy skills to use digital technologies and computational thinking skills to solve the problems they may encounter in their lives (Jun et al, 2014;Zapata-Ros, 2015;Shute et al, 2017;Akiba, 2022). In particular, studies show that students have difficulties in using, interpreting and organising digital materials (Mudra, 2020).…”

“…In fact, teachers' difficulty in combining digital skills with pedagogical methods, especially during and after the pandemic, shows that there are problems with digital literacy (Sánchez-Cruzado et al, 2021). Therefore, it was predicted that students should have computer programming skills (Jun et al, 2014;Demarle-Meusel et al, 2017;Menon et al, 2020;Akiba, 2022) and digital literacy skills (Akpınar & Altun, 2014;George-Reyes et al, 2021;Kılıç, 2022) to develop computational thinking skills. From this point of view, it is thought that the computational thinking self-efficacy, computer programming self-efficacy, and digital literacy of middle school students, which are discussed in the study, are important in terms of solving the problems they face in their lives and increasing their academic achievement.…”