Here the real and the virtual meet!

Smitha Prasad

As a computer science teacher, one of my most joyous moments is watching my students eagerly looking for me in the morning assembly, especially on the days their timetable has computer science. The happy and eager faces as I enter their class and say “Line up…!! Let’s go to the lab…!” says it all.

The digital revolution has taken us to a different world and influenced us to such an extent that words like “holiday” seem irrelevant. We can work, shop or learn anything from anywhere in the world anytime we wish. It has even changed the way our children play as their toys are smart and their friends are online! Today the world is unimaginable without computers and that means it’s a parallel life running with ours. So, that calls for ample opportunities to learn as well as earn!

Computer Science is a practical subject which influences all fields, be it science, mathematics, languages, art, music or dance. Students apply the academic principles they have learnt and create meaningful and working objects. As parents and teachers we should guide and train our children to observe and recognize computer systems. In the early years of learning computers, children touch and feel the different input-output devices and learn to use them efficiently with the help of various software applications. When they are older, it is important to make them conversant with the various ways in which computer can be used. To make the most of any system, understanding the working principles is vital.

Computational thinking, as one may call it should start as early as middle school. Integrating other subjects with computer science is the best way of learning computer science. To begin with, Basic programming principles can be introduced in math and science lessons and gradually extended to other subjects depending on the students’ understanding of computing.

The process of getting children to like programming is itself a task. Every year when I say “let’s learn to write programs,” their first reaction is not very encouraging. So, I try different methods to introduce and develop their interest in programming. Here is a small conversation I would like to share which I recently had with my students who were just introduced to programming.

Me: ok…now …let us talk to the computer…
Children: talk! How ma’am… (with lots of curiosity)….
Me: I’ll type my name and computer says” hi, welcome….” Someone else tries to type their name and it says “sorry, not your computer!”
Children: Wow! That’s so cool ma’am….! How do we do that? Can we really do it…. (Amongst themselves)

I wrote a simple program in a particular programming language using a simple “if-then –else” and there you go, the children loved it and the whole class wanted to try different programs and I let them explore on their own. To my surprise they came up with excellent and innovative programs. This was my first step to get them to do programming and I was very happy.

Most of the programming languages are in English and simple keywords like “if-then-else, switch, do-while” will help children understand the way the computer thinks and instruct it what to do as this is the language that we use every day. Children find it interesting and easy when these English words are compared and structured to create simple programs. As they see their programs getting executed, there is more hunger in them to create complicated programs. This inspires students to think more deeply about the language. At this time, we as teachers can teach them to work with computers on a deeper level.

We can encourage students to create a simple HTML, Flash or Visual Basic program to present projects in science or social studies. A simple website can be created using HTML where their project can be presented. Students should be constantly given real-world examples such as a library system or a school administrative system which they are already aware of. Programming is much easier to understand when illustrated using real-world examples. Students will begin to experiment for themselves once they understand computer programming as it is useful and fascinating. Projects help students acquire problem-solving skills as they work either individually or in teams to process, synthesize and analyze the information that they have collected.

These days the Internet connects students as well as teachers to different tools where they can talk to subject experts online and understand the concepts through images, videos, or text which can be incorporated in the day to day curriculum. Numerous tools for visualizing and modelling in the field of science and math offer students ways to experiment and observe different phenomenon. They can also view results in pictorial/graphical ways that facilitate in understanding the concept easily which would otherwise be difficult to visualize in a typical blackboard environment. This can also reduce behavioural problems teachers face in the classrooms as students are more likely to stay engaged and on task.

Thus, in this world I must say computers are one of the most powerful tools humans have created. We learn to communicate with computers so that we can communicate with each other more effectively and efficiently and we humans have mastered that art.

The author is an electronics and communications engineer. She currently teaches Computer Science at The Brigade School, Malleswaram, Bangalore. She can be reached at smithagprasad@gmail.com.