Empowering the digital leaders of today and tomorrow…

The coding which is a common language of digital cultures, is one of the fundamentals  of information literacy. It has been found that all of the concepts of 21st century skills  (thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, information and technology literacy, flexibility and adaptability, global competencies and financial literacy) are directly related to “coding” and these skills provide important opportunities for students to plan their future.

The digital age has also generated the interaction and changing and developing world has increased the need to open educational resources in today’s schools and  innovative applications. That is why the primary priority of our project is to create an open source educational platform with innovative applications in the digital area. With the studies to be carried out within the scope of the project, it is aimed to implement and develop tools for teaching coding on a highly interactive online platform. The portal will be prepared by holding the interaction on the frontline and will create environments that allow young people to spend their time by ‘learning to learn and sharing.’

Within the project, firstly the status of the coding in the curriculums of partner countries will be examined. Afterwards, a situation analysis will be made by taking the opinions of teachers and students related to the subject. With this analysis results, an international online sharing platform will be established. Various programming language terms, resources, videos, visuals and various teaching materials will be provided in this platform for those who want to learn coding-programming. With this digital platform; users (mainly students) will be able to share the blocks of code they have prepared. Viewing, examining and developing shared code blocks by other users from other countries will increase student-learning cooperation and user interaction, contribute positively to the commitment of the individuals to the school and to the motivation of learning. The primary target group are the  pupils who are directly interested in the coding and people who are willing to learn, tend to code, knows a programming language or wants to learn how to code.

The platform will suit everyone’s fancy  from the beginner coders to the professionals. In addition, each project partner will organize webinars every month for 12 months for the use of a defined coding language. They will take one hour and will be prepared by experts in the field of coding and there will be  high level information sharings with users. Through the webinars, users will have the opportunity to ask questions to the experts, view sample applications and evaluate their own coding projects.

Besides the online coding platform, the project also includes other innovative outputs. Partners will organize 2 or 3 days of coding camps (workshops) for students during the project period. Particular importance will be given to interaction and participation in these activities and role of persons with disabilities and their participation will be particularly encouraged. Then coding competitions will be organized. In these competitions, students will try to create software in determined theme  or a solution to a problem within a certain period of time.

With the implementation of the project outputs, while learning to code in addition to learning mathematical and computational ideas, pupils will also learn strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas. These skills are useful for everyone regardless of age, background, interests or occupation. Furthermore these skils will help them to face many situations they will find in life, and enabling them to better collaboration between human and machine.

-Students will gain problem-solving, spatial thinking and analytical thinking skills thanks to coding activities.

-The learning habits and culture of students, cooperative working, learning skills, learning by teaching computer will be improved.

-A free and easily accessible international learning and teaching atmosphere which is independent of time and space will be created.

-Students of the same age will be brought together on an online international platform, they will work together, peer learning will be provided.

Code is Loading is planned for 24 months for the production of intellectual outputs of the project and the realization of its activities. There will be 5 Transnational Meetings and one Learning, Teaching, Training Activity with all partners in order to reach the previously indicated goals of the project.

Coding training is a new approach that is in all curriculums of all countries in the world at present and it is also very popular in the world. Thus, it is foreseen that the outputs of the project will be followed up internationally and will be model educational materials for many schools and institutions.

‘Code is Loading’ will empower the digital leaders of today & tomorrow.