How to make our children ready for the digital age which is already surrounding us all? We have to transfer complex content into easy ways of usage. Understanding code and algorithm are core competences in a digital world.

There are many ways to teach children digital competences or better to let them make experiences with digital environments.

1. Learning with Apps, Toys and Platforms

There are already many Apps, Online Platforms and Toys which can be used to make the first steps in coding (see Online Resources). These Apps, platforms and toys could be used in school or at home for the first digital experiences.

App - Swift Playgrounds - In this iPad app provided from Apple first-time coders solve puzzles and control characters by using real Swift code. In the ‘Intro to App Development with Swift’ book they will learn how to build a first app from start to finish - by learning the basics of Xcode. Furthermore Apple provides an ‘Everyone Can Code curriculum’ helping teachers to teach coding from primary school to university.

2. Programming Languages for Children

There are special programming languages for children which are mostly based on visual codes.

Scratch - Scratch is a visual programming language designed at the MIT Media Lab especially for ages 8 to 16 for programming interactive stories, games and animations which can be shared with others. Moreover students from elementary school to college are learning with Scratch across disciplines such as math, computer science, language arts and social studies. At the ScratchEd Online Community Archive educators can find resources, discussion posts and stories from many other educators.

NEPO - Open Roberta Lab - The Open Roberta initiative (from Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS)  introduces into programming robots. Children can learn the visual programming language NEPO and they can test their abilities with a virtual robot. The Roberta-Initiative provides trainings, materials, curriculums and construction manuals for teachers.

3. Workshops

Workshops are a great possibility for children to work together and to learn in and with a group of other children.

Maker Spaces - In Maker Spaces children can create something new with materials and tools. Maker Spaces often use tools like Arduino, Rasperry Pi, Calliope Mini, BBC micro:bit and Makey Makey or tools for building and programming robots. Smartphones, Apps, Tablets and 3D-printer can be used and tried out. It is not just for building programming skills moreover it should be a place where children can be creative.