“Programming is the process of creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to
perform a task”. For the process of communication with a computer, there are a variety of
programming languages to implement algorithms so the computer can give us solutions as an output, which may be a computer software, a mobile application or even a video game.
When teaching programming at an early age, the focus is not on waiting for them to
create complicated software, but on starting a coding journey from basic concepts such as sequencing, algorithms, decomposition, etc. According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and his cognitive-development theory, children at the age of five are in the preoperational stage, when they begin to understand the world through the use of mental representations via words and images. Based on this even if kids can not read or write well they may start from unplugged coding activities and then go over to visual programming languages where the code is built from blocks.
We refer to lessons in which students are not working on a computer as “unplugged.”
Students will often work with pencil and paper or physical manipulatives. These are intentionally placed kinesthetic opportunities that help students digest complicated concepts in ways that relate to their own lives.
Unplugged lessons are particularly useful for building and maintaining a collaborative
classroom environment, and they are useful touchstone experiences you can refer to when introducing more abstract concepts.