Exploring Hello Ruby - a new way to learn Technology, Coding & Computers
Date: 19th June 2019/Wednesday
21st June 2019/Friday
This blog post will give you an insight into an interesting way of learning algorithms in creative and artistic ways. This may sound weird but its interesting and engaging like anything. Linda Liukas who is the founder for the HundrED Innovation project Hello Rubi [1], a children's author and illustrator, who has written 3 books about technology, coding and computers which is based on learning through play, creativity and imagination. This blog post explores Hello Rubi in detail and why there is a dire need to adopt the same approach in schools in Pakistan.
So just for a moment think of the traditional and usual way of teaching technology, coding and computational thinking in schools and classrooms. We usually begin with explaining technology terms and concepts to kids on the white board, share examples, watch a video, read some text from book, search the website for information, ask kids to practice coding in an online tool etc which is a very obvious reason kids do not like programming at all and tend to run away from it. They learn loops , triggers, events etc without even understanding the concept behind it, without even making real life connections. So, it all sounds useless and boring to them.
I personally never liked programming for the very reasons stated above. It was not until I had the experience of working with #Scratch. What worked with Scratch [2] and #Tynker [3] was the color coded blocks of code, easy user interface, tutorials , interactivity etc Above all Scratch added a new dimension to programming, it helps solve problems, provides an opportunity to think creatively and innovatively, reason with logic and work collaboratively. Something that was missing while I was studying C++, Java, HTML, Oracle etc
The activities in Hello Ruby books teach technology through offline activities, because we are all too much into technology otherwise, we carry magic in our hands all the time be it our gadgets, remote controls, i-pads, laptops and the list is endless. One can learn computers, programming, technology even without having a computer at all just the way we learn Lego, blocks, paints etc. Hello Ruby lays more emphasis on understanding what a human can do and what a machine can do.
Similarly in another activity, [5] Arts and Algorithms kids build an understanding of what are algorithms and how do they work. Kids are given color, paints or markers, plain sheets of paper, and instructions to draw something. They are asked to imagine as if they are computers, on start they start drawing for example draw triangles, draw squares, draw a dot draw lines joining dots etc on stop the activity stops. Try running the computers fast and slow, how do the kids feel , how do they react? ask them how did they feel during activity? does computer have feelings? what is that humans bring to the whole process that machine don't? creativity? enthusiasm? happiness? feelings of accomplishment etc how long will the computer take to do the same task? the obvious answer would be more efficiently than humans. Now, ask kids what is their understanding of Algorithms and they would be able to tell you a set of instructions carried out to complete a task.
Similarly while I was skimming through Linda's Ted Talk [6] "A delightful way to teach kids about computers", I really liked one of the examples she shared about teaching loops to kids. She shared if 6 year old Ruby were to teach loops to kids she would go clap , clap, stomp, clap, clap, stomp, Jump. So kids would actually understand what loops would mean by actually doing it. An until loop could be explained by adding a condition , like stop the clap when Mom gets really angry :) She further explains there are no ready made answers.
She describes the experience of showing kids four pictures of different objects, a car, a grocery store, a dog and a toilet and she would ask which one of these objects is a computer? she wanted to have an insight of how kids see the world while creating the curriculum for Ruby world. She adds kids would confidently say none of this is a computer, but then she would talk with kids and explain that car is a computer because it has a navigation system, a grocery store has a cashier system, burglar alarms and they are all computers, a dog is not a computer but it might have a color which might have a computer installed into it and so on. She says for kids today everything is a computer. Interestingly she looks at computers as bossy computers and RAM & ROM as helpful that make sure the computer remembers data. Its a very unique approach where kids start thinking out of the box, it gives rise to numerous questions, kids become curios to learn more. She says that more diverse and inclusive the world of technology the more colorful and better our world would look like.
While skimming through another article online about teaching Computer Science to kids without computers in Finland [7] , the author shares that kids can learn coding from knitting needles too. Because knitting is about sequences and loops which change with every design. Further she quotes Linda, who says there is a difference in learning how to use something and understanding how it works. Its an opportunity to learn so many related skills like telling a story, working collaboratively, being creative and innovative etc
I completely agree with Linda when she says, "Even the worlds biggest problems are just tiny problems stuck together". This approach is extremely useful in every area of life and is the basis of Computational Thinking. I remember recently while introducing Computational Thinking to kids at Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation, what made the lessons interesting and engaging was the integration of real life examples and links we could establish with different disciplines. If it were taught in isolation, kids would have never grasped the concept of Computational Thinking.
We discussed and shared cooking/baking recipes as Algorithms, finding the safest route to reach a place and removing irrelevant details as Abstraction, looking for similarities and differences as Pattern recognition, and breaking of a problem in smaller parts as Decomposition - separating game elements events, players, backgrounds, score etc and this exactly what makes it interesting, flexibility to make links with different learning areas.
Though there is still lot to explore but the idea of teaching technology, computers and coding in a story form, without using computers, in an offline way, integrating with real life concepts would definitely shift focus from just knowing how to use technology to building and enhancing understanding of how actually technology works, which would help kids emerge as creators and makers of technology and not just consumers of technology.
So enjoy reading till my next blogpost soon In Shaa Allah.
Take care and Allah Hafiz
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
References:
1. Hello Ruby Linda Liukas https://hundred.org/en/innovations/hello-ruby Accessed online 20th June 2019
2.Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted Accessed Online 21st June 2019
3.Tynker Coding for kids https://www.tynker.com/ Accessed Online 21st June 2019
Date: 19th June 2019/Wednesday
21st June 2019/Friday
So just for a moment think of the traditional and usual way of teaching technology, coding and computational thinking in schools and classrooms. We usually begin with explaining technology terms and concepts to kids on the white board, share examples, watch a video, read some text from book, search the website for information, ask kids to practice coding in an online tool etc which is a very obvious reason kids do not like programming at all and tend to run away from it. They learn loops , triggers, events etc without even understanding the concept behind it, without even making real life connections. So, it all sounds useless and boring to them.
I personally never liked programming for the very reasons stated above. It was not until I had the experience of working with #Scratch. What worked with Scratch [2] and #Tynker [3] was the color coded blocks of code, easy user interface, tutorials , interactivity etc Above all Scratch added a new dimension to programming, it helps solve problems, provides an opportunity to think creatively and innovatively, reason with logic and work collaboratively. Something that was missing while I was studying C++, Java, HTML, Oracle etc
So lets now move on to digging Hello Rubi a little, what is Hello Rubi all about. Linda Liunski basically belongs to Helsinki, Finland who is the Founder for HundrED innovation project Hello Rubi. She had the idea of teaching and learning with technology, computing and coding through play some where in the year 2003. In 2009, she began work as a children's author and started writing about technology, computing and coding.
Whats interesting to notice here is that Hello Rubi talks about technology, computing and coding in a story form, Rubi is a young girl, who with her friends explores the world of technology, computing and coding in an adventurous way. In her world, she thinks everything is possible provided you put your mind to it. What intrigued and fascinated me the most is the approach of integrating real life objects into technology, learning about key concepts and facts along the way.
The activities in Hello Ruby books teach technology through offline activities, because we are all too much into technology otherwise, we carry magic in our hands all the time be it our gadgets, remote controls, i-pads, laptops and the list is endless. One can learn computers, programming, technology even without having a computer at all just the way we learn Lego, blocks, paints etc. Hello Ruby lays more emphasis on understanding what a human can do and what a machine can do.
Just to give you all a glimpse of what sort of activities are shared in Hello Ruby. For example, we all know that when we browse a website, our data gets saved on the website. Based on our preferences, choices, the web suggests more related, relevant and better services. In the Dataselfie [4] activity, kids are asked to name 5 things they have searched online, 4 things they have liked online, 3 videos they have watched, 2 places they have been on the phone, 1 person you have messaged with, ask rest of your family members to do it too. Kids are asked to mix all these selfies and then they try to guess who is who based on the data available. Followed by drawing a selfie of that data and sharing portraits.
In another interesting activity kids explore how does the internet look like? they are asked to draw a picture of the internet, imagine themselves in the picture? how they see the internet? draw something big and small in relation to the internet. Think about their internet is it supportive? trustworthy? independent? approachable? safe etc. Kids will come up with some amazing drawings. I can think of the internet as a net which has wires and everything is connected. These wires carry information from one point to another. This raises a few questions now, what sort of information is carried over the wires? how safe it is? what is the material used? how much time does it take to transfer data across wires? so before building an internet, child get the opportunity to understand the why and how of the internet.
Similarly in another activity, [5] Arts and Algorithms kids build an understanding of what are algorithms and how do they work. Kids are given color, paints or markers, plain sheets of paper, and instructions to draw something. They are asked to imagine as if they are computers, on start they start drawing for example draw triangles, draw squares, draw a dot draw lines joining dots etc on stop the activity stops. Try running the computers fast and slow, how do the kids feel , how do they react? ask them how did they feel during activity? does computer have feelings? what is that humans bring to the whole process that machine don't? creativity? enthusiasm? happiness? feelings of accomplishment etc how long will the computer take to do the same task? the obvious answer would be more efficiently than humans. Now, ask kids what is their understanding of Algorithms and they would be able to tell you a set of instructions carried out to complete a task.Similarly while I was skimming through Linda's Ted Talk [6] "A delightful way to teach kids about computers", I really liked one of the examples she shared about teaching loops to kids. She shared if 6 year old Ruby were to teach loops to kids she would go clap , clap, stomp, clap, clap, stomp, Jump. So kids would actually understand what loops would mean by actually doing it. An until loop could be explained by adding a condition , like stop the clap when Mom gets really angry :) She further explains there are no ready made answers.
She describes the experience of showing kids four pictures of different objects, a car, a grocery store, a dog and a toilet and she would ask which one of these objects is a computer? she wanted to have an insight of how kids see the world while creating the curriculum for Ruby world. She adds kids would confidently say none of this is a computer, but then she would talk with kids and explain that car is a computer because it has a navigation system, a grocery store has a cashier system, burglar alarms and they are all computers, a dog is not a computer but it might have a color which might have a computer installed into it and so on. She says for kids today everything is a computer. Interestingly she looks at computers as bossy computers and RAM & ROM as helpful that make sure the computer remembers data. Its a very unique approach where kids start thinking out of the box, it gives rise to numerous questions, kids become curios to learn more. She says that more diverse and inclusive the world of technology the more colorful and better our world would look like.While skimming through another article online about teaching Computer Science to kids without computers in Finland [7] , the author shares that kids can learn coding from knitting needles too. Because knitting is about sequences and loops which change with every design. Further she quotes Linda, who says there is a difference in learning how to use something and understanding how it works. Its an opportunity to learn so many related skills like telling a story, working collaboratively, being creative and innovative etc
I completely agree with Linda when she says, "Even the worlds biggest problems are just tiny problems stuck together". This approach is extremely useful in every area of life and is the basis of Computational Thinking. I remember recently while introducing Computational Thinking to kids at Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation, what made the lessons interesting and engaging was the integration of real life examples and links we could establish with different disciplines. If it were taught in isolation, kids would have never grasped the concept of Computational Thinking.
We discussed and shared cooking/baking recipes as Algorithms, finding the safest route to reach a place and removing irrelevant details as Abstraction, looking for similarities and differences as Pattern recognition, and breaking of a problem in smaller parts as Decomposition - separating game elements events, players, backgrounds, score etc and this exactly what makes it interesting, flexibility to make links with different learning areas.
Though there is still lot to explore but the idea of teaching technology, computers and coding in a story form, without using computers, in an offline way, integrating with real life concepts would definitely shift focus from just knowing how to use technology to building and enhancing understanding of how actually technology works, which would help kids emerge as creators and makers of technology and not just consumers of technology.
So enjoy reading till my next blogpost soon In Shaa Allah.
Take care and Allah Hafiz
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
References:
1. Hello Ruby Linda Liukas https://hundred.org/en/innovations/hello-ruby Accessed online 20th June 2019
2.Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted Accessed Online 21st June 2019
3.Tynker Coding for kids https://www.tynker.com/ Accessed Online 21st June 2019
4. Data Selfie Linda Liukas http://www.helloruby.com/play/27 Accessed online 20th June 2019
5 Art and Algorithms Linda Liukas https://www.helloruby.com/play/16 Accessed Online 20th June 2019
6. A delightful way to teach kids about Computers https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=354&v=vcxwcWuq7KQ Accessed online 21st June 2019
7. In Finland, kids learn computer science without computers Emily Deruy https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/02/teaching-computer-science-without-computers/517548/?ref=ksrtwitter&__prclt=H8H29BuM Accessed Online 21st June 2019
6. A delightful way to teach kids about Computers https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=354&v=vcxwcWuq7KQ Accessed online 21st June 2019
7. In Finland, kids learn computer science without computers Emily Deruy https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/02/teaching-computer-science-without-computers/517548/?ref=ksrtwitter&__prclt=H8H29BuM Accessed Online 21st June 2019
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