Paper Title
Digital Games and Tools for Development of Computational Thinking in Primary School
Abstract
Computational thinking is the process that involves formulating a problem and expressing its solution in a way that a human or a machine can effectively perform. Computational thinking include skills that are useful for a career in almost every sector and should be encouraged from primary school. Educational games can motivate students to actively participate in learning activities and have a potential to support development of computational thinking as well as programming skills. Games can be integrated in different school subjects as unplugged activities (without the use of technology) or in a digital form, which is more appropriate for today‟s students who are growing up in the digital age. This paper analyses the potential of using digital games and tools for supporting the development of computational thinking and programming skills and gives overview of examples that are freely available and suitable for primary school students. In addition, the paper describes a model for development of computational thinking skills designed within the project GLAT that will be further developed as one of the aims of the new project “Digital games”.
Keywords - Digital Games, Computational Thinking, Learning Programming, Primary Education, Project GLAT.