We Can Turn Lessons into a Game with Coding

Information Technologies Teacher Gamze Altun makes the world of coding, which many people think would be difficult to understand, very simple and fun for students. He explains how this is effective for different courses and his methods as follows:
"Don't be afraid of the computer. Aren't the people who make the computer human? So why did they do it? To make our lives easier, of course... Well, if we use the computer out of fear of it and not knowing how to control it, how will it make our lives easier?"
These sentences express the perspective I try to give to my students. I told them these sentences in my first lesson. I will say it until my last lesson. Because we do not use hopeless statements such as "I don't know, I couldn't do it, I won't be able to do it" in our classroom. We are not people who cannot control a technological device made to make our lives easier! We can make him do whatever we want. And maybe one day we can bring our dreams to life with it.
For example, “What is coding?” We don't have to think too much about it. We are trying to explain something to the computer. We are talking to him. But only in a language he can understand... For me, coding means teaching them to control the computer in order to establish the perspective I want to give.
 

We must prevent them from overestimating it!
We know that coding languages ​​are sometimes very challenging and can cause what we call 'head-scratching'. Our aim is not to teach them 'head-scratching' programming languages, but to teach them programming logic.
The reason why most students fail in math class is because they are afraid of it. Because people around him usually describe the mathematics course as very difficult and the person who can do it as if he is very smart. If the student does not have the perception of 'I am very smart', he will not deal with mathematics that he thinks he cannot do because this job is not for him.
If you exaggerate coding in their eyes, you may encounter the reaction of "Oh, as if mathematics wasn't enough, we also got this." Imagine it as if you were explaining it to a baby who can't think. I reviewed Mehmet Kurt's article in PC World magazine teaching how to write algorithms. At the beginning of the article, "Does a computer think?" he asks the question. And of course the answer is; "No! There is no such thing. He does not think, but he does not forget."
 

They won't realize they're in class!
We started working on writing algorithms by reaching a target location. When I asked how they would do this, I was greeted with the commands "Go to the target location!", "Walk", "Run", "Fly", "Sir, just go". So, what kind of question could I ask them to think in detail?
I said, "Can you express the commands you want to give to the computer in a way that will teach a newborn baby about actions that are capable of doing what is told?" With this question, their siblings and acquaintances immediately come to mind. They imagine a baby they know and begin to question even your commands. When the reactions start, "Oh no, teacher, how would the baby know how to do that?", little smiles begin to appear on your face.
Let them think they are playing games. They don't have to realize they're coming to class. "I know a very nice game. Shall we play it this lesson?" We can even start the lesson by saying: Code.org, Scratch, Codemonkey etc. They do not have to feel like they are in class while doing their practices. Let them think they are just playing games.
 

How did I gamify it?
In order to gamify the lesson, all we need to do is make a little observation. For example; Our school distributed tangrams to students. I realized that they were trying very hard to do it, competing with each other. I also bought a tangram for my own classroom. I divided the students into groups of two and gave each person a tangram. I chose a software developer among them. I determined a tangram model that our software developer saw but others did not.
Our student, who is a software developer, tried to explain the tangram model in front of him in a way that his friends could best understand. Other students tried to understand and implement the commands given by the software developer in the best way possible. At the end of the lesson, I chose the one who gave the commands best and understood the commands best and offered chocolate as a reinforcer.
"Look, when your friend didn't give you very good commands, you couldn't do what he wanted. So, if you can't give good commands to the computer, how can he do it?" We concluded our application by rationalizing the purpose of our application.
Coding is not just about moving the bee or the actor on Code.Org. 'Coding head' is everywhere! If they can move the bee, the actor, by giving commands, then they can also move themselves. Bring coding into their daily lives. Make them imagine that they are giving themselves commands, even while doing the movements that they think of as if they were doing it by heart. For example, paste the code in the picture on the classroom doors. Let them act with a coding mindset even when opening the classroom door.
 

How can we direct?

• In mathematics, 2X2=4. Students cannot change this. He just knows this and does that. But we are very lucky that this is not the case in our course. What we need is their dreams and their 'coding head'.
• There cannot be a child who cannot dream, there may be a child who has forgotten how to dream because he has been blinded. Let's not dull them.
• Let them see the surprise of the people they know. Make them feel like they are playing a game and tell their dreams to their families and friends. The astonished reactions of those who do not know how to code will make them want to do more of what they do.
• Tell the stories of well-known businessmen with coding. “Sir, what will we do with what we have learned?” Provide examples to students who ask. “Do you know Mark Zuckerberg?” Start the topic by saying, and give examples of how he created Facebook by coding it in a dorm room with his friend. Give them proof.

Emre's Story
(Due to student rights, the real name of our student, the main character of the story, was not used. Emre is a representative name.)
Emre is a student who is usually late for classes, is the most valuable customer of the canteen and constantly eats toast, and is thought to come to school only to eat toast. I was totally in this way of thinking. But I was very upset that I thought this way in a lesson. Why am I sad? Because I realized that we were the ones who dulled Emre and did not make him want to come to class. The class where I noticed Emre was towards the middle of the first semester, where we did a treasure hunt activity with a QR code. Emre turned the whole classroom upside down to find the QR code clues. And he insisted to me, "Teacher, please let's do this in the next lesson." The eagerness with which he said that sentence to me and the struggle he showed to win the race in the classroom completely changed my perspective on the students who were quiet and despaired by the teachers.