In Peques and Más we have been talking about creativity all year round mentioning tools, techniques and utilities to ensure that children are encouraged and can build, design or manufacture their own products that they can use again to continue making new creations. And this is that creativity in children requires a lot of method, discipline, perseverance and facilitators that allow it to develop.
That's why this application, free and for the iPad, Daisy the Dinasour, is a great tool to learn basic computer programming concepts. The goal is for the Daisy dinosaur to be able to do things, because we want to (free play) or because the application directs us with some tasks to be developed (challenge mode).
It is impressive how you can learn to manage complex processes with this application and in such a simple way. And we just have to choose what we want the dino to do and drag the order or instruction to a box (it can be seen in the image). The instructions are very simple: move, jump, rotate, grow, shrink and typical instructions to repeat using commands such as while to repeat or loop. It also uses features of the iPad as a trigger such as touching or shaking, to activate dino actions. And all in such a visual and entertaining application.
As an informative complement about this application, which is very simple and easy to use and can also be downloaded for free on iTunes, today Meritxell Viñas de TotemGuard published an article about the primary educational experience using the application Move the Turtle with an operation similar to that of Daisy. In the video you can see the first and second grade kids! handle with this type of concepts so abstract and yet they understand very well. It is a joy to see in the video how they evolve, progress and learn.
So the big question is for teachers and parents, What do you think the kids learn to program at school or at home?
