COCOPODCAST

TRANSLATOR TASK 7

The five main concepts of the task are the following ones:

• CODING: Coding understood from an educational point of view and how it can serve teachers and children. Coding is not given enough importance, we live in the century of technology and I believe that it should be implemented urgently in all schools. Programming for education could be defined and could serve as a method of teaching computational and rational thinking to children.

• RADIO/PODCAST: Radio has been the most common form of communication throughout history but with the advent of the Internet and new technologies it is not so much anymore. We could say that the podcast is the new radio of this decade. A podcast is an audio or it can be a video which is digitally recorded and edited, where the user has the full control to decide what to listen in any moment. It is characterized by being direct and timeless because unlike radio, immediacy takes a back seat for podcasts, since the time from recording to publication is not linked to this concept The podcasts can be listened to from any device with an internet connection on platforms such as spotify, ivoox, apple music and the radio is totally different.

• COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: This concept has appeared with the advent of technology and computers. It would be like learning to think like a computer, a series of logical and mathematical skills that allow the subject to develop his rational thinking.

• COMMUNICATION : Communication is essential in a classroom and in life in general, so I would consider it an essential part of being a good teacher. Communication helps to reinforce the learning process and to obtain the necessary information from students in order to influence the achievement of their learning objectives. In order for the teacher to know the weaknesses and strengths of his students, it is necessary that there is a good communication in the classroom, besides favoring the motivation and effort of the student because he will be listened.

• DIGITAL COMPETENCE: Digital competence involves the creative, critical and safe use of information and communication technologies to achieve objectives related to work, employability, learning, use of free time, inclusion and participation in society. Having this competence requieres a lot of differents habilities and knowledge related with an specific topic. This involves knowledge of the main computer applications.( n this case spotify, ivoox...) It also involves access to sources and processing of information; and knowledge of the rights and freedoms of individuals in the digital world.

What skills can we develop in children or how computational thinking can help us as teachers in the classroom?

To begin with, I believe that there is no perfect methodology that can meet all the needs of our students. I believe that in order to be good teachers we must adapt to the students we have based on that. However, there are methodologies related to computational thinking that can work more effectively. After reading several articles, I have come to the conclusion that in order to get our students to adapt to the new way of thinking, it is important to have a good understanding of 4 principal skills inside computational thinking. The first one is the algorithmic thinking in which the students create well-defined steps to achieve a desired outcome.( For example: They create logical steps in their mind to draw a face) . The second part is the decomposition which refers to breaking big problems into smaller ones to do it in an easier way. ( For example: To understand a mathematical problem with several different operations, first we do the addition, then the subtraction... Instead of doing it all at once. ) . The third one is the abstraction and it refers to select the important information and omit the unnecessary things.. And the last one is the pattern recognition which consist on identifying data or things that are repeated over time and apply them in another situation. We can do individual activities of each part to improve them individually but also all together to perform more complex activities.

The world is constantly changing and we have to offer as many tools as possible to our students. Because as Ken Kay said " "Today's students need critical thinking and problem solving skills not only to solve the problems of their future jobs, but to meet the challenges of adapting to our ever-changing workforce."