Technology is taking an ever larger place in our lives and is increasingly transforming our interactions and behaviour. Children are no exception. They watch us adults consume screens. From a very young age, they are themselves the target of a plethora of cartoons, programmes and apps whose use should be moderated (you are on the right site to find out more). We do not hesitate to have our youngest children garden, or to have them programme, so that they sharpen their mastery of technology from the earliest age.
Learning to code, yes, but without a screen!
Computer logic and technology rest on concepts that are totally independent of the screen. And the youngest children can learn these concepts, provided they are made accessible through an appropriate approach.
Several screen-free approaches are flourishing for tackling these subjects with the youngest children.
Learning Beautiful designs Montessori-inspired activities that let the youngest handle computing without a screen. Its founder, a former MIT researcher, spent nearly three years studying Montessori pedagogy and thinking about the best way to extend its principles to computing.
Another example closer to home, the COLORI workshops are also inspired by Montessori pedagogy, introducing children to programming and digital culture from the age of 3, entirely without screens. The child programmes the movements of a small wooden robot using blocks inserted into a programming board. They discover the binary system (1s and 0s) by making mosaic drawings. They dive into the story Ayo Le Robot and follow the technological adventures of the children Pierrot and Justine.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Finnish developer Linda Liukas dreamed up the story Hello Ruby, which features a little girl in numerous adventures involving computing, programming and, more broadly, technology. Her books have met with considerable success and have been translated into several languages (including French). Her TED talk, watched by several hundred thousand internet users, also sums up her approach.
Let us therefore give our children the keys to understand their era and its rapid transformations. And even if not all of them are destined to become developers or data scientists tomorrow, perhaps some of them will find a vocation there too.
