Abstract:

Teaching during a pandemic cannot be qualitatively compared to regular traditional school and school attendance in person. Teachers also had to get used to online teaching. It was necessary to research and find such tools and teaching aids that can revive teaching, bring fun and motivation for pupils. In this paper we present some examples of freely available applications suitable for the development of algorithmic thinking. They are also good choices to introduce the basics of programming in primary school during informatics. In their essence, these applications resemble algorithmic games in which the kids compile a sequence of commands from a predefined set of instructions. Although it is not possible to build up a program with any kind of goal, they nevertheless have a clearly defined goal to be achieved. They help to learn the basics of programming in an inconspicuous form of gaming (route planning - the way to the destination/goal/finish, under certain conditions). The paper focuses on 5 applications that can be successfully used in teaching programming for beginners with support for developing their algorithmic thinking: Bee-Bot Emulator, Bit By Bit, LightBot, Run Marco, Scratch Jr.

Keywords:

Mobile applications, games, development of algorithmic thinking, programming, informatics at primary school, experiential learning.