Abstract:

Is computer science in primary school still a fairy tale? The buzzwords basic digital education, computational thinking and classroom 4.0 are now an indispensable part of Austrian education, at least in secondary schools. The integration of early computer science into the school curriculum has become increasingly important, especially in places and class levels where informatics is not yet available as a subject of its own. In the near future, informatics education will certainly have its entitled place in primary education. In Austria, too? Is it possible to integrate informatics education and to foster computational thinking in a child-friendly way, perhaps by combining digital media and programming courses with fairy tales? Does the topic of fairy tales fit in with contemporary teaching at all? Referring to these questions, the authors developed and initiated the project "Fairy-tale Computer Science". The aim of this project is to show a creative way for the introduction of digital literacy and early computer science in primary school. The contribution tries to clarify how computational thinking can be located at primary level and how it can have an effect beyond informatics. Ideas and teaching examples will be presented that show how a combination of digital media, playful coding and the topic of "fairy tales" can look like and how an implementation of computational thinking can already be successful in primary school.

Keywords:

Primary education, fairy tales, computational thinking, coding.