KOJO LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
21st Century Skills through Coding
LEARNING WHAT?
Learning about Computation (and its usage) / computational thinking.
Learning to create, joyfully; process-orientation (instructionism to constructionism).
Learning critical-thinking, creative-thinking, and attention-fullness.
Learning problem solving and self-assessment; exploring success/failure boundary (with tight feedback cycle).
Learning design thinking. Learning communication and collaboration.
Holistic learning (combining multiple subjects) with real-world connect.
Learning patience, grit, motivation, and healthy self-esteem.
Learning with understanding, Learning how to learn, Learning with Joy. Deeper level - learning to Be.
KOJO VALUE PROPOSITION
Coding is a core 21st century skill. Additionally, coding in Kojo can help children learn a lot of other fundamental and core skills!
Learn how to learn – regular practice with feedback with goals that check for understanding.
Critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving – building generative art / games.
Multidisciplinary, holistic, innovating – trying out new things with coding, math, physics, art, mandalas, culture, and spirituality.
Inquiry-driven, discovery-oriented, enjoyable – generative art.
Life skills – printable art and process and events around it.
Focus on regular formative assessment for learning – code speaks! Plus self assessment is possible.
Sense of aesthetics and art – regular practice and publishing of gen-art.
Collaboration and teamwork – pair programming, projects, and events.
Coding, math, AI, and computational thinking – building generative art / games.
WHY LEARN KOJO?
Kojo is built on top of Scala and it offers various rich areas of programming like Generative Art, Animations, Simulations, Games, AI, Electronics and robotics. All of this fosters a mindset of experimentation, innovation, self-reliance, growth, mental discipline, and teamwork.
Since Kojo is built on top of Scala, learners of Kojo get the benefits of structured, object oriented, and functional programming paradigms -- helping them to write cleaner and more concise code.
Kojo is a good choice for beginners due to its simple and intuitive user interface, visual programming tools, and the ability to write code and see results in real-time.
Games written by children can be published as web-apps.
Kojo's text-based offers more flexibility and precision in coding as compared to block-based coding platforms.
When it comes to apps, games etc, in Kojo you get the freedom to create any code you wish, rather than being limited to integrating the pre-defined blocks provided by the platform.
WHY SCALA FOR KIDS?
The rate of technology change is very high; nobody knows the future; children need to learn core / fundamental / foundational ideas.
Scala is the arguably the best language currently out there to learn fundamental concepts in computing and programming.
It has great (and designed from the start) support for structured, object-oriented, functional, and concurrent programming.
It is easy to get going, has no limits.
Once you know Scala, it's easy to pick up Python, Javascript, or Java
USAGE OF SCALA IN INDUSTRY
Scala is also heavily used in industry (this is not directly relevant in a school setting, where learning core ideas is more important, but still...):
Apache Spark, a very popular big-data analytics platform, is written in Scala.
Apache Kafka, a very popular big-data streaming/messaging platform, is also written in Scala. More than 80% of all Fortune 100 companies use Scala via Kafka.
Scala is used at Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, AirBnB, Verizon, The Guardian, Disney, Dream11, and many many more high profile companies + startups.
If you browse LinkedIn, you will find thousands of Scala jobs.
SCALA AS A BRIDGE TO OTHER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Scala's support for structured, functional, and object-oriented programming concepts makes it a natural bridge between languages that emphasize one programming concept over the other.
Learning the fundamental concepts (structured and object oriented) of computing using Scala can also help you to learn other programming languages, such as Python, Java, Go etc. This is because many of the core concepts of programming, such as variables, loops, conditionals, and functions, are used in all languages, as the core idea behind them remains the same.
Someone learning a functional programming language like Haskell or Clojure may find Scala's functional features similar, while someone learning an object-oriented language like Java, Python may find Scala's support for object oriented paradigm similar.
LAKSHYAA SERVICES
Learning Material - We offer a variety of activity modules aligned with the "Understanding by design" pedagogical method. These modules include Turtle graphics-based art, picture graphics-based generative art, animations, games/simulations, mandala drawing augmented with AI, electronic circuits, and robotics. These modules aim to support children's learning journey by providing engaging and well-designed activities.
Teaching/Mentorship - We provide weekly training and coding sessions led by master trainers trained by the Kojo creator. This personalized mentorship and guidance can help children develop their skills in a supportive environment.
Assessment - We use a variety of assessment methods that include steps-questions to check for acquisition, exercises to check for transfer, chapter-level quizzes to check for meaning-making, and projects to check for higher-level transfer, perspective, and self-knowledge.
Monitoring/Reporting - We use key indicators to monitor and report on children's development in STEAM skills, aptitude, logical thinking, and creative thinking. This helps to provide insights into children's overall progress and to identify areas where they may need additional support.