3 Programming
Programming (or coding) is essentially about applying computational thinking to solve a problem using a computer.
A program is a set of instructions (code) to complete a task, written in a language (the programming language) a computer can understand. Programs can be incredibly simple, for example instructing a toy car to drive forwards, or highly complex, like predicating which search results you want to see when searching the internet or calculating the flight path of a space shuttle. The various aspects of computational thinking – applying a logical approach, decomposing a task, abstracting it and looking for patterns and developing and evaluating an algorithm – are used as the basis of the program. Programs are written using code and there are many languages in which it can be written.
In primary schools, programs tend to be written using simple visual languages such as Scratch [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , Alice, Logo or Kodu.