We are delighted to report that under the supervision of their teacher Ms. Georgia Lascaris, students of the 4th Primary School of Pefkis, located in Athens (Greece) translated the Karel Hour of Code tutorials, as well as the commands of the Karel programming language, to their native language. Why is this effort so awesome and important? Let’s explain. The Greek alphabet is different from the English one:
Therefore, young Greek students who learn computer programming have to battle three big problems at the same time:
- Learning the programming logic
- Learning English words
- Learning English alphabet
Therefore it is extremely helpful to eliminate problems 2 and 3 by providing a Greek language environment, and moreover making it possible for the students type programs for Karel in their native alphabet:
And this is what Ms. Lascari says about it: Within the framework of the course of computing, having taken part with success in the CodeWeek Euro and waiting with anticipation the Hour of Code, we have decided with the students of the 5th and 6th grade to translate the world of Karel the Robot. We first used the translation tools available online and then, through discussions, we tried to correct the automatic translation in order to make it have sense. We had a very good time and hope you like the result!
Goals of the Project:
The goals of this Project were multiple and students had the opportunity:
- to learn about online translation tools and how to use them,
- to use their knowledge in English,
- to work cooperatively to achieve a project,
- to collaborate and work simultaneously in real time on the same document,
- to learn beyond the .doc and .txt files the .srt files and the purpose of them to understand the possibilities but also the limitations of computers, especially the ability of a machine to interpret human concepts (the anthropomorphism problem all the students have),
- to engage them, event a little, to the global movement that is the Hour of Code,
- to understand the meaning of collective voluntary participation in various international projects,
- to raise their interest for the next programming activities.
About Ms. Lascaris and the Pefkis School
My name is Georgia Laskari, I’m a computer science Professor and I work permanently on behalf of the Ministry of Education since 2015, teaching programming and ICT in primary and secondary education. The 4th Primary School of Pefkis in which I work, is located in Athens, in a green and quiet area in the northern suburbs and belongs to the all-day primary schools with Single Revised training program. Among the classic courses (language, mathematics, history …), we have additional courses by specialist teachers such as English (1st to 6th grade), French or German (5th, 6th), Music, Theatre, Visual arts education, and of course ICT (1st to 6th grade). We have 303 children and 24 teachers. We like to take part in various actions (environmental protection, Internet security, violence in schools …) and have been involved in several National and European programs.
