As schools across the country return to in-person classes, elementary school teachers face the challenge of helping students get up to speed in both academic and social-emotional skills. Coding offers an opportunity to re-engage children into communities of learning in a holistic way, supporting both a range of STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — and soft skills. The metaphor at the heart of my book Coding as a Playground can help to explain how.

To illustrate the idea of coding as a playground, contrast playgrounds with playpens. A playpen is safe, but very limited. I can put my child in a playpen while I cook and know that she’s going to be okay, but she’s limited in terms of opportunities for learning, discovery, socialization and creativity. Playpens do not offer the same opportunities as playgrounds.

As children play, interact and communicate on a playground, they are developing physically, socially, linguistically and emotionally. There are even opportunities for moral development, when, for example, a child decides whether to cut in line for the seesaw or go to the back and wait. Playgrounds are open, creative spaces that support six behaviors of the Positive Technological Development framework that I developed, which I call the six Cs: communication, collaboration, community building, content creation, creativity and choice of conduct.

When educators think of bringing coding into the classroom — or using new technologies with students — they should create just these sorts of playground opportunities. For example, with the KIBO robot developed in my DevTech research lab at Tufts University, we hope to facilitate coding playgrounds for young children that will give them the chance to play different roles: the coder, the scanner, the builder.

Anyone who has spent time on a playground knows that children will say to their caregivers, “Watch me!” They’re proud of what they can do, and they want to show it off. Teachers can encourage children’s natural pride in their work by making time to share their coding projects and their learning with the class. This also helps build community, when, for example, the class comes together to see how different groups programmed their robots to dance. Children will celebrate each other’s triumphs and offer feedback for addressing unsolved challenges or making other improvements.

On a playground, students have choices of conduct. They can go down the slide, cross the monkey bars or sit on a bench. In a coding playground, the choices are different — ”Do I share my materials for modifying or decorating my robot?” or, “What part will I take in the project?” But as the children work together, they have to communicate with each other to hash out disagreements or decide whose ideas to try out first.

Read the full article about STEAM coding camp by Marina Umaschi Bers at The 74.