Developing Computational Thinking and Reading and Writing Skills through an Approach for Creating Games

摘要

Research and full paper. Digital games are increasingly a part of our daily lives and are already considered teaching and learning tools. However, its production and documentation is a very complicated task that requires programming skills and knowledge from different areas. This has hampered the development of games in the classroom environment. On the other hand, some teachers have proposed this activity to enable their students to learn school content in a more meaningful way and, consequently, improve learning rates. An alternative for the adoption of game-based learning is an unplugged approach for creating games based on natural language, in which students learn the fundamentals of computing in a playful way and without the use of computers. In this context, this article presents an approach that proposes the creation of games in an unplugged way by using texts produced by students, thus favoring the development of computational thinking and reading and writing skills in the classroom. Also, it may support the students' interest in the computing area by motivating them to enter a higher education course or pursue a career in that area. The results of the exploratory study show that the proposed approach can favor the development of computational thinking, as well as motivate the production of texts, developing students' reading and writing skills, therefore contributing to the improvement of learning assessments.