Let’s Code: A Kid-friendly Interactive Application Designed to Teach Arabic-speaking Children Text-based Programming

Programming is the cornerstone for the development of all of the technologies we encounter in our daily lives. It also plays an important role in enhancing creativity, problem-solving, and logical thinking. Due to the importance of programming in combination with the shortage of Arabic content that aims to teach children programming, we decided to develop Let’s Code, an interactive mobile-based application designed for Arabic-speaking children from 8 to 12 years old. The application focuses on the basics of programming such as data types, variables, and control structures using the Python programming language through a simple, attractive, and age-appropriate design. The application presents its users with an interesting storyline that involves a trip to space with “Labeeb”, a robot character designed to explain programming concepts to the child throughout the trip. Each planet represents a level in the application and introduces a programming concept through a set of lessons and exercises. The application can be used by educational institutions and parents to teach programming and will provide an opportunity through which Arabic-speaking children can keep up with the development and dissemination of technology.

@article{Almanie2019,
  title     = {Let’s Code: A Kid-friendly Interactive Application Designed to Teach Arabic-speaking Children Text-based Programming},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {10},
  number    = {7},
  year      = {2019},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Tahani Almanie and Shorog Alqahtani and Albatoul Almuhanna and Shatha Almokali and Shaima Guediri and Reem Alsofayan},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2019.0100757},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2019.0100757}
}