Modern Approaches To Teaching Programming: The Benefits Of Interactive Platforms

Teaching programming has changed a lot over the years. While it was initially done in the dry and straightforward manner everything used to be taught back in the day (by just reading from textbooks at nauseam), the modern approaches to teaching programming are much more engaging.

Interactive platforms, in particular, offer a lot of benefits that have not only revolutionized the way we teach programming but have also made coding much more accessible for kids if ages as young as pre-school. What’s more, that same approach is more and more being transferred to other disciplines, as it turns out that teaching in most fields is just more effective when done in an interactive manner. But, let’s stick with programming here and examine what exactly are the benefits of interactive platforms to teaching programming.

1. The high engagement provided by interactive platforms helps for better information retention

Interactive learning, almost by definition, is more engaging than just listening to or reading something. The exact way in which the interactive learning process is presented also matters for how engaging it is, of course, but even a poorly presented interactive learning platform will keep students engaged just by virtue of allowing them to interact with it.

This isn’t important just on principle either, but rather because high engagement translates into higher information retention. When students are allowed to fiddle and play with the platform from which they are learning, they don’t just receive information in a one-way channel from it. Instead, they get to interact with it, receive feedback, test and confirm what they are being taught in real-time, and so on. This continuous process of interactivity makes for a much more effective learning process.

2. Interactive platforms are must-haves when teaching children

It used to be that we started teaching programming in college or in the later years of high school at the earliest. That’s no longer the case, and a big reason for that is the availability of interactive platforms. 

While a teacher obviously can’t sit down with a 7-year-old and start reading to them from a 1,000-page programming textbook, an interactive coding game for kids is an excellent way to get children’s attention and start teaching them the basic of coding as early as pre-school.

There are numerous kid-friendly interactive platforms and courses online. Codemonkey is a prime example of a platform being both as fun for kids as video games while also getting them to start learning a crucial life skill.

3. With interactive platforms, the student gets to practice and learn at the same time

While the old non-interactive model of teaching meant that students had to listen to/read theory at school and then practice what little they had learned at home in the form of a homework, today’s interactive methods offer a more of a 2-in-1 approach. 

With the help of interactive learning platforms, students get to both learn theory and put it into practice at the same time. In fact, often the reverse is done – more emphasis is done on practice in live school environment where the teacher can observe and give feedback on the students’ attempts and the brushing up on theory is left for their free time at home.

4. Interactive platforms are customizable and can fit the preferences and needs of any student

There is nothing less customizable than a textbook – it just contains the information it contains in a specific order and that’s it. An interactive learning platform, on the other hand, is full of various personalizing tools, guides, FAQs, tutorials, additional practice exercises, and more. This allows for the teacher and the students to personalize everyone’s experience in such a way that everyone learns as best as possible in the most convenient and effective way for them.

5. Collaborative learning is much easier with interactive platforms

Another huge benefit of teaching an entire class through an interactive platform is ability to use collaborative exercises. Yes, good teachers used to do collaborative games, exercises, and tests back in the analog days, but a good interactive platform is full of countless tools and games for this exact purpose. 

This not only makes the whole learning process much more engaging, but it also teachers a whole host of new skills that can’t be learned as easily one-on-one. At the end of the day, programming is usually a collaborative effort too, and not just one person sitting alone in front of a computer.

6. Immediate results and feedback are much easier with interactive platforms

The interactivity of a learning platform allows for students to test and play with what they are learning right as they are learning it. This is instead of the old method of them having to wait until the next lesson or until they are doing their homework (if they do it) to put what they have learned into practice.

By enabling students to test things on the spot, interactive platforms cut out a lot of the “fluff time” of old teaching methods as students are able test things immediately and figure out if they have got something wrong right then and there.