Unique method for teaching and learning Computing at school
Emil is fun. However, it’s not meant to offer just a fleeting fun for a couple of moments. It’s school-oriented and based on scientific research and many years of working with teachers and pupils.
"It’s rooted in international experiences gained in teaching programming and computing, as well as in modern learning theories, while at the same time it fully meets the requirements of the current national curriculum . For the first time ever, Emil implements educational programming as a well thought-out and systematic cognitive process intended for every pupil. Emil transforms school informatics from a subject 'teaching computer use' to a new form of exploration, problem solving, and collaborative partnership between subjects. Computing with Emil teaches students how to live and learn in the digital environment, and how to explore and change the world."
principal investigator of the project professor Ivan Kalaš, PhD., head of the Department of Education, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava
As part of the Computing with Emil project, we are creating comprehensive support for the informatics education for the entire primary and secondary school, with some introductory activities starting as early as in preschool. Our method introduces new programming environments with innovative constructivist teaching, and innovative workbooks for pupils, as well as complex and comprehensive teacher materials. We are also organizing professional development sessions for teachers and other complementary activities. We consider programming to be a 'language' of computing and a tool for exploring various areas, which also includes data handling and data structures, elements of robotics and AI, and also being sage in the digital world.
head of the Ľ. Štúr Primary School in Modra
”Among other things, pupils will learn that if they make mistakes, they are learning and exploring. A mistake is not a wrong solution – it only means: ‘I am interested, I am trying, I am exploring, I am learning’.”
A Year 3 pupil
”It’s OK to make mistakes. It makes us think what the correct solution could be.“
lead developer
”Often, a teacher would tell us about the kids that they didn’t like maths, or they weren’t excellent pupils. And we were surprised that said those kids managed to solve the most challenging tasks just as well as their classmates did.“
Year 3 teacher
”In some cases, they need to learn that there is no solution. Not everything can always be solved. In a sense, it’s true about our life as well.“
Since the first year of the development, we’ve been approached by several researchers and educators from abroad, with whom we’re now partnering in preparing different localizations of Emil for primary schools, as of now, in French, Czech, English, Polish, Hungarian, and Norwegian. With some of the partners, we plan to launch joint research activities in the near future as well. We have established the first of such scientific forms of collaboration with the HEP Vaud, Lausanne, a leading university in research into educational sciences in Switzerland.
The PI and professional guarantor of the project is Prof Ivan Kalaš, head of the Department of Education, Comenius University, Bratislava. He leads the development of the new method of teaching computing with Emil together with Dr Andrej Blaho and Dr Milan Moravčík. For five years Ivan was a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute IITE. He was also an international adviser for Microsoft, Redmond, in their global initiative Partners in Learning, in which he acted as an evaluator of the primary and secondary teachers’ projects. From 2013 until 2018 he was a Visiting Professor at the UCL Institute of Education in London. He dedicated his entire professional career to the development of the constructivist software interfaces for teaching and learning computing, as well as writing textbooks and modern teacher materials. Imagine Logo, which has been adopted in 15 countries around the world, serves as an example testifying to the success of said environments.
Through a continual cooperation with pupils and their teachers, we try to understand the learners’ cognitive processes in the area of informatics and computing. Thanks to this approach, we’re able to design and develop better software environments for learning the basics of programming. Our environments then serve not only teachers, but also our colleagues in several countries around the world as excellent research instruments. In this way, in our work, design and research intertwine in the most natural way. This modern strategy is called design research. Therefore, in our efforts, working in the classroom with pupils and their teachers, observing, verifying, interviewing and analysing collected data, as well as developing the software environment in numerous small loops intermingle continuously.
Fill out the form and our team will be happy to answer your questions and advise you on how you can have Emil at your school too.
1. Will Emil work on our school computers?
Emil is an educational method and software intended for primary schools and fully functional on tablets, laptops and computers. We support Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac OS platforms.
2. Who is Emil intended for?
Emil has been developed for primary schools and institutes of education specializing in professional development of pre-service or in-service teachers. If necessary, we are able to tailor it to your needs, e.g. translate it into another language.
