More than 20 years ago, it was clear that new educational goals had to be defined, and it all happened when in 1997, Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, lost to IBM computer. It was clear that people can no longer be better than computers in the amount of information they process and the various combinations at their disposal, and that it is necessary to change something and build the competencies of the human mind on other foundations, developing what computers do not have: originality, creativity, teamwork, empathy and applied knowledge.
Occupations that will be sought in the future are those where one has to think, to make decisions, where creativity, parallel processing and divergent thinking occupy a high place. This is achieved through a series of exercises and activities, which must be challenging and interesting in order to be successfully conducted with children. The old paradigm, which is dominated by reproductive learning, is often stressful for children, because their brains work differently today. They are used to getting everything done quickly through their computers and smartphones; all the information is at their fingertips, and playing video games there is a whole spectrum of emotions that change quickly (fear, anticipation, nervousness, joy, sadness). After leaving the virtual world, the real world can seem painful to them and it is difficult for them to cope, especially in the classical education system, because attention is short, students find it increasingly difficult to follow classes or cannot even follow them. Boredom in such a school system is more and more frequent, it is an increasing problem, the school class never ends, so it seems to the students that it lasts 60 minutes, and even more.
It is clear that one of the most important priorities for education is the stimulation of thought processes in children, the development of deep attention, parallel processing and divergent thinking. With the help of new methods, but also partially using new technologies that are a priority and inevitability, it is possible to introduce these changes. New technologies are blunted in all sought-after occupations, and on large social networks (LinkedIn) it can be seen that of the 10 most sought-after occupations today, as many as 8 did not exist or were just emerging 10 years ago. Most of these occupations refer to some aspect of new technologies, so it makes a lot of sense that the very stimulation of thought processes in children and the development of the mentioned abilities rely on new technologies and their use. Programming is just one such example, with which we prepare children for the future, develop important cognitive abilities, thinking, connecting, creativity, parallel processing, and at the same time avoid the pitfalls of new technologies. Programming is an ideal approach to connecting the traditional school and using new technologies.
Micro: bit devices help students to be introduced to the world of programming, to develop creativity, to work as a team, to develop new ideas, and still use new technologies. In that process, it is crucial to educate teachers, in order to better transfer the knowledge and all the possibilities of this way of working. Preparing for programming, and then just programming, requires a high level of cognitive processing. By working on micro: bit devices, students can learn to creatively use advanced technologies by solving specific problems from their environment. They see the results of their work, develop self-confidence, often give new solutions, unexpected… use some patterns known only to them and so slowly, gradually master the skills that will be necessary for them in the future. So, working with new technologies should not be seen as ordinary programming, but above all that young people should be encouraged to connect material from a larger number of subjects, because micro:bit serves to teach children to connect, think, find solutions. Programming is not an end in itself, nor the only goal, it is actually a tool that helps the cognitive development of children and thus prepares them for the future. In that way, students can connect their acquired knowledge into a mental whole, to unite several subjects that are intertwined through different scientific branches. There are already many examples from practice, e.g. within the project concerning healthy nutrition, there was an intertwining between physics, biology, physical education and informatics, and the result of the students' engagement was a microbite pedometer. It is also a basic idea, to bring the new technology closer, to explain how it works, and not to use it aimlessly to waste time like in video games, or constantly watch YouTube clips, use dynamic applications with fast changes of images and events, which is in children today a very common case.
