How TED-Ed Harnesses Storytelling to Teach Code
“Everyone came here for the coding lessons but stayed for the plot and animation.”
This comment on the final installation of TED-Ed’s “Think Like a Coder” video series was liked more than 1,800 times - and captures the heart of the series.
Supported by Endless, “Think Like a Coder” is a ten-episode animated series that immerses viewers in lush graphics and a compelling plot. The series follows Ethic, a curious woman who has to solve programming puzzles with her trusty robot sidekick, Hedge, in order to save the world.
The series has been viewed more than 3 million times, delighting adults and children alike with coding puzzles, immersive storytelling, and a cliffhanger plot.
Putting Storytelling First
While narrative storytelling might seem like an odd choice for coding education, for Alex Rosenthal, Editorial Director at TED-Ed, it’s anything but: problem solving that exists just for fun, he says, doesn’t always appeal to a big audience. But, “when you add a character and narrative-based reason to solve problems, you expand the circle and invite a lot more people to participate.”
For Rosenthal, utilizing a narrative storyline was critical for engaging wider audiences who may face higher barriers of entry to coding: “The power of storytelling is the suspension of disbelief, the ability to invest in a character's journey and help the character by way of the problems you’re solving.” In the series, coding becomes a toolkit, a cool means of solving problems and helping the characters navigate through their mysterious world.
The narrative both helps viewers understand the results of their actions and presents context: coding doesn’t have to happen in a box. In the series, Ethic and Hedge use loops, conditionals, variables and more to crack locks, find members of the resistance, and sabotage enemy robots. This was important to Rosenthal and his team because in their experience, coding is usually taught in ways that are abstracted from what coding can actually do. The traditional methods of learning syntax of loops and conditionals “can feel so focused on ‘how do you program?’ rather than ‘how do you problem solve?’”
Storytelling captures the “why” - and allows us to visually engage with the results of the tools.
Using Rich Graphics
Though using a video format posed challenges for the team - namely, that kids can’t actually practice the coding skills while they’re watching (though, this is something Rosenthal would love to address in future seasons - and yes, they do have future seasons planned), the animation itself gave the designers a way to explain coding using various levels of abstraction as well as design visual metaphors to help viewers understand what the coding concept is actually doing.
According to Rosenthal, these graphics help get people invested in coding and understand the underlying principles - not just mechanically learn how to design the code.
Thinking Like a Coder
So what does a coder think like? Rosenthal identifies five key cognitive attributes:
The ability to break down a problem: A coder has an understanding of the objectives, the pieces of the problem, its challenges, and what needs to happen in sequence to achieve it – a coder can see the macro as well as the micro
Understanding the toolkit you have available: A coder grasps the different things a program can do to achieve a goal and can use those tools to approach a problem systematically
Optimizing tools for efficiency: A coder can balance considerations of time and memory and uses tools knowing some are optimized for some problems and others for other problems - and, there is no universal solution
Collaboration: A coder works with other people to communicate ideas, to combine strengths and create something bigger than the pieces
Acting with responsibility: A coder does not view the problem abstracted from the world, but instead considers how what he/she is doing is impacting the world on a macro scale
What’s Next for Ethic and Hedge
Rosenthal wouldn’t give any spoilers, but did say the team had several seasons of narrative imagined within the world they created. Hopefully this day comes sooner and later so we can continue following Ethic and Hedge on their adventures - while learning more about what coding can do.
Check out the first episode below, and then binge the whole series here.