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Scratch. Scratch Curriculum Guide Draft. A design-based introduction to computational thinking with Scratch This Scratch curriculum guide provides an introduction to creative computing with Scratch, using a design-based learning approach.

Scratch Curriculum Guide Draft

The guide is organized as a series of twenty 60-minute sessions, and includes session plans, handouts, projects, and videos. The 20 sessions presented in this guide are organized into 5 topics: introduction arts stories games final project You can download the full, current draft of the curriculum guide below - available in both pdf and doc formats. Imagine, program, share. Raspberry Pi : The Unofficial Tutorial. Advertisement Get to know the world’s favorite $25 computer: the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi : The Unofficial Tutorial

You’ll find tips, tricks and more in this unofficial Raspberry Pi tutorial from MakeUseOf. Computing ks1-ks4. Wing06.pdf. 8 Ways Anyone Can Learn To Code Their Own Software. There’s a lot of talk about hardware, devices, and tools for the classroom. But if we learned anything from yesterday’s WWDC Apple keynote, it’s that software is king. It’s what makes or breaks a new product or device. Gone are the days of hardware-first, software-second such as when phones with color screens were viewed as revolutionary. Those days are gone. Now, customers want / demand the highest quality software all the time. Download Kodu Game Lab from Official Microsoft Download Center.

Kodu and the Circuit of Reflective Action. Reflections on a quick lesson using Kodu – a piece of game creating software.

Kodu and the Circuit of Reflective Action

Kodu is a free piece of software for PC (and Xbox – it is created by Microsoft) that enables children to create their own 3D, virtual-world games. Like Scratch, it allows children to experience a relatively basic approximation of ‘coding’. Using a graphical interface, children select the commands that make up the ‘code’, rather than needing to know the variables and commands in advance. Learn about Teach Kids To Program on instaGrok, the research engine. Why your 8-year-old should be coding. Learn-to-code startups abound these days, but one in particular is focusing on the very young and is having some success in elementary schools around the country — even underserved schools with no budgets for STEM but a great need for better tools.

Why your 8-year-old should be coding

The startup is Tynker; it makes a web-based learning platform and a visual programming language for teachers and kids in K-12 classrooms. In a discussion with its co-founder, we found out why teaching kids how to code is so important to him. Krishna Vedati came to the U.S. in 1991 as a grad student from India. Learnable Programming. Here's a trick question: How do we get people to understand programming?

Learnable Programming

Khan Academy recently launched an online environment for learning to program. It offers a set of tutorials based on the JavaScript and Processing languages, and features a "live coding" environment, where the program's output updates as the programmer types. 5 best iPad apps to teach programming. While Scratch continues to be my favorite gateway-drug to computer programming, my current students don’t have ready access to desktop or laptop computers.

5 best iPad apps to teach programming

We do, however, have iPads so I’ve been looking at apps to introduce the concepts of branches, loops and conditional statements. Teach Kids how to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools. Ask anyone to share a favorite school memory, and it will likely involve making something from scratch.

Teach Kids how to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools

One of my standout experiences from elementary school was learning Logo, a graphic programming language. Logo’s still around—along with many new, excellent tools that teach kids basic programming skills. Other applications enable kids to build 3-D models, which they can print, too. Daisy the Dinosaur is a free iPad app designed to introduce K–2 students to programming basics.

The app asks students to create commands for the Daisy the Dinosaur character to execute. Code Monster, by Mozilla, contains 58 short lessons, taking students from basic actions like resizing objects to complex animation. Teach kids programming. I’ve been gathering the best resources to teach children & teens programming — books, environments, apps, courseware and games.

Teach kids programming

These resources are meant for teachers and parents who want to have their children fall in love with computers and see the magic of programming. I’m staying away from philosophical debates of whether kids should learn to program, when they should start and other such topics. I know this — I fell in love with computers in 3rd grade (a beautiful ZX Spectrum), and I want to share the joy of programming with others. iPad apps for young coders. How I built my first app (with a little help) On the one hand, there are those who think computer coders are the geekiest nerds around.

How I built my first app (with a little help)

The kind of people – no, let's not beat about the bush here – the kind of men whose lack of personal skills and inability to get a girlfriend simply means that they have too much time on their hands because they're not having sex. Then there are the people like me who think it would be quite cool to hack into the CIA's mainframe. Decademy: learn how to write code at home. What is Codecademy?

decademy: learn how to write code at home

Codecademy was set up by two friends who wanted to learn to code, but were disappointed with existing materials. The website starts by presuming no prior knowledge at all, and lets you work through small exercises, slowly growing in complexity. In the spirit of the web, it's free, and some of the exercises were created by volunteers. Codeacademy’s Free Kits Help Kids (and Educators) Learn to Code. The Codeacademy office in New York. Contents. Free Computers Video Lecture courses.