Kodu and the Circuit of Reflective Action Reflections on a quick lesson using Kodu – a piece of game creating software. 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’. One game, two players – exploring possibilities in Kodu. I think Kodu is nice complement to Scratch in the primary classroom as it reinforces the idea that programming isn’t necessarily about learning one language (I think using Twine helps with this too) but rather it is about a way of thinking and organising instructions to achieve an aim. Creating interesting landscapes. Yesterday, I gave the children a chance to explore the possibilites of the software; I wanted them to see its potential before trying to apply this to a task. The children worked in pairs to create their own games. Gee’s ‘Circuit of Reflective Action’ (speedily reduced to its bare bones in ‘Penultimate’)
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. 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. He got a master’s in computer science, then rode the dotcom wave at a handful of startups, including one he founded himself. “I have two kids, nine and six, a boy and a girl. Especially at schools with lower budgets, the tools for learning are antiquated by modern standards. “If you go into middle school, they’re all into games; they want to create games,” he said. To clarify, these kids learn the logic of coding.
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. We do, however, have iPads so I’ve been looking at apps to introduce the concepts of branches, loops and conditional statements. Here are my top 5 favorites so far: Daisy the Dinosaur Price: FreeDifficulty: BeginneriTunes link: Daisy the Dinosaur is a simple drag-and-drop introduction to programming. Cargo-Bot Price: FreeDifficulty: Beginner to IntermediateiTunes link: Like many of the best puzzles, Cargo-Bot has a simple objective with an infinite number of solutions. Move the Turtle Price: $2.99Difficulty: Beginner to AdvancediTunes link: i-Logo Price: $1.99Difficulty: Intermediate to AdvancediTunes link: Simduino
Raspberry Pi : The Unofficial Tutorial Advertisement Get to know the world’s favorite $25 computer: the Raspberry Pi. You’ll find tips, tricks and more in this unofficial Raspberry Pi tutorial from MakeUseOf. Whether you’re a current Pi owner who wants to learn more or a potential owner of this credit-card size device, this isn’t a guide you want to miss. Raspberry Pi - A Credit-Card Sized ARM Computer - Yours For Only $25 Raspberry Pi - A Credit-Card Sized ARM Computer - Yours For Only $25 Something big has been brewing in the university town of Cambridge, UK. For the past year a team of academics, businessmen, lecturers and programmers have been making final amendments to a very exciting project indeed.... Table Of Contents §1–The Raspberry Pi §2–What’s Inside the Pi? §3–What You Will Need for Your Raspberry Pi §4–Setting Up the Raspberry Pi §5–Getting to Grips with the GUI §6–Programming on the Pi §7–Configuring the Pi as a Media Centre §8–Fascinating Uses for the Raspberry Pi §9–Raspberry Pi: A Versatile Mini Computer 1. 2. 3. 4.
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. 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. The guide was developed to be both subject-neutral and grade-neutral to accommodate different settings for any teacher who wants to support students’ development of computational thinking through explorations with Scratch. We are currently conducting a pilot of the curriculum guide with 11 educators. Now that the guide is launched, we'd love to hear your thoughts on it! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Scratch Moana: Wayfinding with Code Grades 2+ | Blocks Minecraft Hour of Code Make Music with Scratch Grades 2-8 | Blocks, Scratch Gumball's Coding Adventure Grades 6-8 | Blocks, Scratch Vidcode: Code the News Grades 6+ | JavaScript Kodable (pre-readers welcome) Pre-reader - Grade 5 | Blocks | All modern browsers, iPad app Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code Grades 2+ | Blocks, JavaScript Adventure on the High Seas Code with Anna and Elsa Animate Your Name with Scratch CodeCombat Grades 2+ | JavaScript, Python, Lua, CoffeeScript Play Lab Box Island All ages | Blocks Text Compression Grades 9+ | Language independent codeSpark Academy with The Foos Pre-reader - Grade 5 | Blocks Kano Pixel Hack Grades 2+ | JavaScript, Coffeescript Dragon Dash Grades 2-8 | Blocks Make it Fly with Scratch Analog Clock STEM Kit Grades 6+ | Blocks Vidcode: Bestie Greeting Card Grades 2+ | JavaScript Spritebox Coding Grades 2-8 | Blocks, Java, iOS/Swift Python Turtle Graphics Grades 6+ | Python Lightbot Write your first computer program Galaxy Game Jam
Computing ks1-ks4 Learnable Programming Here's a trick question: How do we get people to understand 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. Because my work was cited as an inspiration for the Khan system, I felt I should respond with two thoughts about learning: Programming is a way of thinking, not a rote skill. Thus, the goals of a programming system should be: to support and encourage powerful ways of thinkingto enable programmers to see and understand the execution of their programs A live-coding Processing environment addresses neither of these goals. Alan Perlis wrote, "To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program." How do we get people to understand programming? We change programming. Contents A programming system has two parts. The language should provide: Wait.
Teach kids programming I’ve been gathering the best resources to teach children & teens programming — books, environments, apps, courseware and games. 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. I’ve chosen in this list to be quite comprehensive in listing all resources — but also choosy to restricting this to things I found useful & of high quality. I’ve also started this list with my own opinionated picks on what kind of material from the large list of resources may be suitable for children with different interests and at different points in their learning. Sharing this broadly, do let me know what else I can add to this list.
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. 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. Blockly is a free Google program designed to teach students about if-then logic through a visual interface. If your phone-toting students want to create their own smartphone apps, have them try the MIT App Inventor. 123D Catch is a free iPad app from producers of 123D Design and 123D Make.
Codeacademy’s Free Kits Help Kids (and Educators) Learn to Code The Codeacademy office in New York Hoping to get students into coding? Enter Codecademy. The New York-based startup, which teaches users how to code through a free, interactive website, is now packaging its popular online lessons into free, bite-sized kits for teachers and librarians to launch their own mini-Codecademies in class or after school. “We know teachers are busy and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to do,” says Sasha Laundy, Codecademy’s curriculum strategist and a former physics and neuroscience high school teacher in San Francisco, CA. There are two different types of courses—a game-based one that teaches JavaScript and another that covers HTML and the CSS programming language, in which creators end up creating a website in a final exercise. Several hundred schools around the world have already requested the kits. “We would love to hear how this is working,” she says.
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