Kids must code on iPads An important 21st Century skill This post is about a topic and app close to my heart. Computer programming is the engine of modern life and dream maker for tens of thousands. More and more countries are introducing the subject as compulsory schooling at surprisingly young ages. What learning to code offers young people. Even I was surprised at how much my students have enjoyed their first experience of coding this year. Accessible to anyone Coding is problem solving and like any puzzle, it seems to immediately engage kids as long as the puzzle pieces are easy to play with and move around. Quick & keen My colleague and I had written a typical coding introduction for our 12 & 13 year olds using Hopscotch but very quickly realised that the app negated traditional approaches as it was so intuitive. “Let’s make Flappy Birds!” Within the first hour, a 12-year-old had already realised the the ‘world issue’ that was “the death of Flappy Birds” could be solved with Hopscotch. Personalised learning
Pixel Press Floors - Pixel Press | Draw your own video game. > Pixel Press Floors app – You’ll need an iPad to “Create-from-Paper” and play – and you can create directly in the app just like you would on paper using touch or a stylus with our “Draw-In-App” tools. > Paper, Pencil & our Sketch Guide (optional) – Print the free Sketch Guide at home (visit projectpixelpress.com to download the PDF) and take a picture of what you create with your iPad’s camera. The glyphs you draw (for example an “x” is a spike and a “+” is a coin) are transformed into gameplay objects. From there you can apply a design to the element, test it, and play it. It’s that simple, and once you learn the glyphs, you’ll be creating like a pro. Full instructions on how to create can be found in our Sketch Guide and How-to Videos at projectpixelpress.com. iOS 7.0+ iPad 2, iPad 3, 4 and 5 (Air), iPad Mini, iPad Mini with Retina – supports “Create-from-Paper”, “Draw-in-App” and “Arcade” play. iPhone 4s, 5 & 5s, 5c, iPod Touch 5th gen – “Arcade” play only.
Coding Sucks: Why a Job in Programming Is Absolute Hell Girls Who Code Hopscotch, An iPad App That Helps Kids Learn To Code, Raises $1.2M There are lots of systems clamouring to help educate the next generation of coders. One of them, New York-based startup Hopscotch, closed a $1.2 million seed funding round last August which it’s just announcing today, in conjunction with the release of v2.0 of its app. The seed funding came from Resolute Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Kapor Capital and other unnamed investors, and was used to expand the team, launch the community and build version 2 of the app, says co-founder Jocelyn Leavitt. Hopscotch’s special sauce is to be mobile device focused. Its graphical programming language has been specifically designed for use on the iPad. “Hopscotch works by dragging and dropping colorful blocks of code to build routines,” explains Leavitt. “Hopscotch is an object oriented programming language, but it is visual. After a year on the app store, Hopscotch said its app has been used to create more than 1.5 million projects, compiling more than 57 million blocks of code.
scratch – Shall We Learn You never know what will happen next in life. One lazy afternoon, when I was enjoying my afternoon tea, two funny yellow birds showed up at my door. They introduced themselves as Tweet and Mini Tweet. I guess they are twins, but one is much much bigger than the other. Continue reading “Learning Scratch with Tweet and Mini Tweet: What is Scratch?” Have you heard of Scratch? Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 1: Introducing Scratch and Creating Sprite” » In Lesson 1, we created a sprite and also create four costumes: “front”, “back”, “facing left”, and “facing right”. In this lesson, we will make our sprite dance, and dance to the beat. Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 2: Animating a Sprite (Dance)” » In this lesson 2, we make our sprite dance. In this lesson 3, we make our sprite dance. In this lesson, I will show you how to make sprites move to certain locations on the Stage. Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 5: Work with the Stage” » In this lesson, we will modify a sample game named “Pong”.
Wisten - Wordpress One Page Parallax Theme WordPress 3.9 Ready Wisten is a 100% responsive Wordpress One Page template. Wisten is perfect for creative agencies, digital studios personal freelancers, photographers Design and HTML development by GoldEyesHTML version link can be found here: HTML Template Features Design and Flexibility – Wisten is a blend of stunning design and great flexibilty, is built using easy manageable shortcodes and clever sections layout management. Maker Movement: Let Them Build it & They’ll Learn! The Maker Movement happening in education right now is exciting. It makes so much sense to create “more opportunities for all young people to develop confidence, creativity, and interest in science, technology, engineering, math, arts, and learning as a whole through making.” Turning Students into Makers The Maker Movement: places students at the center of learning.shifts students from consumers to producers.is cross disciplinary.requires critical thinking to solve problems and design solutions.develops communication, collaboration and research skills.yields a finished product that students can be proud of and share. At first, I was not sure how to introduce elements of the Maker philosophy into my English classroom. We were reading (performing is more accurate) Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Building a Replica of the Globe Theatre I was struck by two things as I watched my students work. The second thing that both surprised and amused me was how “hard” my students felt this task was.
Extremely Useful Online Tools For Web Development Web development these days has made quite easier with the help of many online web development tools that are designed to make web development an achievable task. Internet is full of many online tools for the web development and many of them are extremely easy to use, furthermore do not require any technical know-how but deliver professional results. For this reason many developers who are at the beginner level of their career prefer to use such tools. For this round up, we have compiled some essential online web development tools for you. All of them are extremely fast and easy to use and can save a lot of development time. Enjoy! HTML Purifier HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. Frame Box Lightweight online tool for creating and sharing mockups (wireframes). CSS3 Click Chart by Impressive Webs Google Hosted Libraries The Google Hosted Libraries is a content distribution network for the most popular, open-source JavaScript libraries. Bear CSS Tableizer
girldevelopit/gdi-intro-web-concepts How to Grow a Thriving Indoor Apartment Garden Is lack of expansive outdoor space the only factor that is preventing you from putting your green thumb to good use? Even if your tiny apartment doesn't come with a balcony or an outdoor patio, you can grow a number of green things within the limited confines of your indoor space for your visual and gustatory pleasure. Sunny windowsills are perfect for growing herbs and small vegetables. Empty walls can be used to install vertical planters, and ceilings can even be taken advantage of to install hanging or upside-down planters. If you are a complete beginner and want to start with something super-low-maintenance, you can sprout seeds, raise tiny succulents or make friends with air plants. If you have tiny space and limited access to sunlight, then a gourmet oyster mushroom growing kit is perfect for you. Got your own experiences and tips for indoor apartment gardening? Click on image to enlarge.