Tag: coding

Ideas for Making and Tinkering at Home

This week we’re investigating maker education, tinkering, and coding in our educational technology courses. Translating all the hands-on experiences from our face-to-face class meetings into the online learning environment has been a fun challenge. Thankfully, we actually began preparing this module for the online environment in Summer 2019, so it has been a work in progress. A special thanks to colleague and EdTech Team member, Melissa Marshall, for helping develop the module.

I thought I’d share some of the resources that I put together. Perhaps these will give families ideas to spice up their days of quarantine. Please share your ideas and recommended resources in the comments, so that our preservice and in-service teachers can learn from you, too.

Slideshow of Examples

Browse through this slideshow to view examples that might spark inspiration for your next maker or tinkering project.

Possible Materials

Feel free to bookmark, save, or print the following document.

5 Coding Programs that Work

What: 

Teaching coding is much more than a current trend in education because it teaches learners problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking. There are numerous ways to teach incorporate coding into your classroom. I have used coding to teach these concepts in design classes for several years. The following list is my recommendation of coding programs including Google’s CS First, Apple’s Swift, Khan Academy, CodeCombat, and Code.org. 

CS First: 

Google’s CS First is an all-inclusive program that is completely free. CS First is geared towards students in grades 4-8 and includes curriculum for every lesson. CS First says that allows coding to be “easy to teach and fun to learn”. The lessons are created by teachers and powered by Scratch (a popular coding platform) meaning it utilizing block and drop coding and is perfect for beginners. Learn more about CS First by watching this introductory video. 

Apple’s Swift:

Apple’s Swift is part of a project called Everyone Can Code. Apple has created numerous resources for teaching coding to students from kindergarten to college. Their program is free and comes with iBooks for students and teachers including a comprehensive curriculum. Apple also created Swift Playgrounds so students can practice their skills with fun challenges. The Swift coding language is only available on iOS devices. Apple’s Swift program is completely free.

Khan Academy:

Khan Academy offers coding curriculum in numerous languages including JavaScript and HTML in both introductory and advanced courses. Khan Academy allows the teacher to create a class and assign lessons to students. Teachers can also view the progress of students. Students will learn to code using tutorial videos and applicable exercises. Click here to read more about the coding programs from Khan Academy. Khan academy is completely free. 

CodeCombat:

If strict lessons seem too cumbersome for your classroom setup then teaching coding using games is the way to go. CodeCombat is a game-based platform that teaches Python and JavaScript languages where students type real code and see their characters react on-screen in real-time. Teachers can create classes and monitor student progress. CodeCombat allows free access to the first few activities and then is a paid program. Learn more about CodeCombat by watching this introductory video. 

Code.org:

If this all seems a bit much, start small. In addition to curriculum, lessons, and programs similar to the previously mentioned programs, Code.org celebrates national computer science week every year by hosting a global event called the Hour of Code. You can follow #hourofcode and #CSforall on Twitter to see how schools in 180+ countries are participating in the hour of code. This seems like a huge event but for you and your class, it can simply be one hour of coding using curriculum and activities already made. During the week of December 9-15, 2019, you can participate in the Hour of Code in your class by using their activities and discussing why computer science is so important. Students love the Hour of Code because their activities are relevant and always changing and they can even print certificates of completion once they have finished their hour of code. Learn more about the global Hour of Code event by watching this introductory video. 

Next Steps

Interested in learning more? Check out the websites below for great information. 

References:

All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above. 

TLDR (too long didn’t read):

Teaching coding is much more than a current trend in education because it teaches learners problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking. There are numerous ways to teach incorporate coding into your classroom. I have used coding to teach these concepts in design classes for several years. The following list is my recommendation of coding programs including Google’s CS First, CodeCombat, Khan Academy, and Code.org. 

@hollandkaylah