Fun Ideas That Keep Kids Learning Even After School's Out | #Coding: #LEARNingByDoing with #FUN | 21st Century Learning and Teaching | Scoop.it

Learning to Code


So, you like video games? Do you know that actual humans make video games with some type of computer code? It's true. But even better, kids can write programs too. It might seem scary to get started, but it's really not too bad. If you want to get started, I am going to recommend code.org. There are plenty of learning guides that are appropriate for a variety of ages. Oh, and it's free and online.

Even the lowest level activities are very complete—they even include ideas about functions and debugging. It's the best way to get a general idea of computer programming before moving on to a particular language.

If you want to be more creative with your programming, there is also Scratch (scratch.mit.edu). Scratch is a graphical (and free) programming language that focuses on the control of animated sprites. It's pretty easy to pick up and it's built so that you can share programs and modify others.

Finally, there is one more set of coding activities—physical programming. Physical programming takes some type of code but adds onto it some actual object that the code can control. If that sounds awesome, it's only because it is. There are two physical programming platforms that I have worked with before—Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Although these devices are not free, they aren't super expensive either. Both platforms have tons of great projects that kids (or adults) can work on.

 

Example: https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/ and https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub

 

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

 

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=ARDUINO