Coding Can Be Fun?

At the start of the year, when I thought of coding, I thought of the thousands of lines of random numbers and letters that somehow magically program a game. Well, now that I have taken a creative technologies class and this EDTC class, I can tell my past self just how wrong I was. Coding can be super fun! Outside of this class, I have used many coding apps, such as Processing, Twine, and my personal favourite Flowlab.

Hour of Code

After looking at our options for this weeks post, I knew Hour of Code would be the most fun for me. I decided to do the Minecraft Adventurer because I used to love playing Minecraft when I was little and it’s in my hopeful teaching level of grade 2-5. When I first opened the link, it provided me with a video on how to input all the code. I decided to ignore the video to see how I would fair on my own. The first few levels were super fun and easy with moving forward, turning, and destroying blocks. The only downside to the first few levels was that there wasn’t a ‘repeat’ option, so in the one level, I had to put in the same sequence multiple times. Doable, but excessive. After that level it gave the option to repeat, which came in handy as some levels had multiple sequences that needed repeating; sometimes up to five times.

Each of the levels was incredibly fun. As it went on, it added more things like mining, creating rail tracks, and building houses. At some points, I would have to run the code just to see where I ended up and would still make silly mistakes like having the character turn right instead of left. Looking at it from a teachers perspective, this would be incredibly difficult for a grade 2 level, but a fun challenge for a grade 5. One level I think a grade 5 would have the most fun with was the last one. The last level gave you creative control, only telling you to cut down three trees and build a structure. This is where I made most of my directional mistakes, and ended up starting my building beside the designated area rather than on top. However, the level still counts it as a win, which I think would be great for a grade 5 students just getting into coding.

Overall, Hour of Code was extremely fun and I would  go back and play myself if I were to have my students play around with it. I will say that I think some of the recommended age levels are much more advanced than they make it out to be, especially if I as an adult am having trouble, even with my coding experience. I would recommend my future students to try a younger age category first (if they’re in grade 2, have them try a preschooler level first) then depending on how easy or hard it is, stay at the younger category or move up to their own. I definitely think that this type of coding would be really beneficial for students, and I would likely have them practice this in a math class. The decision making and critical thinking skills needed to do some of the codes would help students hone their abilities and strengthen their digital skillset.