This week we were tasked to explore online coding resources for our students. I was a bit apprehensive because I find my brain doesn’t like to do small step activities and fiddle around with particulars.  I went to the website code.org (linked here) and took a look at a T-rex Game program. Click this link to check out the game. The program is offered by Hatch Kids and very slowly introduces the different steps, or blocks, of code.

Each level is one idea or one movement. For example, the goal in level one was to tell the program to play music and move the dinosaur.  Level two taught me how to have the dinosaur move continuously.

At each level, I had the chance to put the blocks into place and press play to test out what I had done. If I was successful, the game gave me points and I got to move onto the next level. It was very easy and straight-forward. Rewarding to see my little dino do the action that I had just made and it felt fun to accomplish something.I was thinking about showing this to my six year old but I can see how a few of the steps (such as clicking and dragging the block into exactly the right place) could be challenging or frustrating for him.

After successfully  completing my dinosaur game training, I thought I was pro enough to check out something slightly more challenging. I went to Hatch Kids and saw a variety of options.

I decided to explore a rocket ship program. The coding blocks were very similar to the dinosaur tutorial but now there were a lot more options and no step-by-step guide to creating a game.

I fiddled around for a bit and got my rocket ship to move in a few different ways. Then I got frustrated and gave up. I couldn’t figure out what a lot of the things meant, and how to use them effectively. I also didn’t feel like trying for 30 minutes and not being able to figure things out.

Thinking about how to apply this as an educator, I think most students would have fun and catch onto the more simple coding games like the dinosaur tutorial.  I wonder what sort of approaches would work with students like me to feel successful and motivated.

I had the opportunity to check out some bee bots last week.  I think those are a great starter activity for students.  They have similar requirements for step by step coding, but are straightforward and hands-on, which can be very rewarding.

Coding is important for students to learn in school.  I was really into HTML as a kid (for making neopets pages and little websites!) and found it useful to understand a bit about how websites are made and how computers work.  Often as a teacher, I am amazed at how little students are able to use computers.  They use them all the time, and phones as well, but don’t know how to manipulate and use the devices for educational benefit.  Most of them can barely type!  Understanding how technology works will be even more important as time continues, because a lot of jobs will require these abilities even more than they do now.