“Code them Gangnam Style”

These week I was challenged to explore coding. I was originally just going to code a short scratch problem someone else created. However I wanted to challenge myself and be creative so I choose to do some coding of my own. I choose to use Code and the extension “dance party”. I choose dance party because I thought it would be easier to learn as a first time coder. I decided to challenge myself and not watch any how to videos and just learn through experience. It took me a few tries but once I got things figured out it was surprisingly easier then I thought.

Throughout this experience I had two main learnings. The first thing that I learned is it’s important to create and alter the set up function of the code before trying to add actions. On my first attempt I was so excited to get the characters doing actions that I skipped this step and it made it very confusing to add actions when I just had one animal in the centre was a setup. The second thing I learned is the best product will come from trial and error. The resource makes it super easy to add and delete things so don’t be afraid to test out different options then choose what you like best.

I would say my overall experience of coding was very good. In my future as an educator I would like to explore coding so I am able to use it to its full capacity in my classroom. I think coding has the potential to be a great classroom or virtual learning tool for students of all ages. The wide variety of variations for creating different codes would make it easy for a teacher to create an activity that accommodates many different levels of students. As a future educator I would defiantly like to incorporate coding into my classroom as a learning resource. If coding is something new too you I would defiantly recommend checking it out!