This week I did an Hour of Code from the Code.org website. 

Screenshot from code.org

Coding isn’t something I’ve had much experience with. 

My children have played on Scratch before, but I generally leave all set up and facilitation of apps and devices to my partner. And this is actually pretty frustrating, because I want to have an active hand in supporting my kids (and future students) in digital learning and creation.

For my Hour of Code ‘course’, I chose the Music Lab: Jam Session.

And it was GREAT! I loved this course and am excited to show it to my kiddo who loves music. 

The course offers a lot of choice within the lesson. You can experiment with different sound/instrument options (but the tune is predetermined so your results sound good and you experience the success of the coding actions without getting caught up in trying to compose music.)

During the course, I learned how to build verses by compiling sounds blocks and coding the instructions for how and when they’d play or repeat, etc.

I think I’d need to do this same hour of code unit again so that the coding practice was more ingrained in my brain, but in terms of following step-by-step instructions I was comfortable throughout the learning process. 

At the end of the session, there is opportunity to explore composition a bit – which was really interesting but at that point I felt I was missing some key information to make it successful. But I still liked the opportunity to see what was possible if I was to further pursue this learning.

I definitely would introduce this unit to my classroom. It offers kids an introduction into the language and approach to coding, while also teaching them a bit about music and getting them excited to be creative. I feel like a lot of kids would be keen to continue learning coding because of how the course sets you up to be successful.

And if I can do it….

then I’m sure kids would grasp the concepts quickly and be super invested in the creative potential of coding!