'Coding Nation' Chronicles 300 Ways to Pick Up Programming | EdSurge News EdSurge Newsletters Receive weekly emails on edtech products, companies, and events that matter. How many ways can you learn to code? Try more than 100101100--or, in translation, more than 300. That's according to a report, "Coding Nation," fresh from the digital press at the Kapor Center for Social Impact. New high-tech jobs are growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, notes the Kapor Center report. The report has an introductory note and shout out to Globaloria from Jennifer Arguello, tech writer for NBC Latino.com and an advisor to the Kapor Center. A growing number of business leaders are urging American kids to learn to code. "Coding Nation" offers both good and teeth-gritting news, depending on your point of view: Cedric Brown, Managing Partner at Kapor and overseer of the project, shared with EdSurge that what “started as an internal purpose for internal knowledge” became a resource that the Kapor Center wanted to share more broadly.
Teach Your Kids to Code: 6 Beginner's Resources for Parents Introducing computer programming to your kids can be a challenge, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of code. Fortunately, in the last few years, a number of apps, software, and guides have been produced that make the often-complex subject of computer coding easy to grasp for young learners. So where to begin? These are a few resources that parents can share with their kids to help them start learning about programming. Programming Tutorials From Made With Code by Google: Google's Made With Code project has a mission of encouraging girls to pursue careers in computer science. The Made With Code projects are easy to follow, and if your kids are completely new to coding, don't fret. Inspiring Articles About Kids Learning to Code Still looking for some ideas? Coding Organizations for Kids For the non-coding parents, it can be difficult to know where to begin.
Learn To Code, Code To Learn Is it important for all children to learn how to write? After all, very few children grow up to become journalists, novelists, or professional writers. So why should everyone learn to write? Of course, such questions seem silly. People use writing in all parts of their lives: to send birthday messages to friends, to jot down shopping lists, to record personal feelings in diaries. I see coding (computer programming) as an extension of writing. The recent surge of interest in learning to code, reflected in sites like codecademy.com and code.org, has focused especially on job and career opportunities. But I see much deeper and broader reasons for learning to code. Six years ago, my research group at the MIT Media Lab launched the Scratch programming language and online community in an effort to make coding accessible and appealing to everyone. We’ve been amazed with the diversity and creativity of the projects. Scratch community members also begin to see the world in new ways.
7 Apps for Teaching Children Coding Skills It's hard to imagine a single career that doesn't have a need for someone who can code. Everything that "just works" has some type of code that makes it run. Coding (a.k.a. programming) is all around us. If you're concerned that that a) elementary school students don't have the ability to code, b) there's no room in the curriculum, and c) you don't possess coding chops to teach programming skills, throw out those worries. In no particular order, we have listed all the coding apps that are appropriate for young learners. GameStar Mechanic Platform: WebCost: $2 per student GameStar Mechanic teaches kids, ages 7-14, to design their own video games. Scratch Platform: WebCost: Free! Tynker Platform: WebCost: Free! Move the Turtle Platform: iOS (iPad and iPod)Cost: $2.99 We love Move the Turtle, a gamified way to learn programming procedures. Hopscotch Platform: iPadCost: Free! Daisy the Dinosaur Platform: iPadCost: Free! Cargo-Bot Platform: iPadCost: Free!
Teaching Kids to Code | EdSurge Guides Every era demands--and rewards--different skills. In different times and different places, we have taught our children to grow vegetables, build a house, forge a sword or blow a delicate glass, bake bread, create a soufflé, write a story or shoot hoops. Now we are teaching them to code. We are teaching them to code, however, not so much as an end in itself but because our world has morphed: so many of the things we once did with elements such as fire and iron, or tools such as pencil and paper, are now wrought in code. In this collection we share many different perspectives on coding, from a university professor's vantage point (MIT's Mitch Resnick describes why learning to code is like learning to learn) to an entrepreneur's reflections from his cross-country roadtrip to bring coding--and his stuffed dog--to classrooms across the U.S. You can learn to code on your own by dipping into one of over 50 tools for learning to code that we've compiled (check out the bottom of this page).
Code Kingdoms Should every school class be a computer coding class? This spring, at St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia, the fifth-grade Spanish class programmed computers to produce bilingual, animated photo albums. The seventh-grade science class rejiggered the code behind climate models. The first-graders programmed robots to run mazes. And that’s just for starters. “We’d like everybody to be more comfortable with computer science, because it’s running our lives now, and because it enhances what’s possible in the classroom,” said Kim Wilkens, a technology teacher at St. They’re not alone. One of the biggest challenges for computer science advocates is that many kids simply don’t see why coding matters, in a world of preloaded software and the vast resources of the Internet. While enrollment in Advanced Placement computer science, a Java coding course, has been growing rapidly, the numbers pale in comparison to most other STEM AP courses. But are stand-alone computer science courses enough? Of course, that’s easier said than done.
Code Combat 15+ Ways of Teaching Every Student to Code (Even Without a Computer) According to Code.org, 90 percent of parents in the U.S. want their children to learn computer science—it will be crucial for many jobs in the near future—but only 40 percent of schools teach it. Critics claim that it is mainly the more affluent schools that offer computer science courses, thus denying those who attend poorer schools the chance to learn necessary skills. A focus on STEM is not enough: Code.org also reports that while 70 percent of new STEM jobs are in computing, only 7 percent of STEM graduates are in computer science. In my opinion, parents of every student in every school at every level should demand that all students be taught how to code. With the following resources, you can teach programming to every student and every age. Teaching Coding to the Youngest Students Tynker Games: Use these age-appropriate games to teach your elementary students coding concepts. Teaching Coding to Kids 8 and Up Hopscotch is a free iPad app for upper elementary and above.
ScratchJr Gamestar Mechanic 10 places where anyone can learn to code Teens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, “but that doesn’t really make you fluent.” Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code Fluency, Resnick proposes in this TED Talk, comes not through interacting with new technologies, but through creating them. The point isn’t to create a generation of programmers, Resnick argues. In his talk, Resnick describes Scratch, the programming software that he and a research group at MIT Media Lab developed to allow people to easily create and share their own interactive games and animations. At Codecademy, you can take lessons on writing simple commands in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, Python and Ruby. While we’re at it: bonus!
Learn | The Hour of Code Dance Party Grades 2+ | Blocks Minecraft Hour of Code Make a Flappy game Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code Grades 2+ | Blocks, JavaScript Code with Anna and Elsa Write your first computer program Minecraft Hour of Code: AI for Good The Grinch: Saving Christmas with Code Grades 2-8 | Blocks Make Your Own Kodable Mazes Pre-reader - Grade 5 | JavaScript, Language independent (can be taught in multiple languages) codeSpark Academy with The Foos: Create Games Pre-reader - Grade 5 | Blocks Code Your Hero Lightbot Coding Town Grades 2-5 | JavaScript Kodable (pre-readers welcome) Pre-reader - Grade 5 | Blocks | All modern browsers, iPad app Create your own Google logo Grades 2+ | Blocks, Scratch Codesters: Basketball Grades 6+ | Python Box Island All ages | Blocks Gumball's Coding Adventure Grades 6-8 | Blocks, Scratch Imagine a World Moana: Wayfinding with Code Barbie You Can Be Anything Pre-reader - Grade 5 | Blocks, Tynker Code a Cartoon Animate a Name Learn to Code with Crossy Road Grades 9+ | Blocks Boat Race Candy Quest