3quarksdaily: Teaching Kids Programming | The Baheyeldin Dynasty In order to teach kids how to program, you need first to get them interested in something that is computer related. One of the best ways to get them interested in computers is games. They may want to write their own games, and that could be their entry into programming. Here are some links to sites that deal with this subject. Python is a very clean and very easy to understand language, yet a very powerful one as well. PyGames is a set of libraries that allow someone to write their own games using the language. Here are several tutorials on the Python language, which you will need to write games using PyGames: For beginners, it is recommended that they start with something that does not assume they know too much about programming. IBM Alphaworks Robocode teaches kids Java programming while writing a game. Robocode Central is a web site dedicated to the Robocode community. Slashdot discussion on Robocode, titled: Learning Java through violence Kuro5hin discussion on Robocode
6 Things You Need to Learn To Build Your Own Prototype This is the fourth part of a series on becoming your own technical co-founder. In 2008, we couldn’t find a technical co-founder for Yipit. I’m writing about how I became our technical co-founder. Disclaimer: If you know a great technical co-founder that wants to work with you, join them. Learning Python I know the below will seem daunting. I remember reading the Learning Python book and putting it down after 20 pages and having a major freak-out. What was I doing? I didn’t have the benefit of reading the post below. But, we were going to have to give up unless I became our technical co-founder and I was definitely not giving up. Six months later, much to my surprise (though I now know why), I was ready to build any prototype we needed. Lastly, you’ll get a lot of skeptical looks from people when you tell them you are trying to teach yourself. It’s Not That Hard Also, I still don’t fully understand all of the components but, guess what, it doesn’t matter. Development Environment.
What are the most productive ways to spend time on the Internet In the News: Five Web Tools to Help Teach Bloom's Taxonomy Wow, October is already here; the school year is flying. Banned Book Week is kicking off the new month, offering a chance for classroom conversations about freedom of speech and censorship. Last Friday, Edutopia took a quick look at some censored books in a great Five-Minute Film Festival, which rounded up some of the best Banned Book videos from around the Web. Elsewhere, tech integration made the headlines quite a bit last week -- including a story about the importance of tech learning, a teacher's look at using online discussions, and a list of recent education buzzwords. Five Tech-Friendly Lessons to Encourage Higher-Order Thinking Here, Susan Brooks-Young of THE Journal highlights five Web 2.0 tools that can be used to help students develop higher order thinking skills. Giving Every Student a Voice Through Online Discussion Author and teacher Catlin R. Movie Review: 'Won't Back Down' Should Kids Learn to Code in Grade School? In Case You Missed It: Other Quick Hits
How I Taught Myself to Code in Eight Weeks What are the best resources (sites, books or tutorials) for learning programming 36 Resources To Help You Teach Kids Programming As a parent, I am always looking at what my children are learning and what they like. As a software developer, I hope that my daughters embrace their inner geek one day and get involved with technology. That being said, I was wondering at what age kids should learn programming and what resources there are to teach kids programming. I found that some people were starting the education as early as 6 years old. Now that we have addressed the age issue, the big question is what programming language should the child learn? Traditional Languages This section will probably draw the most criticism. Lisp and Scheme are used heavily in research oriented universities when teaching an introduction to programming and the theory of programming. Learning Environments And Other Things In addition to the traditional languages above, there are websites and interactive environments that focus on teaching children. References
Online Python Courses & Tutorials | LearnStreet Argument Is a value provided to a function when the function is called. This value is assigned to the corresponding parameter in the function. Syntax function_name(argument1, argument2, ...): #Function definition Example def sum(a,b): #a & b are two arguments in sum function s=a+b return s Assignment Assignment operator assigns the value to an object, it assigns from right to left. x = 10 # Integer value. x = "John" # String with double quote. x = 'Jack' # String with single quote.# String can be denoted by either a single quote or double quote.x = 45.50 #Float value. The type of a variable depends upon the value assigned. Bytecode Is an intermediate language for the Python Virtual Machine within the interpreter. Class A class is a construct that is used to create instances of itself – referred to as class instances, class objects, instance objects or simply objects. class Class_name: "class documents " #class definition includes data variables, methods, and class Output Code Comments Dictionary break
Video Lectures | Introduction to Algorithms (SMA 5503) | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Scratch Projects Project #11: Communication Project Requirements: 1. Design a user interface where different icons represent catagories of short phrases speech impaired students need. For Example: Emotions: Happy and Sad Food: Apples and Popcorn Rooms: Gym and Classroom Colors: Red and Blue 2. Extras: 1. 7 Ways to make IT real: #5 Be realistic - ICT in Education - Educational Technology One sure-fire way to turn pupils off computing and ICT is to set tasks that are either unrealistic in themselves, or contain unrealistic elements. As an example of the former, I once came across an activity in which you selected your nail varnish colour from a database. Now, I’m not a girl, so I don’t really know about these things, but all I can say is that I have known lots of females and, as far as I know, none of them uses a database to figure out what colour nails to have. Now, I will concede that in certain circumstances, a database may well be necessary. I imagine celebrity pop stars who have hundreds of outfits could need one, and a shop specialising in make-up would use one. Here are a couple of examples of unrealistic elements. There is a good article which makes this point, mentioned by Mark Chambers, Chief Executive of Naace, in a discussion list recently. Another example: I was going to buy a combination lock for use when I go swimming.
How to embed QR codes in to pictures Published on May 19th, 2013 | by Mark Anderson I’ve long sung the praises of using QR codes as a vehicle to support learning with these two posts being two such examples: …and I’m not the only person either: There are lots of places online that you can use to create your own QR codes for free too. Today I found another site for creating QR codes called – the USP with this site is their ability to embed QR codes in to existing images. Why not give it a go!? If you know of any other sites that do this or have some more ideas on how QR codes can be used, please let me know in the comments or say hi on twitter. Cheers! Tags: #edtech, #iPad, education, learning, pedagogy, qr codes, technology About the Author
Organize Your Thoughts and Tasks With Thought Boxes Thought Boxes is a task management service with a hint of mind mapping in its user interface. At its most basic Thought Boxes is a place to create to-do lists. You can organize your to-do lists into groups that Thought Boxes refers to as "trains" as in "trains of thought." You can rearrange the boxes in each of your trains in your Thought Boxes account by just dragging and dropping them into place. Applications for EducationThought Boxes could be useful for managing to-do lists associated with academic projects. Thought Boxes doesn't have to be used for to-do lists.