Community reviews for Tynker

deferentially use!!!!

This would serve as a powerful teaching tool to introduce anyone to the world of coding. Technology is the future and coding is much needed skill as we advance as a world in tech. The nebulous tools and projects available gives opportunity to explore all the possibilities that computer science has to offer. I can imagine this being used by children in middle-school or high school as the interface is not as friendly as some other programs out there.

This product is very accommodating towards children. Many times, individuals are daunted to learn about coding because it seems boring or tedious. However, this product includes many pictures and cartoon characters that will likely keep children entertained. As well, every step is color coded, making learning very easy and simple. Everything is so organized and you can look back at your mistakes easily.

The website can be a little difficult to manage if you look deeper than you are supposed to. However, this is a great way to introduce the basics of coding to anyone willing to learn. It keeps students engaged and allows them to learn from their mistakes. Great application!

I love it and my student overall really enjoyed it. This program gives the the opportunity to explore basic coding concepts through gaming. This site is an easy to tool for beginners to get a taste of what programming is and if it is something they like.

As a technology teacher, I've used Tynker, Code.org and Scratch to teach the concept of computer programming to my 1st-4th grade students. After having them use all three, I took a vote. I gave all three as options for my kiddos. Consistently, nearly every student chose Tynker. A few students chose other programs, but these were generally students who were already high readers so I don't believe it was because the program had too much of a textual burden. Overall, my students told me they like Tynker more because it gives more clear re-directions when a student is having trouble passing a course. Code.org tends to give "hints", but sometimes these hints are actually wrong. It may say "try adding a *left* block" but the actual block that needs to be added next isn't that block. Tynker, while more heavily relying on text, provides more clear guidance for stuck students. My kiddos with lower literacy tend to need help on trickier Code.org puzzles anyway, so the textual instructional weren't really frustrating to them. They needed help on Code, they still need help on Tynker. However, kiddos who have more developed reading skills are able to use the Tynker directions with little to no help from me. This frees up about 20% of my class that previously was getting stuck with some frequency. It may be that I only teach each class for 60 minutes a week and I don't have as much time to address misconceptions full-group, but Tynker is an excellent fit for my school!

I am a big fan of Tynker, and my students really like it as well as an introduction. The "actors" available for student use, even with the free version, provide plenty of engagement and inspiration for my students. There are plenty of backgrounds to choose from as well. One of the things that I really liked about Tynker was that they really give you a fully functioning product to use for free. I can set up my own classrooms, monitor student progress, see their work from my screen, and even push out tutorials that I have created to my class. The thing you need to know about Tynker is that, like Scratch, it is a "sandbox" type of learning environment. Unless you want to pay, the curricular activities are locked and you need to create your own. For me, this was a plus, as I wanted to create my own activities (and, frankly, wasn't really impressed with the ones that I personally paid for and tested at home on my own). On the other hand, if you are uncomfortable with this content or with creating activities for computer science, you may find using Tynker a bit daunting. That said, there are plenty of activity books out there for Scratch and those activities can be easily modified for use with Tynker if you need a jump start.

I liked using the free tools as part of my code unit. I wouldn't want to use it alone, though. The interface and programming language are similar to other block-coding games, so students will pick that up quickly. As a teacher, play the games ahead of time so that you can help students troubleshoot when they find difficult levels or forget to read the directions. My students also had trouble getting this page to load in Internet Explorer. It worked perfectly in Chrome.

I think this teaching tool is great! It allows students to code at their own pace and my students always have a lot of fun using it. You are limited to the lessons you can assign, It only comes with the basic free lessons. If you buy the classroom account for $299, you can get 12 lessons for 1 grade. A district/school account costs $2,000 and you can add multiple grade and over 100 lessons. Overall, a great tool for beginning coders.

I thought this was a great website for introducing students to coding. The ease of using the site allows for students to start right up and create. I thought the six starter lessons provided a great way for me to introduce the site to the whole class, and then allow them to "tinker" with the website as they progress through the lessons. It peaked their interest in coding and I have noticed that my students are very interested in learning more than the assignments that I gave them to work on. The students seem more invested and ask a lot of questions on how to do things to their actors. I now have a lot of students who log in from home and continuing working on their projects outside of class.