Community reviews for Tynker

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 really like Tynker for introducing the concept of coding. There are a variety of activities for all levels and interests. I prefer it to other sites where you cannot create teacher or student accounts. It would be preferable it the site also included off-line lessons (much like Code.org does.) This way it would be a comprehensive curriculum that would be useful in teaching students all about coding. The students really enjoy the games and that is definitely a benefit to this site. When I use it, the students are super-focused and really enjoying themselves.

I think it's an excellent app. It gives students a different way to move the coding blocks. Personally I wish it was free. There are online resources that are free, and I really wish this was one of them.

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.

I think it is definitely a good resource to use, especially since it is free. However, I think it needs more animation and/or audio to help the younger students understand what they are doing and WHY.

I like that fact that Tynker offers some of their products for free. No accounts are needed. Students have options to solve puzzles and create artwork. Students get a valuable easily-accessible view into how coding works with drag and drop command blocks.

Tynker is a great app. Because it has different components it really can be used by a wide range of students. The app says from ages 9-11, but I can see a much younger student student completing some of the easier sections in the "Play" area. The "Create" section was engaging for my 12-13 year olds in my class. So it is more versatile than suggested. In my opinion the "Create" section has a lot to offer if you are willing to put time and effort into teaching students how to use Blockly to animate the characters. You can integrate other content subjects through what the characters are doing if you are willing to be creative. Take the time to investigate the app and plan that awesome lesson. Don't just put it in front of the students without good planning. You will be happy you did.

I would recommend this to anyone looking to interest students in middle school or elementary school in coding. It's not quite a high school level application.