GREAT intro to coding for ALL kids - something for everyone!
Community Review for Code.org
My Take
Code.org does a wonderful job of introducing computer science concepts in a concrete way with a low level of frustration. This is so important when introducing computer science as it will not turn off students to coding. The concepts learned are transferable to coding with all programming languages. I also love that code.org leverages student interest by using themes that speak to kids including angry birds, plants vs. zombies, and more recently Frozen, Starwars, and MINECRAFT! I have already noticed students in my computer lab working on code.org without even being prompted. If that's not a good sign, I'm not sure what is!
How I Use It
My course is quest / choice based and there is a coding path that students can choose. This path starts with the 20 hour code.org course. I love that you can set up a course and have students join the course with the course code. As a teacher you can monitor their progress. I have students submit a quest to coincide with each activity in the course. When the complete the activity they submit the quest to me (through 3dgamelab, the quest based CMS I use). With their submission I always ask students to reflect on their learning. In this case, my primary questions are:
- What coding / computer science concepts were introduced or reviewed in this activity?
- How did it relate to other coding activities / languages we have been working with?
- What challenges did you encounter in this particular activity? How did you overcome the challenge