abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Hey Guys, So I've been given the task to find two new coding platforms that are easy for kids to understand and use. So far I have got Scratch and Kodu but I can't seem to find anything else. The cat HTML coding that @Joanne posted looked great but isn't out yet and I need to find something that's fully working and kid friendly by Friday. I'm hoping some of you may know a place or two Oh, and while I'm here how are people setting up and deploying Kodu? As in how are you making them save to a Home Drive automatically? I've tried using \\servername\homedriveshare\%USERNAME% but for some reason this won't work. I have also just tried to point it to H:\Kodu but still won't load.... Works fine on an administrator account though pointing to the Local C: Drive? Cheers!
Arreks Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 How young are the kids? do you want to actually teach them a language or just the concepts? if they're younger and you only want the concepts, I'd just use Scratch. Kodu is awesome but I found when I tested it with kids here it was more confusing for them than Scratch!
abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) We are a primary school. So as young as Year 1 to Year 6. We can't just use Scratch the deputy wants me to find 2 other things to integrate into the curriculum.... Kodu seems fairly simple wouldn't say it'd be difficult to learn, I'm going to try it with a few of the kids in my club and see how they get on. Not that it's my job of course and surely one of the teachers should be doing this.... but smile and wave, just smile and wave. Edited March 4, 2015 by abillybob Stupid Apple Mac Auto Correct.
Joanne Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) Purple Mash - 2code - https://www.purplemash.com/#/home/2code_lessons Espresso Coding - http://coding.discoveryeducation.co.uk/ - Free Trial for 30 days on here methinks. Lego WeDo - https://education.lego.com/en-gb/preschool-and-school/lower-primary/7plus-education-wedo Both excellent online tools, but don't come free. Freebeeeeessss:- https://eraseallkittens.com/ http://barclayscodeplayground.co.uk I think the free ones are good for the kids as an introduction... feels more like playing than working. When you do KoDu make a level and send me!! I'll send you mine! Also go here for ideas on creations: http://worlds.kodugamelab.com/browse Edited March 4, 2015 by Joanne
pcstru Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 The Lego Mindstorms stuff used to have a flowchart based programming interface. It does need to be used in the context of the kits, but that can be ideal for Primary aged children where they see the results of their efforts as physical actions. I'd guess there would be good resources for this available.
Arreks Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 We are a primary school. So as young as Year 1 to Year 6. We can't just use Scratch the deputy wants me to find 2 other things to integrate into the curriculum.... Kodu seems fairly simple wouldn't say it'd be difficult to learn, I'm going to try it with a few of the kids in my club and see how they get on. Not that it's my job of course and surely one of the teachers should be doing this.... but smile and wave, just smile and wave. You could try maybe something LOGO related? Flowol?
LeMarchand Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Not sure if this will do what you want, but FROZEN!!! Code.org
edutech4schools Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 all my primary schools use Discovery Education Coding - About Coding The teachers love it as they do not really need to understand how to code and the pupils can get on and learn. They can also use it at home. We also have scratch v2, Kodu but are also looking at education city as that is meant to be very good
abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 Thanks everyone for all your suggestions I now have a wider range to show the teaching staff on Friday and will have a more depth play with the things so that I can present it better. Here's my list for anyone who's interested: Has things likeFrozen Coding & Flappy Bird, plus a lot of resources to allow children tolearn - http://studio.code.org Stillin BETA form though gives a free 3 lesson demo on how to code using HTML - https://eraseallkittens.com/ Barclaysplayground teaches children the very basics of coding - http://barclayscodeplayground.co.uk Kodu, this allowsthe children to create a game using a simplified programming language. Wouldrecommend for years 3 and up Kodi, on the iPadthis can teach the younger children the basic steps of event driven programming Scratch Jr, Scratchbut simplified for younger children Year's 1-2 Scratch, alreadybeen used but a powerful and easy to navigate tool that enables children toprogram Cargobot, iPad appdesigned the same way as Kodi but aimed for older children Years 3 and up
abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 @Joanne do you happen to know why whenever I do this it always fails? I'm trying to set the automatic saving to this specific place. The security permissions are all correct and it is a valid path and students and teachers can access it so why won't it work? I have also tried using the map drive letter instead of \\filecloud but that won't work either. How have you set this up?
Joanne Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 In the configuration tool, I just put homedrive letter... We only use KoDu in a club, so only set it up on a handful of machines... might actually have a look at that today and then everything will work if they decide to go class wide with it!
abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 Bit of a pain in the bum really it would seem. The application can't create it's own folders so you need to create one. So I'm going to point Kodu to H:\Kodu and tell all the children that to use it they will have to create a folder in their H: drive called Kodu though I'm sure the younger years will really struggle with this
Steve21 Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Bit of a pain in the bum really it would seem. The application can't create it's own folders so you need to create one. So I'm going to point Kodu to H:\Kodu and tell all the children that to use it they will have to create a folder in their H: drive called Kodu though I'm sure the younger years will really struggle with this It should create it's own folder. Don't use it at this school, but I remember at my last one I had to change the "Start In" option in the shortcut to their user area and it worked fine etc. Steve
abillybob Posted March 4, 2015 Author Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) No if you put H:\KoDu it will create it for you! Dosen't for me? Says the path is invalid. But if I create a manual folder called Kodu in the H: drive it will then work....? Strange. The intro video is also really annoying. When removing the video from the file system C:\Program Files\Microsoft Research\Kodu Game Lab\Content\Video is doesn't play which is much better. Might have to do this with all the machines. Edited March 4, 2015 by abillybob
6Foot2 Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 Not sure if this will do what you want, but FROZEN!!! Code.org An Hour of Code with Star Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBne7olsfkk The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now