Coding Software for Pupils

[robyholmes]

Hi,

 

What are secondary schools generally using software wise for coding? We currently have Python but our teacher is interested in APp Inventor &/Or Unity. Unity require educational licences and deployment looks a bit of a process. App Inventor we have had setup in the past, but the Emulator was a real pain to get working. I suspect it won't now due to increased security on our system.

 

So I'm interested to hear what others are using? Or have you got around permissions issues by using VMs (Virtual Box per machine for example).

 

Thanks,

Rob

[mavhc]

If you're picking Unity to make games, then pick Godot instead

 

If you want to make non game phone apps, just make a website with a mobile view, that's what most phone apps are anyway

[RLR]

For coding we use https://replit.com/ as it allows coding for most languages

 

We have Godot and Unity installed for game design.

 

One of the topics I'm teaching at the moment is Unity but it is quite difficult to teach as students are all at different stages. They are so use to apps these days. Using a Windows computer and software is foreign to them. If the software doesn't load instantly they try open it again and again so they end up opening 10 lots of Unity Hub. Some are interested in games and some have never played a game. I spend a lot of time trouble shooting something they didn't follow correctly. I think Unity is too much to learn in a short space of time. It should really be used on a computer game design course at college or university level where the students want to learn it. That's my opinion anyway.

[Brimstone]

For coding we use https://replit.com/ as it allows coding for most languages

 

We have Godot and Unity installed for game design.

 

One of the topics I'm teaching at the moment is Unity but it is quite difficult to teach as students are all at different stages. They are so use to apps these days. Using a Windows computer and software is foreign to them. If the software doesn't load instantly they try open it again and again so they end up opening 10 lots of Unity Hub. Some are interested in games and some have never played a game. I spend a lot of time trouble shooting something they didn't follow correctly. I think Unity is too much to learn in a short space of time. It should really be used on a computer game design course at college or university level where the students want to learn it. That's my opinion anyway.

With all those iPads and Macs, would you not try Swift Playgrounds....?

[dhicks]

What are secondary schools generally using software wise for coding? We currently have Python but our teacher is interested in APp Inventor &/Or Unity.

 

Do you have Windows machines with the basic Python install on, giving you Python runnable from the command line and/or the default Idle IDE? Our ICT teacher is trying out JetBrains' PyCharm as an IDE - it does need licensing, but those licenses are free after signing up as a school, and the license manager is cloud-based, so it's not too difficult to get working. If you're thinking of using a whole different language then whoever is doing the teaching really needs to decide that one.

[kennysarmy]

Our Head of Computing has been using Firewalled Replit but is looking to move away from it due to reliability problems.

 

 

Ideally he'd like us to install Python and a suitable IDE!

 

What are the risks in doing this?

 

He requires something good enough for the A-level curriculum.

 

We used to have Oracle VM's installed on the PC's in his room - maybe we need to go back to that with immutable disks.

[mavhc]

Our Head of Computing has been using Firewalled Replit but is looking to move away from it due to reliability problems.

 

 

Ideally he'd like us to install Python and a suitable IDE!

 

What are the risks in doing this?

 

He requires something good enough for the A-level curriculum.

 

We used to have Oracle VM's installed on the PC's in his room - maybe we need to go back to that with immutable disks.

 

The risk if you don't do it is your network remains insecure and a hacker ransomwares you. Better to have pupils find the security flaws. Of course better to scan the network yourself

[eric22]

We use Thonny IDE for Python. You can install libraries like matplotlib, pandas, tkinter, pygame, sqlite, venv etc.

It's more than good enough for GCSEs but decent for T-Levels DPDD.

 

For much less work and quick demo, we use Trinket.io.

Just make sure that if students are using it for free that you use Python 3 syntax.

F-strings isn't supported on the free version.

Edited May 6, 2024 by eric22

[mavhc]

Thonny is a bit annoying, likes to install itself per user, and bundles its own copy of python that libraries get installed to, and then they don't run outside of Thonny

[bicky]

All our Students devices are Microsoft Surface (Go/Pro) - managed via Intune. We make VSCode, NotePad ++, PyCharm, Python, Python libraries available on Company Portal and they go there to install it.

[flyinghaggis]

Our Head of Computing has been using Firewalled Replit but is looking to move away from it due to reliability problems.

 

 

Ideally he'd like us to install Python and a suitable IDE!

 

What are the risks in doing this?

 

He requires something good enough for the A-level curriculum.

 

We used to have Oracle VM's installed on the PC's in his room - maybe we need to go back to that with immutable disks.

 

Some discussions about Replit alternatives and options for securing locally installed IDEs in this thread.

 

https://www.edugeek.net/forums/coding/235550-bye-bye-replit.html

 

We still haven't found anything which can directly replace Replit unfortunately.....

Edited May 7, 2024 by flyinghaggis

[kennysarmy]

Some discussions about Replit alternatives and options for securing locally installed IDEs in this thread.

 

https://www.edugeek.net/forums/coding/235550-bye-bye-replit.html

 

We still haven't found anything which can directly replace Replit unfortunately.....

 

What are the risks in allowing students access to Replit?

[flyinghaggis]

What are the risks in allowing students access to Replit?

 

Risks of allowing students acecess to Replit in what context?

[kennysarmy]

Risks of allowing students acecess to Replit in what context?

 

As in, I see a few posts looking at alternatives to Replit so presume that it is considered "unsafe" from a security and safeguarding stand-point.

[dmj]

As in, I see a few posts looking at alternatives to Replit so presume that it is considered "unsafe" from a security and safeguarding stand-point.

 

It's because they limited their free version

[flyinghaggis]

It's because they limited their free version

 

@kennysarmy

 

Yeah, they used to do a product called Replit "Teams for Education" which was designed for teachers running programming classes but they've deprecated it. I'd guess that's possibly why your Head of Computing wants to move away from it to locally installed IDE's.

 

There's a paid for commercial version but I don't think even that has all of the functionality that the previous education offering did unfortunately hence the scramble for alternatives.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

https://blog.replit.com/update-on-teams-for-education

 

Wed, Dec 6, 2023

The Replit Team

On November 14th we notified users that Teams for Education will be deprecated. This deprecation notice means that Teams for Education will no longer receive any updates or bug fixes, new Team creation is disabled, and it will stop functioning at a later date.

We understand that this change is challenging, and we are committed to supporting you throughout this transition.

Teams for Education will decommission following this timeline:

November 14th, 2023: Teams for Education users notified of deprecation

November 15th, 2023: Teams for Education deprecated, new team creation disabled

By the end of March, 2024: Teams for Education administrators will receive a resource kit containing the Teams for Education documentation, tools, and instructions to download their Teams for Education data, and other resources

End of March, 2024: Teams for Education documentation will be removed from docs.replit.com.

August 1, 2024: Teams for Education will be removed from the Replit product and data deleted.

The resource kit will give you the necessary tools to preserve your data. There is no action required until receiving a resource kit. Teams for Education will remain accessible and data available until the August 1, 2024 removal date.

Edited May 9, 2024 by flyinghaggis