Code.org

I finished the accelerated  Code.org course this week and I am so glad this was a part of the course requirements.  I learned a lot about the language of programming and became so much more familiar with the learning behind the different Code.org  activities.  This organization offers so many different avenues for learning about code for students and teachers. I am definitely going to use this site for introducing code to students.

I think the unplugged activities are important in teaching and reinforcing the different programming concepts and the videos help illustrate and demonstrate a concept before setting students off to do it on their own.
I would want students working in pairs to promote the collaborative and connected idea of coding and to provide support and motivation when trying to debug or figure out the code for each coding challenge.

I really learned a lot about functions, if else statements and parameters.  I liked troubleshooting and figuring out the bugs in my code.  For me, going through the coding challenges required me to break down the challenge into steps, which for me, a big picture thinker is sometimes challenging. It also reminded me that most problems can be approached from a "debugging" perspective and by doing so it forces you to examine your steps and process more closely to figure out what is not working.  I will definitely recommend this site to teachers looking to incorporate coding with their students and plan to include it as a resource in my vision of coding for my school.

Week Seven-Dash and Dot arrive!

I am excited to unpack Dash and Dot and begin familiarizing myself with these two cute as can be programmable robots. I am hoping to gain confidence with codable objects by starting with an easier platform like Dash and Dot and the Apps available to use with them.  I immediately loved how quick and simple it was to get Dash and Dot up and running.  Basically turn on the switch and let the bluetooth on the iPad find them, and voila, they are ready for action!

The Apps (Wonder, Tickle, and Blockly) are easy to use, and with prior experience with Code.org the drag and drop blocks were familiar to me.

I practiced before introducing these quirky robots to my mentee one Friday afternoon.  Together we explored the Apps, worked together on several of the puzzles available through the Wonder Apps and Tickle and then just did some free play, using the iPad to move Dash around the library.  At one point, I hid in the library and my mentee programmed Dash to find me.  I'd give verbal hints about my location ( I am straight ahead and to the left). We discussed turns, angles and distance. My mentee's prior experience using blocks for coding helped him to quickly grasp how to program Dash and Dot. We did a lot of debugging trying to solve a couple of the challenges. I noticed how patient and willing this 4th grade boy was to go back and try to identify where the bugs in his code were.  He worked through several attempts without losing patience or interest.  I wondered if his ability to persevere had to do with his being in charge of his own learning and his own plan for Dash. This would confirm what I have been reading about in  Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert. I love this quote from his book because it captures the essence of what I observed in this boy.

"when a child learns to program, the process of learning is transformed. it becomes more active and self-directed. In particular, the knowledge is acquired for a recognizable personal purpose. The child does something with it. The new knowledge is a source of power and is experienced as such from the moment it begins to form in the child’s mind."

Learning to program Dash and Dot empowered and engaged this boy in a way not much else in school, except books, seems to do.


Here are some insights I gained with my mentee as I prepare to introduce Dash and Dot to a second grade enrichment group.
 :

1) I think it is important to allow for some free play with Dash and Dot before introducing puzzles and challenges to students.

2) I think a combination of showing and discovering might work best to introduce students to the features available on the different Apps.

3) Because this is a new thing for me to be teaching and learning with students I am not really sure what to anticipate. I want to observe what they do with Dash and Dot and what their questions are so I can prepare the next lesson with these questions and observations in mind.

4) It is okay to stop the process along the way and ask students to notice what they are learning from programming and from the errors they are making programming.

5) Leave time to reflect on what was learned and to think about what programming has to do with learning, problem solving, teamwork and math.

I am excited to bring Dash and Dot to more groups of students.  I'll be learning and posting more as this happens.

Inspiration

My learning curve with programming tools like Makey Makey and Arduino is high and my learning style is such that I appreciate face to face learning in collaboration with others especially when it comes to learning hands on sorts of thing. Additionally, as I think about my vision for coding in my school and my project for this class it helps me to observe coding in the classroom in action. Fortunately Lucie our instructor connected me with the amazing Erica Bertucci, a technology teacher at St Albans City School.  I had a short but fruitful visit. I picked up the Lilypad Arduino, talked through some of my questions and challenges with Scratch, and observed her second grade technology class which gave me so many ideas for ways to structure coding opportunities for students.

In addition to know her stuff when it comes to technology and coding Erica modeled great teaching practices too!  Before the second grade class entered the room Erica explained the goals for class, the different stations and learning awaiting students in the classroom and the expectations for working together and asking for help.

Offering different coding activities at different stations promoted self direction, engaged students the entire time and showed great attention to differentiated learning options for students.

I witnessed students debugging, collaborating and solving real world problems in an energized and focused way.  I talked with the students programming Dash and they explained their task and what they believed was not working in the code to keep Dash on the course.  Other stations including Ozobots and students working through lessons on Code.org

Erica circulated to each station and did more listening and coaching rather than directing the learning or fixing the problems.

The  visit helped to ease some of my stress and feelings of being way out of my league with this class.  I still feel I have so much to learn and get more comfortable with but I feel confident that I could start introducing coding at my school with stations similar to the ones I observed at Erica's school. And, as I gain confidence in using the Arduino and Makey and Makey I can introduce them and broaden the coding opportunities for all.

Open Coding Week 5

I've really enjoyed this open coding week for a chance to catch my breath, finish up CS First and go back to the Makey Makey and gain more comfort and confidence using it.






Here is the last CS First game I created.  I really enjoyed this one and used the Makey Makey to play.



I had a connected coding experience when I pulled out the Makey Makey to show a fourth grade boy I mentor after school on Fridays. He is a student who is completely enthralled with video games.

It has been a balance finding out how much of our mentor time to devote to video games because when this student is on a game it is hard to hold a conversation or interact.  But, I honestly feel watching and learning from him as he play games and teaches me,  that we are connecting.

When I brought out the Makey Makey board he immediately wanted to understand it.  We talked about how it worked and what the playdough was for and he got right to work setting up the controls and making music.  Then he wanted to find versions of games he knew and liked.  We found we both liked the Mario, and Pacman games and so together we explored and learned. What connected us in that moment was what Kafai and Burke refer to as a common interest and a shared tool.  Other adults stopped by and he was able to show them what we were doing and how to use the board. We were exploring and playing and learning together.  I asked if he wanted to try and create our own game using the Makey Makey and he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to do that or just keep playing.We'll see what next week brings!

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday with the Makey Makey.  Visiting some of the learning communities via Twitter, Google + and the Makey Makey Forum.  I was impressed and overwhelmed with all the projects shared on these sites. I feel so new at all of this that I am not sure where to begin in terms of getting creative. I feel like my brain is focused on learning and understanding leaving less energy for my creative thinking about all of this.  I know that will come as I visit online communities and forums and continue to experiment myself and most importantly with students.

I am still working on making a new game using scratch and the Makey Makey.  I feel like I am still missing something, as I don't feel clear on how to script for a rolling backdrop.  I tried tackling this with gusto, breaking down my steps, testing often and regularly, going back to watch videos or look at code in other simlar games to try and correct mis-codes.  I still didn't get the result I was trying for but I definitely learned and became more comfortable with many of the scripts in Scratch through this process. As I worked on this,  I related so much to the quote in our reading that children's motivation to program and persist at troubleshoot increases when they work in pairs.  I was really missing that ability to share my thinking with a partner. I definitely learn best by working with others to share ideas, problem solve and question.  That will be something I will be sure to incorporate when designing coding opportunities for students.

Coding on mobile devices-Week 4

Here is a summary of the Apps I'll be sharing with you during the 3-5 Grade band meeting,  You've all expressed an interest in providing opportunities for your students to learn to code.  Using mobile devices, like your classroom iPads helps students see their own mobile devices as more than just phones and cameras, and tools for texting. When they use these coding apps on the iPad to practice computational thinking and learn computer science practices and concepts including testing and debugging, remixing, loops, sequences, and events your students will begin to realize they power they have to create and use their minds to solve problems, break down large, complex tasks and create and deisign games, screen images, music and more. No worries if the coding terms are unfamiliar.  These concepts are introduced and reinforced through coding activities and tutorials.  Because these apps are available on mobile devices your students can continue their learning outside of class.  Here is a brief overview of two fantastic coding apps.

LIGHTBOT is a puzzle based coding app that teaches important programming concepts like loops, processes and sequences by using the symbols provided to program a robot to light up spaces on different mazes.  At the beginning of each puzzle instructions are given explaining the task to accomplish.

This app is very visual, with background music and brief written instructions.  I used the "Hour of Code" version of Lightbot and found that many students did not read the instructions that popped up as they moved through the activities and this left them to figure out on their own the concept being introduced.  Sometimes this frustrated students, so I encouraged them to take the time to read the pop up messages and look at the top of the screen for the suggested number of steps to use to solve the puzzle.  Lightbot is great for introducing computer science and programming concepts in a fun and engaging way.  The regular version has five levels including processes, loops, conditionals and overloads.  Students will learn to test small chunks of their code, problem solve, and look for patterns. These kinds of skills and this kind of thinking applies across all other content areas so there is value in working through these coding puzzles.

Hopscotch is another coding program that allows students to create something using code. Once you sign up there is an option to create or play. Under the create option there are a number of options to choose from including things to draw, games to create, sounds or visuals or backgrounds you can make.  I chose to try and make a warp speed visual effect (sort of depicts how I am feeling with the demands of work and my class!) What is great about this app is that students are in charge of what they are making.  Video tutorials explain every step.  These videos run in the bottom corner of the iPad so students can actually code right along with the video.

Students again work on problem solving and incremental thinking as the videos breakdown the bigger programming task into the smaller rules or steps.

Hopscotch provides students with a safe place to learn from other coders and so students are coding not just for the sake of coding to share and work with others to problem solve and share their learning with a real audience.  This is called computational participation and it is an important way to help students become connected 21st century learners.  I think you'll find these two apps will engage and challenge students.  Here is a link to the warp speed project I did Warp Speed

Week 3 - Moving into Makey Makey Land but first a little more CS First

I have to say I was a little intimidated as I unpacked the Makey Makey. But I plugged it in to my computer and quickly started makey making things happen! It was so fun finding conductive things in my house. I realized before I could move forward on creating a game with the Makey Makey, I needed to finish the CS first activities to learn more about game design. I went back to where I left off, lesson 4 and used the makey makey to test out the platform game I made.
 Here is my attempt at adding the random feature. I plan to use this in the game I create using the Makey Makey.

 I connected my alligator clips to bananas and carrots and I got really confused about which fruit or veggie controlled which action. So I decided to connect with peers to see if anyone had this dilemma too.  I checked out Allison's blog as she was and continues to be a great mentor to me around technology. I really appreciate how she thinks and how she approaches tasks. I have a lot to learn from her and am thrilled she is in this class. I LOVE, love, love how she organized the controls and so I decided to try and create a control panel with a toothpaste box and baby carrots.

Once I did this I felt a little less overwhelmed and ready to move forward. I feel like a real slow poke with all of this, I am enjoying the challenges and find I am learning a lot, but am having a hard time getting everything finished by the due date.  I need to go back and review over and over what the different coding commands mean and what they do when operated with a click or an arrow.  I will not be completing my Makey Makey game by tonight.  But my idea is to create a game with a dog and a doughnut, in the spirit of the book "If You Give a Dog a Doughnut."  Stay tuned!

Artifacts from CS First

This week I only completed two of the required 8 lessons in CSfirst. I created a sprite that I named, made speech bubbles for and programmed to move.  I also created a two player game(which I am excited to play with my mentee this Friday!). Boy am I feeling challenged by these activities and pretty excited that I completed what I did. It is not so much the actual creation of the code but the glitches with my older chromebook and the number of details to do for each activity. I did find creating the flicker screen in the first activity a little difficult. My sprite did not appear and I spent many hours trying to figure out the where I made a mistake.  I never did solve it so I began anew and it worked the second time through. Sometimes starting fresh is a good option.

I love the creating and problem solving involved in this and I REALLY love watching the results of the code I am creating, I  feel overwhelmed with the time it is taking me.  I have had a little experience with Scratch and none with CS first.  I really like the videos through CS First (although the narrators sometimes talk so fast I miss some of the directions). I appreciate that the directions are repeated in writing on the bottom right corner. Each activity made me more familiar with the types of actions or ways to program. I am in awe of the code that was written to allow for the variety of motions, looks, sounds and more that I was able to use.

The wrap-up questions and video at the end are a good way to assess and connect what was learned through the lesson. One of the questions had code written out in text only and we had to explain what activity it was programming. I found it more challenging to follow the thinking in that format.

I feel confident as I move forward on the remaining six lessons it will go smoother and quicker. Back to coding and check back for more contemplations on coding!