Inspiring the next generation of coders
I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to run a series of three morning Scratch coding sessions at Yatton Junior School.
We – I’m doing this with my neighbour and friend @gracesauto – have the blessing of the Head Teacher, and the commitment of Year 6 teachers and the enthusiasm of the children. Continue reading “Scratch that programming itch in school”
Yesterday I led a workshop for primary school teachers in North Somerset on some of the Open Source tools now available to enable children to make stuff for the web. I covered Scratch, Python and RaspberryPi, but I also wanted to introduce Mozilla Webmaker tools – Thimble, Popcorn and X-Ray Googles.
As I had used Mozilla Webmaker with children before, I thought the teachers would also be keen to have a play. I was right, and we could have filled the room three times over! In my experience, Thimble is by far the best tool to use when learning to create your first web page, and I could sense the satisfaction in the room as the teachers shared their creations. Continue reading “Creative Coding for Children”
Today is the last day of the school term and I’m very much looking forward to running a Code Club during half term.
I believe that primary-age children should be learning how to make things for the web and learn the principles of coding. They are so comfortable playing with their laptops and mobile devices – but mainly as consumers. It’s time they look at computers and their iPods in a different way. As devices they can manipulate and make them do things they want. Continue reading “Code Club for girls”
This week, I ran a Code Club for girls; three sessions of three hours each. I’m generally very pleased with the outcome and hope that the girls can keep the momentum going and continue to develop their understanding of coding.
The group of girls consisted of my daughter’s friends from school – a group of five 10-11 year olds… and a smaller second group of 8 year olds