programming | Making things... Learning Things

Strand A, Coding, and the new Ontario Mathematics Curriculum

Where’s the joy? Creating something, and sharing it, is an exciting and motivating endeavour. With the new 2020 Ontario Mathematics Curriculum now guiding mathematics in classrooms across Ontario, I think there is renewed excitement and potential to encourage creative learning with students, especially with coding activities. Unfortunately, after accessing and reading through a long list […]

Mathland Actually

Posted on April 27, 2019 1 Comment

If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that Mathland actually is all around. Introduction I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about a question Seymour Papert asks in the following video (and in many other ways in a various books and papers): “How can we create a mathland? […]

Text-based vs. Block-based coding

Posted on June 6, 2018 4 Comments

This blog post is more of a curation project than a blog post. I have put in one place various statements, beliefs, arguments, for or against, the use of block-based programming/coding with students. Some are clearly pro ‘text-based,’ some pro ‘block-based,’ while others are mixed and point out pros and cons based on certain factors […]

Scratch vs. Swift Playgrounds

Posted on May 29, 2018 10 Comments

[Note: The post below was updated in July, 2019 (originally written May, 2018). This article might be a useful read if you are teacher considering Scratch vs Swift Playgrounds or are caught up in discussions / arguments about the two. I think that juxtaposing these two coding environments helps reveal the distinction between children “learning […]

5 ways to turn the ‘hour of code’ into the ‘year of learning’

Posted on November 26, 2017 9 Comments

Last year I posted an article called Turn the Hour of Code into the Year of Learning. This year, I wanted to share a few ideas about how you might do that. After checking out some hour of code activities with your students (this year, officially, December 4 – 10), take a look at the […]

Learning Design by Making Games (in Scratch)

Posted on October 21, 2017 2 Comments

During the summer of 2016, I read this book (left) edited by Yasmin Kafai and Mitch Resnick. I was inspired by Chapter 4 (called Learning Design by Making Games). In it, Kafai described her study in which a group of 4th grade students spent one hour per day (over a six-month period) writing, designing and […]

Star Wars and the micro:bit

Posted on June 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

“I wanted to make it play the theme from Star Wars.” So began a Grade 5 student’s response this week when I asked her what she was working on with her micro:bit program. It was her very first session with it but she, and the rest of class, did have several other experiences in recent […]

“Coding to Learn” Outcomes

Posted on June 15, 2017 6 Comments

[Updated July 2017] I want to share my set of “coding to learn” outcomes. These are the things that I am looking for in children who are coding in educational contexts. These are the targets in my mind. To me, these represent the powerful learning potential in coding to learn. “Coding to Learn” Outcomes Students […]

Scratch is the right place for coding

Posted on May 30, 2017 6 Comments

Coding in education is once again gaining more and more popularity in education. There are now too many coding tools, online and device-based, to keep up with. There are so many choices now for students, teachers, or for anyone looking at using coding in education. Choice is great but it creates a new challenge for […]

Learning Design by Making Games

Posted on December 19, 2016 5 Comments

One of my favourite chapters in Constructionism in Practice was written by Yasmin Kafai: Learning Design by Making Games (pp. 71-123). She was interested in learning more about the development of children’s design strategies within the context of creating an authentic artifact – a computer game. Children were asked to design and create an interactive computer game that […]