programming Category
5 ways to turn the ‘hour of code’ into the ‘year of learning’
Posted on November 26, 2017 8 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, she described a 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 3 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 1 Comment
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 […]
Mathland Reflections – Game Design
Posted on December 10, 2016 1 Comment
One of my blogging goals is to share more often about coding to learn experiences of the students I am working with at various schools. Case in point, on Friday, some grade 5 students were hard at work during their fourth session (our first was October 3) of game design using Scratch. In January, they […]
Turn the “Hour of Code” into the “Year of Learning”
Posted on December 1, 2016 2 Comments
It’s great that so many students and teachers I know, and many whom I do not know (but am aware of via Twitter) are checking out code.org or other hour of code sites next week. There are so many great resources that always result in a fantastically exciting hour for students. Coding has become the current term […]
Why do you want kids to code?
Posted on November 13, 2016 5 Comments
I made this because I think there is an important distinction between learning to code and coding to learn. I think the focus with students doing coding in schools should be coding to learn. Bill Ferriter’s graphic called what do you want kids to do with technology was the inspiration for my graphic. I created this for […]
Memorable learning moment (#peel21st Nov 2015 blog hop)
Posted on November 15, 2015 19 Comments
A grade six teacher and I had co-planned a series of sessions with her students around coding with Scratch. In one of the later sessions, I was working with a boy who was frustrated with the game he was making and told me he wanted to start over again. In age appropriate words, I reassured […]
