Original post by By Kat on February 9, 2019
Coding is a big deal right now. Worldwide, 36 million kids have taken part in “hour of code” activities, helping them become active, rather than passive users of technology. The skills that they learn might one-day help secure a job in our increasingly tech-driven world. Having a basic understanding of programming concepts improves problem-solving and thinking skills which are both transferable and empowering.
Lightbot is a kid friendly educational video game designed to learn software programming concepts and coding logic! It is an application that we just began to use in my school, and I wanted to learn more about it. Do you see the value of teaching programming in school? Watch my video and let me know what you think?
Original reply by jan lewis
Great video, Kat! Very informative. Nice to discover that Lightbot is Canadian-made! I agree that it’s a good entry-point to coding logic and visual block coding that students enjoy. I’m not sure I agree that Scratch and WonderBot are Lightbot’s “direct competition”, though. I’d say that the code-‘botting afforded by the mobile apps for Wonder or Dash bots are a natural EXTENSION to the coding concepts introduced by LightBot. Once students “beat” LightBot the natural next step is to expand their opportunities to have more real-world applications of coding real robots rather than a digital avatar. Scratch, though it uses a block-based coding perhaps similar to the language one you reference for SpiteBox, the similarity to LightBot ends there. Scratch is not a game or app designed to teach coding through gamification, it’s a sandbox. Again, students may “graduate” from LightBot and find application for their new skills by moving on to Scratch. There they can build projects demonstrating understanding of school subject concepts, create all manner of games, code music, or even build interactive greeting cards to send to loved ones on special occasions. Presenting these two apps as best step companions to LightBot within a “coding suite” of sorts might be more accurate than to dub them competition, in my opinion. Great resource! You’ve reminded me of this app that I haven’t used for awhile. I think it’s time to dust it off and introduce it to my primary friends again. 🙂