Tynker is a website for students, teachers and parents. It provides students with an opportunity to code in various settings.
Jeff Bradbury just hosted a teacher podcast on March 22 about using Tynker in the classroom
What I have learned about using on line programs such as tynker, code.org and scratch is that it brings coding alive through the use of block coding. Students learning is scaffolded from the most basic coding steps to more advanced. The programs provide immediate feedback to the student so they know if they are correct or not. Most also provide the students with a “safety” key so that they do not become too frustrated and quit the program. Students who are shown the answer still must go through the steps of coding the information properly before they are able to move on.
The excellent thing about today’s coding programs is that they are also geared toward the student’s interests. Students can code with princesses, minecraft or a whole host of other themes. For the more creative student they can create thier own characters and storylines to code with.
When I was a student I was taught to code on paper (sorry I tried to code on paper) but because I never understood what I was writing, I never understood how the program would react. Students love working with these programs. It is vital that we start coding with our students at an early age as it has been said that coding is the language of the future. The language all workers will need to understand.
Catherine
Help your kids to learn coding with Coding for Kids