It’s high time for students to move beyond an hour of coding exercises and learn computational thinking. That’s the message of a new report from Digital Promisethat examines what’s important to know and be able to do in a “computational world.” Source: It’s Time to Weave Computational Thinking into K-12 — THE Journal The researchers us of…
Coding is a fundamental skill for children to learn in school, but it is more than just feeding programming into a computer. Learning to code teaches valuable cognitive skills like critical thinking and problem solving. As coding moves from school to home, many toy manufacturers are responding with gadgets that turn homework into a game….
Pip is the compact handheld device that puts the world of digital creation, curiosity & fun in your hands. Make fun games, invent your own apps, play some retro classics or take control of objects around you! Pip is here to introduce the world of coding, to make it fun & easy. Start with drag…
Developers at MIT Media Lab are gearing up to release a new version of Scratch that works on mobile devices, can be integrated with physical objects, and that is lighter and faster. Source: MIT’s Scratch Program Is Evolving For Greater, More Mobile Creativity | MindShift | KQED News The block programming of Scratch is used…
Scientists have developed a new system that allows people with no coding experience to teach robots simple tasks, such as grabbing an object and dropping it into a bucket. The system aims to mimic how humans learn, and even allows robots to teach what they’ve learned to other robots. That could allow machines to one…
It sounds like a paradox. How can you teach computer programming without a screen? Computer programming is a term synonymous with coding, after all. Text, letters, syntax, arranged in meaningful sequences that give machines instructions. We code with our keyboards and we see code on our screens. But there is a clear distinction between coding…
Cubetto is a robot with two wheels and each wheel has its own motor. It can go forward and it can make 90 degree turns. The cube is wireless and gets commands from the interface board. The board has slots for blocks. There are blocks for moving forward, turning left, turning right, and executing a…
\Recognize this language? ¿Cual es su nombre? How about this one? { console.log(“Name: “ + myString); } The first one is Spanish. The next, although those are English words, is JavaScript, a computer language. Computers are everywhere, from microwaves to phones, from cars to the international space station. They may have different functions, but they…
I received a Christmas gift in fourth grade that profoundly impacted my career path and thus the rest of my life. That gift was a VTech PowerPad Plus “pre-computer.” While just a toy, the PowerPad line of products from the late 1980s and early 1990s were functioning computers that featured, among a handful of educational…
Hour of Code is a global event which aims to pull back the curtain on technology and give students a chance to see what coding (programming) is like. There are over 200 activites and lesson plans encompassing students from pre-readers up to high school. The search activities page has a set of categories so you can search for exactly…