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Teach kids programming – A collection of resources

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Re: Teach kids programming – A collection of resources

#2

Post by Brajeshwar »

This is an awesome list. I have a daughter turning 5 this december. I've been planning and making a list of to-do to introduce her to computers by next year.

Like most other kids of her generation, she is comfortable with touch devices (phones, tablets) since her 2nd birthday (I saved and gifted her an iPad-1). Now, she navigates Youtube with ease on the Mac's Trackpad and can type her name on the Keyboard. It's time to get on to real computers, and eventually programming. I'm excited.

Re: Teach kids programming – A collection of resources

#6

Post by elisee »

You might also want to check out my 3D game-making platform http://craftstud.io/ which has drag'n'drop scripting, easy-to-use tools for making your own animated models & maps plus real-time cooperation over the Internet.

I've taken a slightly different approach to most of the tools in the list in that my aim is to provide a platform that can actually be used for real game production. It's used to make all kinds of games by anyone ranging from 8-years-old to adults.

Some games made with it: http://play.craftstud.io/games/

Re: Teach kids programming – A collection of resources

#7

Post by edtechdev »

The age recommendations on this are way off

This article recommends Scratch for 12 and up. Scratch is good for kindergartners and up. The Snap fork is more appropriate for older students: http://byob.berkeley.edu/

This article recommends Lego Mindstorms for ages 9-12 (and python and ruby). The average age of people who used to buy Lego Mindstorms was 28. The box recommends it for kids over 10. Lego has a robotics kit for younger kids called WeDo. I would not introduce python or ruby to a 9 year old, unless you want them to hate programming. Teaching programming for its own sake is a recipe for disaster.

And again it's missing so much. For coding robots to do things see sites like http://fightcodegame.com/ http://robocode.sourceforge.net/ http://www.nessbots.com/

For making games, I'd start with Scratch for http://www.playmycode.com/ http://pixieengine.com/ https://www.scirra.com/construct2

Re: Teach kids programming – A collection of resources

#8

Post by Steuard »

I continue to be excited about the current Kickstarter for "Robot Turtles", a board game targeting 3-8 year olds that's based on programming concepts. It sounds like a lot of fun. There are about two weeks left to get a copy.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danshapiro/robot-turtles...

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