Monthly Archives: May 2015

Apprendre à coder avec @Hopscotch et la classe inversée

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The following article is a  great read for anyone new to coding.  It provides some background knowledge and compelling reasons as to why should one think about coding.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/14/learn-code-639/

Here are some relavant quotes from the article.

“By 2020, there will be 1.4 million computing jobs and only 400,000 computer science students to fill those roles. This represents a gap of one million jobs that will go unfilled, and amounts to a $500 billion opportunity lost.”

“Many teachers don’t consider starting computer science education in kindergarten, but that’s precisely where to begin. In elementary school, kids approach computers with curiosity. In particular, girls are more likely to pick up computer science when they are young, before anyone has told them they can’t do it. And they are eager to learn: kids love the kinds of logic puzzles programming involves.”

“While it is true that there is some math in computer science, much of it is not math focused, and you can easily start with concepts that don’t require any math”.

 

With Hopscotch, learning to code is really easy.  Students can think of drawing and what to do to draw something meaningful and beautiful with the characters.  Students can think of playing games and what is involved in playing a game.  The process and thinking comes quite naturally to children.  In addition, there are many videos available to teach children what to do.

Hopscotch provides videos on the Hopscotch app that teaches students how to code.  Those videos are also available on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-6Hx9uqY8pOiZR1M5OK09A

In addition, I write videos, in French that teaches students how to code.  Some of my students follow me on Youtube.  When students as me a question, regarding coding, I can use the entire video or part of a video to help them with their code.

This video was created with a grade 5 class in mind but part of it could be used in grade 4 to create the patterns made with pentagons.

My best students were coding on their own without any help while others followed Hopscotch videos and others used the video one image of the above video  to create patterns for their math class.

In the first example, the student created a “Star Wars” character with a robot and a laser.  When the laser hit the other robot it made a sound pattern.  I thought it was quite imaginative.

photo 2 (62)

photo 1 (61)

 

This student made hexagon patterns, using the example from the video I had made.

 

photo 3 (45)

 

This student used squares and triangles to create her patterns.  She had enough background knowledge to do this on her own.

 

photo 4 (30)

 

The last two examples were created by watching videos created by Hopscotch.  A game where the bird goes down by itself and goes up when we tap on the iPad screen.  This type of program is quite appealing to boys.

 

photo 5 (17)

 

A circular patterns that keep growing.  Quite beautiful.  This was the second program done by this student.  She was saying she would like to code every day.

 

flip

 

A few students do not like to code with Hopscotch.   They were allowed to do their pattern today using another  app sound which is fine with me.

I personally also like coding and like teaching coding.  It is my third year where I incorporate coding in my classes.  In grade 6, I had used SCRATCH with the computers and in grades 3 and 4, I used Hopscotch on the iPads.  It is a skill that is quite needed and something that students like to do.

 

Comparing coding apps for primary/junior grades

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Here is a list of coding tools applicable for the elementary level.  They were rated by Graphite and by teachers.

https://www.graphite.org/top-picks/best-coding-tools-for-elementary

I am looking at the apps for the iPad because we have iPads in our school and for the early years, iPads provide the tactile element and the mobility element that computers and laptops do not have.  Mind you, with the Puffin browser, web-based applications can be used on the iPad as well.

I looked at Kodable, Scratch Jr, My Robot Friend, and Hopscotch.

With Kodable, My Robot Friend, and Scratch Jr students can learn the same computational thinking behind LOGO.  This means they will learn to advance a few steps, turn, advance a few more steps and turn again.  This is good for JK-2.  They are fun to use.  I find Kodable and My Robot Friend quite expensive for what you get.  There is a lot of sounds and pictures.  It sort of look cool and appealing but really expensive for what you get.   Scratch Jr. on the other hand is free.  There is less bells and whistles but students get to be creative.  From an early age, they can draw picture backgrounds, record their voice, imagine stories, and write them.  It uses a fuller range of skills and would appeal to many types of learners.   The Scratch Jr. is free and would get my rating of 5/5.

From all my work with Hopscotch, any one would know I like it a lot.  Hopscotch is 2 years old and changing.  It recently added sound and it would be nice if in newer versions it could also add the record sound command which it does not have yet.

Kodable 2/5

My Robot Friend 2/5

Scratch Jr. 5/5 (Grades JK-2)

Hopscotch 4.5/5 (Grades 2-8)

I also like Cargo bot. It is a game that teaches computational thinking.   There are many levels.  It is still a more advanced form of LOGO.  Quite interesting.  Students just play and learn the basics of computational thinking.

For a teacher who does not know anything about coding and would still like help students, I would recommend Cargo Bot.  I would give it 4/5 for that purpose.

Otherwise my recommendation remain Scratch JR, and Hopscotch for the iPad.  Both apps allow the teacher to link the student work to many aspects of the curriculum while allowing the students to be creative.

 

Scratch is also a 5/5 but it is for the computer and not the iPad.

 

Broadening access to computer science

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In the Educational Leardership Journal:

December 2014/January 2015 | Volume 72 | Number 4
STEM for All Pages 48-53

Democratizing Computer Science

Jane Margolis, Joanna Goode and Jean J. Ryoo

Why we need to open computer science courses for more students.

Found at this link:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec14/vol72/num04/Democratizing-Computer-Science.aspx

 

We find an excellent article about introducing computer science to schools.

Computer Science is still available to mostly white males who have parents who support them at home.  Not many girls in computer science or people of color.  There is a need to introduce Computer Science in schools to address the inequity.  One of the main issue is teacher training.  Teachers do not have the training necessary to be able to teach the basic concepts.

To address the situation, we need to find teachers willing to try and train them by giving them the tools to be successful.

The authors mention the organizations that are providing support, including CSTA, code.org and other.

There is one aspect I would like to highlight.  Here is the text:

 

“When reflecting on what she considered a “nerve wracking” process of creating a game in the programming language Scratch, one student said,

Now I have kind of an idea of how things work, how the cartoonists do stuff and, yeah, it’s been awesome. … After all of the frustration, it leaves you a satisfying feeling because you’re like, “Yes, I did it.”

After taking ECS, when students are asked to describe how computer scientists think, both male and female students are significantly less likely to use words that focus exclusively on intelligence (as they did in the pre-class surveys) and are significantly more likely to use words related to computational practice (such as analyze, program, or problem solve). Female students show a significant increase in growth mind-sets (Dweck, 2007) as they come to view computer science ability more in terms of experience and hard work than innate aptitude. This shift in beliefs is essential to drawing more students into computer science.”

 

Students who participated in the computer science sessions changed their belief about computer science.   It was no longer associated with being geek or super smart but more with hard work.

This change in mindset made computer science accessible to everyone.

 

I have worked both with SCRATCH on a computer and Hopscotch on the iPad.  I would say that creating games with Hopscotch is so much easier than creating them with SCRATCH.  The game aspect with Hopscotch can be created with just 3 lines of code where an object can be moved across the iPad by tilting the iPad.  It is that easy with Hopscotch.  If Hopscotch was used instead of SCRATCH at an earlier age, more students would find it easy and fun to code and more students would perhaps be interested in computer science, not to mention the teachers.

Because the iPad is mobile and relatively small, it can be used anywhere.  I have seen students working on Hopscotch at music recitals.  Parents wanted to attend a concert on a Saturday night and the children had an iPad with them.  They were busy coding for fun while parents enjoyed the music and relaxed.