Fun Ways To Get Kids Interested In Learning How To Code
We live in a world filled with information. This has always been true but today, the tools exist for all of us to see and use that information. Coding and computer programming are the foundational skills that will let future generations do things with the information around us that we can hardly dream of. We now must start teaching those skills to our children.
Fringe Benefits
At their roots, programming and coding are about two things: working with information and solving problems. It does not take much thought to realize that these two concepts are applicable in a virtually endless array of different applications. Children who learn the fundamentals of coding will be able to start applying what they learn immediately.
Coding skills help with all other kinds of learning, especially in an all-digital age. Many of the best programs for helping kids learn these skills are positioned as tools for other kinds of education. MIT’s Scratch is a perfect example. It is an extremely flexible tool that is presented to kids as a way to tell stories. As they learn, they also learn how to code.
Learning To Code Online
The Scratch program is just one example of an outstanding online resource for children’s education in programming subjects. It has already been shown that self-directed educational tools are great for learning programming skills. Websites like codecademy.com give adults professional-grade instruction in basic coding techniques. The same principles are available for younger learners through programs like Alice (http://www.alice.org/).
So far, the examples that have been mentioned are all free-to-use programs. For parents and educators looking for a more polished presentation, there are also highly-refined tools available at relatively modest prices. Tynker is a company that produces effective, fun programming courses for kids at every age level and skill set.
Offline Learning Tools For Coding
While coding instruction and online learning make a natural fit with each other, this is by no means the only avenue available for teaching children how programming works. Code Monkey Island (http://codemonkeyplanet.com/) is a fun, competitive boardgame that happens to reward children for learning fundamental programming concepts. This is just one example of extracting coding education from an academic setting and showing how it works in the real world.
For parents or educators with plenty of financial resources, there are even exceptional opportunities out there like Dash (https://www.makewonder.com/dash), a brilliantly-designed robot toy that is actually a powerhouse of coding education. The little robot offers endless hours of fun, but it needs instructions to work. Learning how to make the robot do things also teaches children how to program in a very applicable way.
This little treatise hardly covers all the reasons that teaching children to code is a good idea. Similarly, the educational tools mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg. If you have kids that are ready to learn how coding and programming work, use the resources here but be sure to do more research. Children have unlimited imaginations and learning to code can help them to turn some of their imaginings and dreams into reality.
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