Somehow, simultaneously, all 10 children in my CodeClub shoot their hands up. "Terence! Terence! Why doesn't this work? "Help! My bird isn't flapping!" "What do I press to set this variable?" I am run off my feet. I dash from workstation to workstation, troubleshooting the problems. In every case, my response is the same. "Did […]
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I recently got a MakeyMakey. It's a sort of ersatz USB keyboard that can be plugged into anything electrically conductive. So, I plugged it into my Raspberry Pi, loaded up the Scratch programming environment, and created a fruit and veg interface. See for yourself! The scripts themselves are very simple. The MakeyMakey in its default […]
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Last night, I ran my second Code Club at Woking Library - teaching kids how to program using Scratch. We're following CodeClub's syllabus which has loads of kid friendly lessons. The first lesson was a great success. It was held before the Christmas break - so I was eager to make sure that interest hadn't […]
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It occurred to me that I've been very lucky in my computing career. I had parents who encouraged my love of technology, who were able to teach me BASIC, and buy my brother and I our first computer when we were still quite young. That old BBC Micro served me well and helped springboard me […]
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A few months ago, my friend Adam Cohen-Rose told me that Surrey Libraries were looking for a volunteer to help teach coding to kids. Adam Cohen-Rose@adamcohenrosehey @edent Surrey Library Service in Woking is looking for a @CodeClub volunteer… know anyone? codeclub.org.uk/getting-starte…❤️ 0💬 0🔁 009:44 - Fri 31 August 2012 So, after a few months of […]
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I'm currently getting involved in the Coding For Kids scene. I'm setting up a workshop in my local library to teach kids programming - specifically, the MIT language Scratch. I've been left slightly dissatisfied with the unstructured nature of the Scratch teaching materials. While it's quite fun to teach a cat to dance - it […]
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