Programming for children comes in many guises: be it Logotron, my first logo, MS LOGO, Scratch, KODU, Starlogo TNG, Bee-Bots, Probots, Roamer, Pixie or any of the pencil and paper procedures we teach for instructions are not only good fun but a sound basis for for future computing languages and syntax.
Aimed at teachers and those interested in using games with an educational intent, this handbook aims to provide some useful anchoring points for educators to make sense of the area and to develop practical approaches to the use of computer games as a medium for learning.
It is assumed by some that the models games employ lead to learning, as young people effectively learn how to play without necessarily being explicitly taught, doing vast amounts of reading or interacting with others; while others see games as boring, tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive.
N.B. These lessons and resources are in no way finalised and very much a 'work inprogress'.
Needless to say but you are welcome to download and deconstruct.
This is a series of scratch programming lessons for every year group from Year 1 to 5. Year 6 will be coming shortly but the premise of this is that I work on it to get it a bit tighter in terms of progression and pitching it just right. The thing is, if your school doesn't have a specialist teacher then it might be best to rip them apart and mix and match as you see fit.
The whole school have been working on Scratch for the end of term 2 projects and these are a range of simple turns and effects/ key presses right through to a full scaled game with several levels focusing on paltform type games.
You and anyone are free to download and edit the files, videos, and slide shows as you see fit. I would like though, to have some kind of discourse should there be improvements made to any of the files. Should there be a clearer video or anything like that.
You can contact me via the form inthe contact link above.
As there is a creative commons license attached to this it would great if, when you use these, you post or tweet where you got them from. Thanks and enjoy the games :)
This term (February 2011) we are running a school wide control and programming topic that I feel is missing and entirely necessary to boost the attainment of ICT skills across the age range. Why am I doing this? The cohort I have inherited has such a wide ranging set of skills and inthe most part, poorly attaining children that we need to boost their awareness of what they can create with ICT. The way I envisage in doing this with Scratch from Year 1 to Year 6.
In the break between Christmas and Chinese New Year there is short half term that has seen the Year 3 children (who are my lowest achievers) realy take their learning into their own hands for te first time this academic year - and has prompted me to re-evaluate the path of the attainment for the rest of my year groups.
So this is ths plan:
To integrate scratch projects across the school from Year 1 to Year 6 with video accompaniment which should allow me to support the less confident children in my classes.
The first of the resources are as follows
Children work from within the scritpt area and follow the tasks set in the script area. The code blocks are there for them to follow with an open task at the end. Use the arrow keys
Originally designed as a learning tool for youngsters using Xbox 360, Kodu was released a year ago as service with a powerful programming language that quickly became a hit in academic circles. Since its release, Kodu has been downloaded more than 200,000 times and is used in more than 60 educational institutions across the globe, according to Microsoft. Redmond thinks Kodu's biggest hurdle so far, however, has been that schools needed to purchase Xbox 360s, controllers, and so on to get started. Thus, the software giant has ported the tool to Windows as most educational institutes already have PCs with mice and keyboards.
The game lab is downloadable from the XBox 360 Community Games page inside of XBox Live. Once downloaded (and paid for I might add; 400 Microsoft Points), you are launched into a tutorial that shows you the basics of how to manipulate the Kodu environment. There are three basic editable features: the world itself, the sprites & their actions / reactions, and user input via the game controller. But don’t let that lead you to believe that your options are limited. You have a nearly limitless canvas to fill with your ideas!
You can start with one of the many samples & tutorials or build your game from the ground up. There are a multitude of objects to include in your game’s scenery: hills, mountains, water, trees, and numerous other objects. After getting your world setup, there are more than a dozen different classes of sprites you can use to populate the game board. Each sprite has its own unique way of locomotion, speed, and abilities.
In a nutshell a playable custom version of a cross between Mapforge for Halo, Populous (if you're old enough to remember that!) and Starlogo/ Alice with the common control of Xbox handsets. The good thing here is that this 12 year old girl at the CES conference displays great bravery in front of this audience to demonstrate the speed of development of her world in kodu. This, I think, is a great gauge of where to aim your levlling at should you take this on in your classroom.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 8:16AM 
