Well, the opportunities for young people to learn about coding/programming just keep on coming. Readwrite.com recently posted an article about a new app called “Kodable” that aims to teach children of Kindergarten age and up how to program. The app is free on iTunes, and offers 30 levels at that low price. For more levels, there is the in-app purchase of Function Junction for $1.99.
I downloaded Kodable today, and found it to be very engaging (even though I’m a bit older than 6). It is the perfect follow-up to the Daisy the Dinosaur app. The object is to create a program that directs a small “fuzzball” through a maze, preferably the portions that allow it to consume gold coins. The game gradually scaffolds in complexity, beginning by showing you exactly what needs to be done to complete the first level. (The only reading necessary seems to be when you enter your name to log in.) After that, minor leaps in logic need to be done for the succeeding levels as they increase in difficulty.
I’m pretty confident more of these programming apps for primary kids are going to be showing up, providing even more resources for them to start learning another “language” and logic and problem solving skills that will serve them well in the future.
For some more resources for teaching programming, you might want to view my recent post on Hopscotch and Tynker.
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