Celebrate World Scratch Day at the Powerhouse

 Posted by at 12:28 am  No Responses »
May 182013
 

scratch day 2013It is officially World Scratch Day. Much as I love Scratch I struggle to see a programming language needed a day to itself. But then, I suppose, there are many less deserving things that get their own day.

Thinkspace at the Powerhouse Museum is running an event:

We’ll be remixing projects from the massive global scratch community, and adding animation based on some of the weird and wonderful things in our collection, and coolest images from our historic photo collections. We’ll be sharing our creations on our exclusive Scratch Day Gallery.

The gory details are as follows. When: 18 May 2013. Sessions: 11-12:15pm, 12:45-2pm, 2:30-3:45p. Cost$25, $20 members. Ages 7 and up. Details and bookings available from the Thinkspace webpage.

Jumping into programming with Hopscotch

 Posted by at 9:57 am  No Responses »
Apr 252013
 

Hopscotch programmingHopscotch is a new app designed to allow kids to code on an iPad. It is an absolutely fantastic introductory program, although at this stage it is just that – introductory.

In many ways Hopscotch is a simplified version of Scratch with some additional controls for the iPad – you can, for example, make something react to the tilt sensor. Like Scratch, you create a program by dragging jigsaw-like pieces arrayed on the side of the screen into an active area. Modify the details such as distance or duration and you’re good to go. The implementation is clean and simple and seems to work perfectly within the limitations the creators have currently set themselves.

It’s those limitations, though, which mean that even slightly older kids, or those with a bit of experience with programming, will soon be looking to move on to something more sophisticated. So, for example, there are no variables or interaction between objects. There are only set random number ranges to pick from and no negative random numbers. You can only repeat an action, or loop, a set number of times not infinitely. The creators are aware of this and clearly have plans to make Hopscotch more sophisticated as time goes by, saying

The next release, coming out in the next couple of weeks, will allow you to edit the random numbers. It will also have a sound event, such that you can program a script to run based on when you make a loud noise near the iPad. We have many, many more things planned for the future–the most preliminary are adding if/then statements, variables, operators and booleans, as well as a number of additional methods.  So, yes, we intend for Hopscotch to become quite robust.

Although there are limitations, Hopscotch works wonderfully within them. It is colorful, it is easy to use on a touch-screen environment. The creators have done a great job of using tabs to organise different objects. I love the fact the programming page puts a grid background in place which then goes away when you run the program – Scratch should copy that idea.

All in all I heartily applaud Hopscotch and would recommend it as a great way to introduce kids to programming. Right now it sits on the lower slopes of a mountain that leads up to Scratch and then on to more hardcore computer languages. That’s in no way a bad place to be - especially as it’s the only thing that sits in that position on the iPad. And it’s the first such app I’ve seen that properly takes advantage of the iPad’s range of interactive features (touchscreen, tilt sensor, etc).

So if your child has had a go on Hopscotch and likes what she has done, where do you go from there? Scratch wont work on the iPad; even though there is now a browser version available (worth a look on a computer). There is, however, the excellent reimplementation of Scratch that is Snap! Snap! will work perfectly an iPad, or other device, although it isn’t optimized for the iPad features.

Anyway, if you’re starting out Hopscotch a great place to begin. It is free on iTunes – so get it and have a play.

Hopscotch HD

Hopscotch HD

View in ITunes. $free

Why programming needs to be taught in schools

 Posted by at 7:37 am  No Responses »
Feb 282013
 

This video is a fantastic advertisement for why schools should teach programming. Beyond it teaching you how to think, beyond the possibility of a good job, beyond the lure of changing the world, there’s the fact that “you’re gonna look like you have magic powers compared to everyone else”. For me that’s the core concept that leads me to volunteer to teach programming – not that you get magical powers, but that you understand that what you see isn’t magic, it just looks like it is.

And you so have to love Will.i.am’s “Great coders are today’s rock stars. That’s it.”

Kids showcase their digital creativity: a simply great idea

 Posted by at 7:58 am  1 Response »
Oct 122012
 

“A three-day celebration of innovation and creativity in Australian contemporary education” is how The Satellite Games describes itself. Personally I’m going with “a bloody fantastic idea”.

The Satellite Games gives NSW schoolkids a chance to show what they can really do in the digital world. Hosted by Macquarie University, the Games gives kids from k-12 the chance to participate in one of three competitions.

Game Jam is my personal favourite, and my own programming group is entering three teams into it. The idea is that teams of 2-4 kids are given a theme at 9am and they have a day (or two if they are older) to produce a game. The kids have to work together as a team with minimal adult intervention. This absolutely plays to the modern education requirements of creativity and teamwork.

Then there’s Transmedia Storytelling in which kids, well… tell a story. Transmedia storytelling involves a narrative being told across multiple media using current digital technologies. “Unlike multimedia or cross-platform storytelling, this competition will involve students telling a single story that moves from different technologies or web tools.” I’d love to see the results of this one as I must admit I have some difficulty getting my old-fashioned head around it.

Finally in Robotics Showcase teams create a robotics showcase around the theme “GAME”. The team’s response may take the form of an interactive activity, a game for people to play a game between robots or perhaps incorporate a narrative sequence.

Altogether this is a great idea. I cannot applaud strongly enough kids being given a chance to demonstrate their technical and creative skills in new media. I also just love any opportunity for kids to work without adult supervision. In several senses The Satellite Games sound similar to the Robocup Junior experience and I just hope they successfully manage to capture the best elements of that experience.

The Satellite Games runs from October 31 to 2 November. Teams from outside the Sydney area can participate remotely. Full details are at: thesatellitegames.wordpress.com.

EDIT: and in news just to hand, The Satellite Games have been cancelled for this year ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’. Sigh.

Can you really share a computer?

 Posted by at 9:46 am  No Responses »
Aug 292012
 

I have, inadvertently, been exposing my little programming class to the newest approach to working as a programmer: ‘pair programming’.

In the real world pair programming involves two people sharing a computer, one takes the lead on driving the machine and doing the coding, the other rides shotgun, checking on their work and providing insight. In my lunchtime computer club we get the same effect either because (a) the Department of Education facilities mean there aren’t enough working computers to go around or (b) because the little guy who’s just there because his friend would rather code that play handball prefers to watch. Either way I feel I have some insight into pair programming in the testbed that is primary school.

According to the Wall Street Journal from a couple of days ago, there are those who swear by pair programming. It apparently reduces errors dramatically and keeps people focused on their work. I can see how that works - it’s ‘pair programming’ not ‘pair surfing the web or checking Facebook’. Having someone watch what you do is going to reduce errors and the opportunity for you to take some downtime; but at the expense of having a whole person do nothing but error-check and at the expense of you not getting any downtime. And at the expense of having someone constantly looking over your shoulder.

The bigger problem, though, is that I don’t believe you get two-persons’ worth of output. That’s the problem I’ve observed amongst the kids sharing a computer – there’s no synergy. In effect you are, if you are lucky, getting one-and-a-half brains working on the problem. And it’s not that kids can’t share. The problem is that computers are simply not set up for sharing to make any sense: They are designed for a single user. Which is in turn a very strong argument that the Government should be ensuring that every child has access to a computer on a one-to-one basis.

Further, I would argue that programming itself is essentially a relatively solitary activity. You can share ideas amongst a team and coordinate contributions but you can’t share creativity. It’s not for nothing that you find artists and authors tending to work in solitary splendour.

Being able to work with others is becoming an essential skill in life and it can be a tough skill for young geeks to even get a grip on let alone master. Being part of a team does not, however, mean the same thing as being surgically attached to a partner and sharing one computer. I’m not sure that’s a skill I want to really contemplate, let alone master. Next thing it’ll be someone else’s greasy finger-marks on my iPad. Shudder.

Sydney company, Atlassian’s video spoof of pair programming is not, by the way, quite how it’s done in the real world. I hope.

Imagine that: Sydney hosting finals of Imagine Cup

 Posted by at 1:33 pm  No Responses »
Jul 062012
 

The finals of the Imagine Cup are being held in Sydney from 6-10 July.

The Imagine Cup is billed as the world’s premier student technology competition. It involves students using their imagination and passion to create a technology solution that addresses a theme. This year it is: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.

The competition is ten years old. During that time it has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real-world problems. Since 2003, over 1.5 million students have participated in the Imagine Cup. This year 106 teams will represent their country after having spent a year working through regional and national competitions.
The Cup showcases Microsoft technology, but in doing so it gives the teams of students a chance to come up with creative and interesting solutions to problems. For example, the team from Poland have come up with an ingenious way of finding landmines using a mobile phone.
 Older Entries