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mp1 - Coding

Virginia Dicken-Gracen discusses her early experiences with coding camps as a child where she found debugging computer games to be enjoyable. She explores modern coding tools for children like Code Boogie, Code Monkey, and Scratch that use drag-and-drop blocks to make coding accessible and reduce intimidation. These tools allow children to create animations and games through coding in a fun way. Dicken-Gracen reflects on how learning coding has become less daunting compared to her early experiences with programming books.

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124 views

mp1 - Coding

Virginia Dicken-Gracen discusses her early experiences with coding camps as a child where she found debugging computer games to be enjoyable. She explores modern coding tools for children like Code Boogie, Code Monkey, and Scratch that use drag-and-drop blocks to make coding accessible and reduce intimidation. These tools allow children to create animations and games through coding in a fun way. Dicken-Gracen reflects on how learning coding has become less daunting compared to her early experiences with programming books.

Uploaded by

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Virginia Dicken-Gracen

MP1 – Coding

My history with coding goes back to middle school when I would attend the Indiana
United Methodist Computer Camp. Each day at camp involved one hour of “programming” and
one hour of “applications.” To be honest, I only attended that camp because a friend was
going. I loved the swimming and the songs and the campfires – but I dreaded the classes each
day, because I was intimidated by the thought that I would mess something up with the
computers. (Ironically, 10 years later, I was working in computer tech support.) Despite my
mostly stressful memories of those early computer classes at camp, one stood out to me: a
class that involved “debugging” a simple computer game. I loved looking through a game’s
code and finding the mistakes, knowing I had succeeded when the game would run smoothly.
Looking back, I wonder if I was less intimidated by this task because the program was already
“messed up,” and it was my job to fix it.
I was reminded of that early experience when exploring today’s tools for teaching
children (and adults) basic coding skills. These websites – Google’s Code Boogie, Code Monkey,
and Scratch – bring many of the fun aspects of coding to even very young children while
eliminating most of the intimidation factor. Once any child has mastered concepts such as left
and right, counting, order, and very basic reading skills, they can enjoy putting together blocks
to create rudimentary codes and then watching their creations come to life. These creations
can range from dancing elves to monkeys hunting bananas to twirling letters in their name.
As an adult, I had fun playing around with these children’s coding activities. I was
reminded of my original delight at finding the “bugs” in a program when I was little and my
later experiences of using Visual Basic to program some tools for a time perception lab during
an undergraduate psychology research assistantship. I appreciated that these lessons provided
some basic instruction but also encouraged exploring and learning-by-doing. They would be a
great resource for a parent or teacher of young children today, and perhaps for adults who are
looking for an intimidation-free introduction to coding.
Two of the sites I explored, Google’s Code Boogie and Scratch, use drag-and-drop coding
blocks rather than typed text. This significantly reduces the chance that a user (presumably a
child) will experience failure due to a typo. I think such an approach is an excellent way to
introduce people to the concepts of order and grouping and repetition that are found across
most coding platforms. Code Monkey brings in the additional layer of typing basic commands
using CoffeeScript. Learning this way seems far easier than the programming books I was
given to search through in years past. I suspect today’s children can approach this area of
computing with more enthusiasm and less dread.
Although I only had time to review these three sites, there are several more tutorials for
learners of various ages at https://code.org/learn. Some of these tutorial activities involve
JavaScript, Python, and other non-block-based coding exercises. They include themes ranging
from Star Wars to Barbie Dolls, allowing users to create interactive animations and games. I am
glad to see how the experience of learning to code has evolved over time.
Here is a screenshot of an interactive image I created while exploring Scratch:

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