How to get children in to code?

[mac98aop]

Hope this is ok on SMUG, but hoped some of you might know...

My 8 year old is mad on computers and games. I know, I know, most children are, but he is definitely more keen and 'wired that way' than most his friends.

Any tips on ways to get him in to something more edifying than the Wii? Is the Raspberry Pi too complicated a beast? Or is there an iPad App that would help him. I've googled, but would love any wisdom!

I sadly missed out on Apple's in store CODE events for children last Saturday.

Perhaps reply off-list if I'm breaking the SMUG parameters.

Thanks all

Adam

[Jason Davies]

My 12-year old has learned a lot from Minecraft -- I imagine he has
encounterd it? you have to use it as an excuse to drip-feed things like
scientific knowledge, looking up things on wikipedia eg about basalt.
But it gets them thinking about engineering and 'real' tasks, requires
what you could call project management etc

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to smug+uns...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send an email to sm...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Stephen Watson]

On iOS I would suggest he might like a look at a few apps; Pythonista (Editorial, by the same developer) or the new "Automator for iOS", namely "Workflow"

All of these have elements of programming.

Stephen

We are Costa of Borg. We will add your vibrancy and distinctiveness to our own. Your town and your customers will service us. Resistance is futile.

[Gillian Snoxall]

Hi Adam,

I put your question to my grandson in Sydney, who has just "retired" from being an Apple "genius"; his reply is below. As he says, I hope it helps.

Regards,

Gilly

Raspberry pi is a steep learning curve, but it’s designed as an education tool and there are plenty of resources online. 

The guys at Apple have shared the CODE programme with me, they worked through these exercises: http://studio.code.org/hoc/1

Hope that helps,

Michael

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to smug+uns...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to sm...@googlegroups.com.

[Jason Davies]

On 15 Dec 2014, at 21:27, Stephen Watson wrote:

> On iOS I would suggest he might like a look at a few apps; Pythonista
> (Editorial, by the same developer) or the new "Automator for iOS",
> namely "Workflow"

ooh that's fun. Possibly at a tangent, I've been playing with a Leap
Controller for a few days, with BetterTouchTool. It's awesome:)

I have the trackpad on the left with custom commands (eg four finger tap
does 'my favourite function in each app'). In Mailmate, it deletes the
current message; in Mindnode it folds or unfolds the branch; in Finder
it closes all the windows except the one I'm looking at (etc).

The Leap does things like: 5 finger to right, switch apps (like command
tab); one finger right, launch BBEdit; one finger left, launch Mailmate.
Three fingers up moves current window to top half, 3 down window to
bottom half

... and so on. Maybe waving your hands around and learning to make the
computer react would be a fun workflow?

[Toby Leighton]

There was a lovely nintendo DS game maker by nintendo called made in wario, where you create little 5 second mini games, you draw your own or use the pre-existing libraries of artwork, compose or use library music and sound effects, plus you chain together the logic of whats moving about, the win or lose conditions...  Its a bit old now that 3ds is the handheld nintendo though.  

Upcoming on the Wii-U is super mario maker, which doesn't look as in depth as wario ware, but lets you build your own super mario bros levels to play and share.

neither of these are as in depth as a "real" programming environment, but if a kid has fun building something they made themselves it may inspire them to break out of their sandbox and learn something more complicated.  A full programming environment might be throwing them in the deep end, where a more simple environment like these would be instant creating gratification.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to smug+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Toby Leighton]

apologies, it was called wario ware DIY.  made in wario was the non-creator game that inspired it.

[Rob Beattie]

This might be worth a look - http://scratch.mit.edu/about/

Rob

-----------------
Rob Beattie
Freelance writer and book author
www.robbeattie.com
07769 902820
Twitter: @robbeattie

NEW BOOK JUST OUT - The Bluffer's Guide to Fishing

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to smug+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to sm...@googlegroups.com.

[Adam Pymble]

Gosh, thanks everyone, and especially Gillian for putting the question further afield!

Thank you!

AP

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/smug/pR83OPNYyAU/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to smug+uns...@googlegroups.com.

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

I bought a Raspberry Pi B+ about a month ago, it’s been brilliant so far, lots of fun finding weird linux utilities. I ended up installing raspbmc as a media player to play movies from my server on my slightly old TV. There are lots of help resources available online, it just all depends how far into it you want to get.

Regards

Sam

MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development Sam Mullen ACMT +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.co.uk www.macambulance.co.uk MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

[ralph.davey]

I made a great VPN server with mine it works really well.

[Tilly]

A few months ago I want to a Showcase of how Warwick Uni students were volunteering to take technology into primary schools and they had us doing fun stuff like putting our hand over a light sensor which made the sun go down on a picture on screen - all programmed in 'Scratch' http://scratch.mit.edu/  I then found out that my son (12) uses that program at school as he was sent some programming homework. It's free as far as I know and has loads of resources for self-study. The basic principles are translated into graphic blocks (that you 'plug' in and out by drag and drop) so it looks good and simple but I think it's potentially very powerful. There is also 'LiveCode'  http://livecode.com/ (successors to Hypercard?) which I've also seen demonstrated - another notch up of sophistication - you can make apps with it... Hope this helps,

Tilly

[mac98aop]

Thanks for all your help everyone.... the sites are all bookmarked, Wario DIY sourced for £6 and our son is loving our renewed parental interest in his love of 'games'!

AP

Adam Pymble

@trinityislingtn|@adampymble

the reason for the season in 4.5mins goo.gl/szOdwV