Looking Glass enables users to program 3D animated stories.
Looking uses a drag and drop programming interface to make coding easier to pick up and to reduce potential errors.
Using Looking Glass, novice programmers can pick up key programming concepts like parrallel actions, iterations, conditionals, and object-oriented code.
S4A is a Scratch modification that allows for simple programming of the Arduino open source hardware platform. It provides new blocks for managing sensors and actuators connected to Arduino. There is also a sensors report board similar to the PicoBoard one.The main aim of the project is attracting people to the programming world. The goal is also to provide a high level interface to Arduino programmers with functionalities such as interacting with a set of boards through user events.
via S4A.
Coder is an experiment for Raspberry Pi, built by a small team of Googlers in New York. It’s a free piece of software that turns a Raspberry Pi into a simple, tiny, personal web server and web-based development environment–just what you need for crafting HTML, CSS, and Javascript while you’re learning to code. It just takes ten minutes to set up and you’re ready to start experimenting with building real web stuff.
Published: September 2, 2013
Ten years ago, a computer programming language called Scratch emerged from the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using colorful stackable icons to represent the sequencing and logic of computer code, Scratch was designed to make programming easy for children 8 and older. Today the free program is used in more than 150 countries and thousands of schools, with more than 1,500 animations and games uploaded to the online Scratch community each day. Even third and fourth graders call themselves coders.
But who says that 8 is the youngest you can teach children how to program? Now there is Scratch Jr. for children still learning to read and tie their shoes.
Designed for children in kindergarten through second grade, Scratch Jr. is not yet available to the public, though its founders are preparing for an iPad version in 2014. This school year, they are evaluating how it works in a handful of classrooms in Massachusetts. The project is led by Marina Umaschi Bers, a professor in the department of child development at Tufts University, and Mitchel Resnick, Scratch’s founder at the M.I.T. Media Lab.
Audrey Watters | August 11, 2011
The introductory programming language Scratch is on the cusp of having its 2 millionth project uploaded to its website. That’s an impressive number, and one that points not just to the widespread adoption of Scratch by novice programmers, but to the growth of a vibrant community surrounding the programming language along with the stories and games that are built with it.
For those unfamiliar with Scratch, some background: Developed by the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a visual programming language for children age 6 and up. Scratch is available free of charge, and the software runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. (Scratch 2.0, which is currently under development, will bring the tool into the Web browser as opposed to being a download.)
continue reading: Scratch: Teaching the Difference Between Creating and Remixing | MindShift.
A few times a year, I have the job of teaching a bunch of people who have never written code before how to program from scratch. The nature of programming being what it is, the same error crop up every time in a very predictable pattern. I usually encourage my students to go through a step-by-step troubleshooting process when trying to fix misbehaving code, in which we go through these common errors one by one and see if they could be causing the problem. Today, I decided to finally write this troubleshooting process down and turn it into a flowchart in non-threatening colours.
Behold, the “my code isn’t working” step-by-step troubleshooting guide! Follow the arrows to find the likely cause of your problem – if the first thing you reach doesn’t work, then back up and try again.
Click the image for full-size, and click here for a printable PDF. Colour scheme from Luna Rosa.
Update: a couple of viewers have correctly pointed out that one of the examples – using a single equals sign in an if statement – actually generates a SyntaxError in Python. Oops! That example was left over in my brain from my days of teaching Perl! I’ve updated the flowchart and replaced that example with another common error which is dear to my heart – comparing an int with a string representation of an int (for example, read from an input file).
via 29 common beginner Python errors on one page | Python for biologists.
Overview. A short introduction to the Processing software and projects from the community.
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Processing 2.0—the latest incarnation of the programming language, development environment, and online community that has grown dramatically since its debut in 2001. This new release builds on the versions of Processing that have been downloaded almost two million times. We invite you to download Processing 2.0 from www.processing.org. The Processing software is free and open source, and runs on the Mac, Windows, and GNU/Linux platforms.
For the past twelve years, Processing has promoted software literacy, particularly within the visual arts, and visual literacy within technology. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach programming fundamentals within a visual context, Processing has also evolved into a development tool for professionals. We stand by our mission statement:
Processing seeks to ruin the careers of talented designers by tempting them away from their usual tools and into the world of programming and computation. Similarly, the project is designed to turn engineers and computer scientists to less gainful employment as artists and designers.
continue reading: Overview \ Processing.org.
Wiring is an open-source programming framework for microcontrollers.
Wiring allows writing cross-platform software to control devices attached to a wide range of microcontroller boards to create all kinds of creative coding, interactive objects, spaces or physical experiences. The framework is thoughtfully created with designers and artists in mind to encourage a community where beginners through experts from around the world share ideas, knowledge and their collective experience. There are thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Wiring for learning, prototyping, and finished professional work production.
via Wiring.
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
via Arduino – HomePage.
I believe that we, as teachers, do too much of the work FOR students. Learning how to program in SCRATCH puts the learning completely in the hands of the students. There are infinite paths a student could take with the program. There’s no way that we, as teachers, can prepare for the direction that the student will head towards. The student is going to have to figure out how to succeed without the teacher. For instance, by getting help from other students on the site, or watching a video about a particular code, or by “reverse engineering” someone else’s Scratch project. This “reverse engineering” is the BEST way to learn Scratch. By downloading someone else’s project and picking it apart, the student becomes detective and learns the new “literacy” needed to program
continue reading- Why We Teach Scratch » bit by bit.