Coding: how teachers can take advantage of pupils' enthusiasm
Children's excitement about coding lesson inspired new teaching ideas for teachers The first time I introduced coding to a class, as part of a games design project with Kodu (a visual programming language for children), things did not go exactly as planned. My first mistake was underestimating just how long the students would want to spend trying out all the landscape-design tools that Kodu has to offer. I either had to abruptly end their exploration – despite it clearly leading to some interesting discoveries – or delay the content I wished to cover. Then, as the project progressed, a number of students installed Kodu at home and learned how to do more than I’d imagined they would – some of them through experimentation and some by following the video tutorials that I’d told them about. Obviously, I was over the moon that they were so into it, but it did make timings a little tricky. It meant that students were getting to grips with the tools at different rates. ...
