Academic Camp to Teach Teens Game Design

This news story has caught my eye this week.  This innovative, 21st century teaching is inspirational and it will be extremely interesting to find out how it goes.  I wish more of this happened in the UK (see my case study on Code Club, to see what there is to offer in the UK).

Teenage students in Idaho will have the opportunity to participate in an online camp in game design/programming from March.  The Idaho Teen Game Lab (ITGL) is intended for people who are interested in a career in digital gaming and computer programming.  It is open to 200 middle and high school students across the state of Idaho.

ITGL is a six week, online camp that teaches digital game design and allows for career exploration in this area.  ITGL is taught using 3D GameLab, which is a quest-based learning platform.  Students level up by playing educational “quests” within Gamemaker Studio, Sploder, Unity, Minecraft and adventure maps at their own pace.  Students will be able to collaborate in virtual worlds to plan and build civilizations, create personalized games and test and provide feedback on fellow-developers games.  ITGL is co-sponsored by Idaho Digital Learning (IDLA) and GoGo Labs.

“At Idaho Digital Learning, we are always searching for innovative ways to improve learning opportunities for Idaho Students.  Idaho Teen Game Lab provides a rich learning experience that promotes creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking which are essential skills in todays work environment.  We are really excited about our partnership with GoGo Labs and have enjoyed working with them on this project” said Mike Caldwell, Idaho Digital Learning Director of Program Development.

“Ninety-nine percent of teens play video games.  GoGo Labs is focused on engaging students and inspiring teachers through gamified learning opportunities, and what could be more interesting than designing the games themselves?  We’re excited to be working with IDLA to bring this opportunity to Idaho teens” said Lisa Dawley, GoGo Labs CEO & Founder.

Registration will open on February 5th 2014, in celebration of Digital Learning Day.  ITGL will be great for beginner and intermediate game designers.  For more information, go to http://idahoteengamelab.org/.

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Women and Game Design

This week, we thought we'd share an infographic with you.  One of our fans from webdesigndegreecenter.org alerted us to it.  Hopefully it will be inspirational for some of our readers (and particularly young women, like myself).  If you would like to learn more about easy ways to get into
programming, click here or click here for more about designing a learning simulation.


Source: WebDesignDegreeCenter.org

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Part 6: Programming, Project Based Learning and games-ED

Project Based Learning (PBL) is big news in the education world.  I wrote a blog article about the benefits of PBL in March, which you can read here.  I also discussed a new school in the U.S. that used PBL heavily to teach its children, in this article.  It is essentially a way of teaching children things through them completing a project.  They are given a topic or goal and they must complete a project around it.  It is an extremely engaging way of learning that enables children to see the real-world value of the knowledge they gain.

Image courtesy of NMCorg on Flickr.

Teaching children programming lends itself very well to PBL, either at a whole class level, or in smaller groups.  Using the goal of creating a game, children can learn to program along with many other skills (media skills, logic, problem solving, creativity, maths etc.).  The project could also be situated around a subject, which could increase subject matter knowledge in a stealthy way.  For example, a game about history would lead children to learn about that history, for the game to be successful.  The project could also go further and teach children entrepreneurial skills, business skills, marketing skills, social media skills etc. if the game is to be sold and marketed.  Even if it was never to be actually marketed, a hypothetical case could be presented and the children could still learn these skills.

games-ED (which brings you this blog, see tab at top of page for more info) believes that it is important for children to have some understanding of programming.  We also appreciate the myriad of extra skills to be gleaned from teaching children to program and how powerful PBL can be.  The skills that we use to develop games combined with our ability to deliver training enables us to run PBL courses.  We have experience of running 450 workshops and 40 school classes and have previous PBL experience.  For examples, see Climate Crew and Eco Busters.  For more information visit: http://www.games-ed.co.uk/pbl.html.

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Part 5: Case Study - Code Club

Code Club is a U.K. network of free after-school clubs to teach children between the ages 9 and 11 to program.  It is volunteer-led and it provides groups with specially written projects to help them learn basic programming.  The projects teach children how to program by showing them how to make computer games, animations and websites.

Their mission is to give every child in the UK the chance to learn to code.  They aim to have Code Club in 25% of primary schools in the UK by the end of 2015.  So far they have 899 clubs across the UK.

Each term, children learn new skills.  Terms 1 & 2 use Scratch to teach programming basics.  Term 3 teaches the basics of web development using HTML and CSS.  Term 4 teaches Python and so on.  Volunteers go to their local club for an hour a week and teach one project per week.  Clubs are usually held in schools, but also can be held in libraries, community centres etc.

Their philosophy: “Code Club is about fun, creativity and learning through exploring. It’s important that the children enjoy their time at Code Club and that it doesn’t feel like another school lesson. They should understand that they’re in charge of the computer, and can (and should) make it do what they want, not the other way around.”

They have also launched Code Club World and already have some clubs in other countries.  The mission of CodeClubWorld.org is to give every child in the world the chance to learn to code by providing project materials and a volunteering framework that supports the running of after-school coding clubs.  So far, they have materials in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, German, Norwegian and Ukranian.  They also welcome any offers to translate the materials into your native language.

If you want to learn more, support Code Club or even start your own visit: codeclub.org.uk or for Code Club World: codeclubworld.org.

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Part 4: How Can You Get Started with Programming in Schools?

By now you should have an appreciation of how programming can help children and also potentially help reduce the skills deficit, which could benefit the wider economy.  You may be thinking that teaching programming in schools is difficult.  But it doesn’t have to be.  We have compiled a list of ways that you can get started below, from tutorials, to programming games and real life robots.  games-ED also offer services which can help, which I will discuss later in the series.

Image courtesy of Gijsbert Peijs on Flickr.

Online courses/tutorials:

• Hackety Hack – Teaches Ruby, ideal for teens.
• LearnStreet - Courses in JavaScript, Ruby, Python, HTML, and CSS where students can practice coding in their browsers. 
• Lynda.com - A collection of video tutorials covering a wide variety of formal coding languages. 
• Udemy - Covers a wide range of programming languages including: Java, Ruby, C++, PHP, HTML, CSS, and more.
• Crunchzilla Code Monster – 59 hands-on lessons to teach JavaScript.
• Codecademy – Courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
• Code School - Courses in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Ruby, and iOS.

Child-friendly programming languages/tools:

• Scratch –Drag and drop, media-rich interface.
• Alice – Enables programmer to see real-time affects of actions.
• EToys – Media-rich visual programming environment.
• Waterbear – Drag and drop programming language.
• ToonTalk – Teaches programming through puzzles.
• Ruby – Allows beginners to create impressive games.
• RoboMind – Learn to programme a virtual robot.

Apps:

• Daisy the Dinosaur – Learn basic, drag and drop programming.  Ages 4+. 
• Robo Logic (iOS) – “You have to "program" a robot's movements by dragging commands to the memory of the bot”.  Ages 4+.
• light-Bot (Android) – Similar premise as above.  Ages 4+.
• Cargo-Bot (iPad) – Similar premise again.  Ages 4+.
• Move the Turtle (iOS) – Teaches children the basics of programming.  Ages 5+.
• Kodu (xBox, Windows) – Design a 3D game world.  Ages 8+.
• KidsRuby – Learn Ruby programming.  Ages 12+. 
• Hakitzu – Teaches the fundamentals of JavaScript by programming robots to compete in arena fights.

Making Apps:

Image courtesy of Cea. on Flickr.

• App Inventor – Learn to make Apps for Android devices.
• Codea – Programming for the iPad.

Making websites:

• Mozilla’s Thimble - Guides students to change variables to impact aesthetics and usability of sample websites. 
• Code Avengers – Courses and exercises to teach JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

Programming hardware:

• Arduino – Hands-on code that interacts with the real world.
• Lego Mindstorms – Create and programme physical robots through a visual programming language.
• Raspberry Pi – Designed specifically to help kids learn to program like their parents may have done on computers like the Spectrum ZX and Commodore 64.
• Brick Pi – Raspberry Pi programming Lego.

Mark Lassoff, founder of Learntoprogram.tv argues however, that when the individual has learnt the basics, it will be their portfolio which will stand them in good stead, “People think you have to go back to school to learn programming and other computer skills, but you don’t…There’s also the myth that you have to be some kind of math or science genius to learn it. Not true. You just need to learn the process, and then practice it. You can build a portfolio by doing volunteer work for a church or charity.”

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Part 3: What Skills Does Programming Impart?

This blog post is part of a series.  We have discussed how programming might be able to help children acquire jobs and be better suited to the 21st century ('Part 2: Learning to Program: An Easy Way to Get a Job?'), but how?  Obviously learning to program teaches children programming skills, however, it can also teach and develop much more than this:

Image courtesy of Tim McCune on Flickr.

• Systems thinking – programming requires an understanding of how various inputs, outputs, lines of code and so on affect each other.
• Logic and problem solving - it requires a great deal of logic and greatly develops problem-solving skills to work out systematically what a problem might be and how to deal with it.
• Creativity and innovation – when a problem is found, the programmer will often have to find novel ways of fixing it.  They may also try to use code in unusual ways, try to make innovative games and so on.
• Maths and science – while not a necessity, learning to programme can encourage students to learn maths in a real world setting.  Their programme may also require physics knowledge such as trajectory, gravity, speed and so on.
• Collaboration – programming is often a collaborative activity, which requires individuals to hone their team working.  For example, someone might be game designer, another may be head coder, another would be graphic artist and so on.
• Subject mastery – programming requires knowledge not only of coding but also whatever is to be programmed.  For example, a game about the water cycle would require the programmers to learn about the water cycle.  
• Media skills – most games involve some pictures and sounds.  The programmer may also have to learn how to produce and edit these.

While not a skill, as such, learning to program and the act of programming something can be extremely motivating and provide students with a sense of accomplishment and pride.  Sam Blazes, a winner of the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge says, “Programming is fun to me… It’s something that I can sort of do and have fun and work on, and I can feel a sort of sense of accomplishment when I start working on stuff and even finish something.”  This can allow children to learn things without necessarily knowing it.  The act of programming is an engaging project that can teach all sorts of things stealthily, in a very fun way.

The next part of the series will show you how you can get started with learning to program or teaching others to program, from apps for 4 year olds, to making lego robots move and interact with the world.  We will cover a range of products, tutorials and so on for a range of ages, price ranges and devices.

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Part 2: Learning to Program: An Easy Way to Get a Job?

Due to the current developer shortage, teaching children to program could be a way for young people to secure themselves a job in a difficult economic climate.  While normally brand new developers would be less desirable than experienced ones, the shortage means that there aren’t enough programmers to fit the number of programming jobs available and to put it bluntly, beggars can’t be choosers.

Image courtesy of Paul Inkles on Flickr.

The number of coding jobs is also expected to increase in the future.  There were 913,000 computer programmer jobs in 2010.  That number is expected to jump 30% from 2010 to 2020 whereas the average growth of other U.S. jobs is predicted to be 14% (predictions from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).  They are well-paid jobs too.  In 2012, according to the BLS, the average salary for a computer programmer was about $80,000, compared to the average wage of American workers at $45,800.  For more job statistics see Code.org’s stats page.

Mark Lassoff, founder of Learntoprogram.tv says,“There aren’t enough people to fill these jobs because technology and the job market are moving much faster than education in high schools and colleges.”  Many computing curricula are outdated, teaching children skills they can easily pick up themselves, such as how to use Microsoft’s PowerPoint.  In most cases, computing courses are optional and are usually an afterthought.  They are more likely to be lumped in with subjects like home economics and textiles than maths and English.  In the U.S., only nine states have made computer science courses a graduation requirement.

In the UK, chair of the hi-tech industry campaign Next Gen Skills, Ian Livingstone OBE said: “High-tech, knowledge-based industries are major generators of jobs and growth for London, and need skilled computer programmers to maintain their growth. At the moment London’s schools just aren’t producing enough students with the right knowledge and skills that industry needs.  Creative industries, for example, are crying out for graduates who know how to programme and are forced to recruit from abroad.”
 
According to Mozilla's YouGov Survey, three quarters of young people in the UK want to learn how to make games, apps and websites but only 3% of children have the programming skills required to achieve this.  This skill deficit is, to some extent, because traditionally the computing curriculum concentrated on word processing and spreadsheet packages and not on more creative and advanced skills like programming.  However, the UK is in the process of creating a new computing curriculum to try and combat this.

Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson on Flickr.

Schools that do offer computer science usually restrict the course to students who excel at maths and teach only Java.  “What the computer science community has been slow to grasp is that there are a lot of different people who are going to need to learn computer science, and they are going to learn it in a lot of different ways,” says Mark Guzdial, a professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  And of course, along with a shortage of programmers in general, there is a shortage of programming teachers as anyone who can programme is likely to get a better pay elsewhere.  However, as I will discuss in the next part of this series, teaching programming can be easier than expected.

Some companies are taking matters into their own hands.  For example, Living Social (a daily deal site) could not find the programmers it needed.  It ran an experiment (Hungry Academy) to train 24 people to program in just 5 months.  The students all graduated and became full-time developers for the company.

So, to conclude, learning to program at any age could be an advantage in the difficult climate that we find ourselves in.  However, it seems about time that curricula started to change to fit into the 21st century world (of work and in general).  It is also something that is appealing and even 'fun' for many young people that could help them advance their careers from a young age, what have they got to lose?  In Part 3 of the series, I will discuss some of the skills that learning to program can help generate.

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Part 1: Why is Teaching Children to Program so Important?

This post is the first in a series of several blog posts about teaching children to program.  The first few posts will discuss why it is important, how it can help children get ready for the future (is it an easy way to get a job?) and what skills it can impart.  I'll then give you some ideas about how you can make a start and tell you how other people are teaching children to program.  I will also discuss how it can be an excellent way to introduce Project Based Learning (PBL) - see our post '10 Benefits of Project Based Learning (PBL)'.  Stay tuned, this post is a bit of a teaser and a short introduction to the posts over the next few weeks.

Image coutesy of Fort Meade on Flickr.

The ability to program has the potential to become another essential 21st century skill that children are said to need to have a successful career in today’s world.  Along with being a 21st century skill in itself, learning to program also imparts other 21st century skills in learners such as systems thinking, logic and problem solving.  To learn more about 21st century skills see our post, '21st Century Skills and Games Based Learning'.

Developer and mentor to aspiring programmers Joe O’Brien believes that programming skills are important even in non-technical jobs.  "Not that we want everyone to go out and create Web programs and write the next Twitter, but I think having a base understanding of what happens behind the curtain can be huge,” he said.  “Even if a CEO never codes for her company, just understanding what is happening is going to be huge for her from a risk standpoint, from an understanding standpoint,” he added. “CEOs need to have a lot of knowledge of a lot of different things and programming is a large part of that.”

According to Maurya Couvares, co-founder of ScriptEd, “Coding will be the key to innovation in the future but many students, but especially low-income students, aren’t exposed to it.”  Bill Gates, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Meg Whitman from Hewlett-Packard along with other tech icons agree.  They have developed Code.org, a non-profit producer of programming videos.  They firmly believe that coding, programming and computer science will be the language of the 21st century.  Code.org’s Hadi Partovi argues, "In a world that's increasingly run on technology, computer science is a liberal art that every student should be exposed to, regardless of their path in life.”

That is why teaching to children to program could be so important.  Check back soon for our article 'Learning to Program: An Easy Way to Get a Job?'  The links below will become active as the posts are uploaded.

• Part 1: Why is Teaching Children to Program so Important?
• Part 2: Learning to Program: An Easy Way to Get a Job?
• Part 3: What Skills Does Programming Impart?
• Part 4: How Can You Get Started with Programming in Schools?
• Part 5: Case Study - Code Club
• Part 6: Programming, Project Based Learning (PBL) and games-ED

 
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