Coding in Elementary School

Vanessa Wrenn, the Director of Technology in Granville County, recently tossed out the idea of introducing computer coding to the elementary students in our district.  I immediately loved the idea and wanted to get moving on the project as soon as possible.  The Instructional Technology team met and brainstormed some ideas of how to proceed: What computer coding program might we use?  Where could we pilot the program? Who would be involved?

We decided to pilot the program at one of our elementary schools.  The process would begin by pulling small groups of 6-8 students and introducing them to FREE "modules" available through Code.org.  The first group of third graders moved through the Frozen "Code with Anna and Elsa" session and it took them about 45 minutes to complete it.  They all loved it and were highly engaged.  Students had 20 tasks to complete and were provided hints throughout.  The tasks required close attention to detail, problem solving, and perseverance, often requiring trial-and-error.

I love Code.org's vision:

"Launched in 2013, Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. We believe computer science and computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra."

Here is a look at the student workspace in the Code studio:

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/blog/codeorg-releases-frozen-hour-code-tutorial

And here are some photos from our coding fun this morning...

Next up will be piloting the coding modules with other grade levels at this school.  Then I'll start up a coding club for after school students, capping the program at 15 students.  Once the after school club is piloted, I plan on pushing in with the technology teacher and introducing computer coding to her students at the end of the school year.  What better way to build capacity in a technology teacher and introduce coding to an entire population of students at one of our elementary schools?!  How exciting!!

TouchCast App

I wanted to share another iPad app that I discovered while being out in the field.  While working with a second grade teacher to plan a technology-infused lesson, we took the recommendation of a fourth grade colleague to try out an app called TouchCast.  These second grade students were researching different kinds of penguins and the teacher was looking for a way to have the students present their information to their classmates.

TouchCast allows students to type in the information they want to share through a video and the text will run like a teleprompter while they're recording.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touchcast-imagine/id603258418?mt=8

Students had already done the research on penguins and were ready to publish their findings on the app.  Students took 10-15 minutes to type out their research and then came to the "recording studio" to make their video.

Once students finished recording, I exported their videos to their teacher's YouTube account.  With Google Apps for Educators, all users have a YouTube account as well.  If you're a teacher in Granville County Public Schools, just log in to www.youtube.com with your full school email address and computer password.

Here are some photos of the students using TouchCast.