In today’s post I want to cover if Code.org is
BAD or
GOOD for your student or child. I’ve heard both sides and there’s a lot of misinformation out there online that is not giving the parent or teacher the right idea about exactly what is Code.org computer science curriculum. So hopefully I can clear this up once and for all and address the worrys of parents. Because I think the real worry for parents and teachers comes down to this: Is my student or child wasting their time on the computer and just playing games? Well…I promise if you keep reading you’ll stop feeling guilty as a parent like I did and see that computer screen time can be for learning and enjoyable.
About Code.org’s Mission
Code.org is a computer science curriculum for schools that is run as a non-profit. Their vision is to bring coding to every student all over the USA. You can read more about their vision here:
https://code.org/about.
What we here at Simply Coding like about Code.org is that it really gives the kid or student a nice introduction into the world of coding specifically through their program called, “hour of code”. But as I write this I really want parents to understand the differences of real world coding for kids and what we like to call visual programming languages. I’ll do the best I can to explain in parent language.
2 Types of Programming Languages
Visual Based Computer Programming (not real coding environment)
I like to refer to this as the drag and drop method of coding games. It is easier at first when you are just learning the logic or syntax to simply have a student click the mouse and then drag and drop either images or pieces of already written code into blocks. It’s also great for those who do not yet know how to type and are trying to gain exposure to see if coding may be something they will like. Most kids start here. However, if you notice your child starting to get bored, then it may be time for something more challenging.
Code.org is instant gratification for kids, which is why they like it! You simply login online and start clicking and dragging and instantly can see your projects! However, the downfalls are that you cannot go farther than this, thus progression stops for the child and creates boredom. This is mainly due to the fact that most kids that are into coding have the brain to want to keep going and designing their own games or projects beyond their imaginations. With just dragging and dropping blocks is simply not going to cut it for them. Because it is a non profit there is no customer support, which can lead to a first time frustrating experience for some. The child is on their own. So parents just be aware of that. And I almost forgot that because they host all kids projects on their libraries (website) you can’t really save your work and post it whereever.
Examples of visual based coding: Code.org Blockly Hour of Code,
Khan Academy,
CodeCademy,
Scratch MIT program
Bottom Line: Blockly and other similar programs are great to introduce logic or syntax. They are fun to do for kids and great to expose them to how coding works and the cool stuff you can make with it. It is more like you’re playing a game right of the bat. I relate it to perhaps a “theory” class of learning the piano or learning how to play one song without really learning the notes. I can still play “in the jungle” by Lion King and don’t know a single note!
Text Based Computer Programming (real live coding environment).
Once your child is bored, then it is definitely time to move into the text based computer programming to keep feeding his or her imagination of creations. This is the real life coding where your child or student will download a text editor onto their computer (which is free by the way) and actually write or type in letters, numbers, symbols, etc. to then upload to the internet and display their games or projects. A text editor is like notepad or microsoft word, but for computer programming for kids. The downfall is it can be kind of boring to start off as one doesn’t know the basic instructions or rules. However, at
Simply Coding we actually have come up with 3 useful games (pong,fish,mario) in the first lesson that we use as a medium to teach the kids coding. This helps with the boredom. We also do live chat support and live weekly webinars to help the child through any frustrations they’re having to try and make it a great first experience. The downfall is that the student does need to know how to type 15 words per minute and this is because we want it to be a great experience and finger typing won’t get the job done and be frustrating for your child and you as the parent. The other thing to be aware of is that there is no forgiveness in text-based coding for kids. You put a semi colon in the wrong place or forget a letter somewhere, the computer will not have the right instructions to move an object and the code will fail. But nowadays there’s so many tools that check the code and tell the student where the errors are. Just like if you were to hit the wrong key on the piano. Also unlike other sites we do NOT host your kids projects at all. They get to learn how to post it on
github and create their own portfolio of stuff. This way they take it with them and it’s theirs forever!
Examples of text based coding for kids: Javscript game design ,
Python multiplayer, building websites in html css
Bottom Line: Text based computer programming is the real deal. You actually type the code and then see it come to life! There are no boundaries. The more you learn, the more you can do that eventually leads to a skill and a job or career! I would relate this to actually reading music and playing the piano and not just learning a song to where you eventually can pick up a sheet of music and play anything. At least that makes sense in my head.
Which Coding for Kids Course Best for my Child or my Students?
This is actually quite easy to answer. It really depends on their age and or grade in school, their previous exposure to any type of coding, and typing skills. If the child is in elementary school or 11 years or younger, then they probably most likely don’t know how to type yet either and would benefit from code.org or scratch coding programs for initial exposure and to learn some logic. If on the other hand your student or child is 12 years old to 18 years old and can type, then the dragging and dropping will become very boring very quickly and the free coding resources out there is not going to cut it.
Conclusions:
I hope this was explained well enough to a parent, but if you have any questions, please hit us up on chat or email us at support@simplycoding.org or heck even give us a call. We are parents too and totally get it. Simply Coding for kids is all about turning those
computer gamers into programmers and coders. Feel free to watch our video series on this
here. It will go through 4 short videos of what we exactly do at Simply Coding!
Signing off,
Dustin
Today I thought I would write a little bit of how we think summer coding camps for kids on College and University campus is a great recruiting tool. By allowing kids ages 11 through 18 years of age to be on the campus physically is proving to be a huge success in the recruitment of those same kids when they’re older for many universities and colleges all over the U.S. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I want to cover 3 reasons of why it works in today’s blog post. Lets jump in!
REASON #1: GOOD MEMS ALL AROUND
Anytime I talk with my buddies about the past we always state “good mems!” The main reason is that if you think about a child who’s brain is developing so rapidly in there younger years, they associate places, things, sounds, smells with either great times or possibly even bad times. By a College or University creating a wonderful atmosphere for kids to come and experience walking around campus and then sit in a computer lab where they see all those computers and cool gadgets, robotics stuff is surely to leave a profound impression on those video gamers when walking out of the campus computer lab!
REASON #2: START EDUCATING THEM NOW WITH LIVE EXPERIENCES
Most everyone associates with a mentor or someone they look up to and it’s usually the person that taught them how to work, play, and have fun while doing it. By providing computer programming camps for kids on your campus you have already begun the education process for these young fellas to learn! AS the kids look to the University as almost a mentor, they will only want to continue with concurrent enrollment classes in high school, other continuing education classes because they’ll already be comfortable having been to summer camps.
Learning a bit of computer science on campus for kids over the summer proves to be extremely beneficial for the parents as well. What parent doesn’t want to see their child graduate from the same University they did. Well… instead of sending them letters every year to donate to their alma mater, why not send a letter and say you’re offering a summer coding camp for kids for their own child who want to learn how to really program video games and websites or develop apps that make robots move. I mean you already have the computer labs and with Simply Coding you can use their curriculum and live chat support. Now all you need is have a page where they can register and possibly a teacher aide that needs to be in the room for adult supervision. By educating kids now on your campus is a very smart idea for any continuing education department looking towards the future students that you will want to attend. Experience is everything! I just saw this coding camp all the way out in Singapore.
REASON #3: A LITTLE EXTRA FUNDS
I don’t know if this falls into a reason why, but I have to mention it anyways as for the smaller colleges and universities, they may want to make a little money on the side over the summer. With a revenue share model, the continuing ed department can receive some money from the camps that then in turn can be used for advertising of the camps or funding other summer camps for kids. Coding isn’t the only thing that kids are interested in nowadays, it’s just the majority. But there’s lots of little girl cooks like my daughter who would die to go to a summer camp where they learn basics of cooking instead of watching cupcake wars or bobby flay all day. As a parent myself I have no problem paying a couple hundred bucks for my daughters to go to a summer camp on the campus of my alma mater!
CONCLUSIONS
I remember when I went to a basketball camp when I was around 10 years old on the campus of my Dad’s alma mater. I’ll never forget it. It left an impression on me that made me want to grow up and go there when I’m older. Just as sport camps for kids did this for me, so do coding camps for kids, and others produce that same feeling of the memory. And guess where I ended up? Yup! Right where my Dad went to school! It is my opinion that there is no stronger recruiting tool for a college or university than to run summer camps for kids! It’s easy. It’s turnkey. It’s fulfilling. It’s affecting the lives of children in their social skills, confidence, and maturity. And most importantly it’s allowing the kids to feel and experience the wonderful culture your school is all about! Heck, give them a cool t-shirt with your logo and colors or a cool slogan! Any swag you can think of. That’ll go a long ways! Other interesting summer STEM camps for kids I saw out there were Sylvan, Idtech summer camps, Tynker stem camps. Be sure to look at all of them to make the best choice for your school! And of course we are here to answer any questions as we know all of them!
Have questions about coding camps for kids? We’re here to help! Just click on the live chat or give us a call. For more information on how Simply Coding works with colleges and universities with summer camps you can just click on this link.
Till next time, this is D signin off!
THEIR DEFINITION:
Now fast forward to current years and there are actually 3 versions:
Fortnite: Save the World is designed as player-versus-environment game, with four players cooperating towards a common objective on various missions. The game is set after a fluke storm appears across Earth, causing 98% of the population to disappear, and the survivors to be attacked by zombie-like “husks”…..From missions, players are awarded a number of in-game items, which include hero characters, weapon and trap schematics, and survivors, all of which can be leveled up through gained experience to improve their attributes.
Fortnite Battle Royale is a player-versus-player battle royale game for up to 100 players, allowing one to play alone, in a duo, or in a squad (usually consisting of three or four players). Weaponless players airdrop from a “Battle Bus” that crosses the game’s map. When they land, they must scavenge for weapons, items, resources, and even vehicles while trying to stay alive and attack other players, eliminating them….This forces remaining players into tighter spaces and encourages player encounters. The last player, duo, or squad remaining is the winner.
Fortnite Creative is a sandbox game mode where players are given complete freedom to create anything they want on an island, such as battle arenas, race courses, platforming challenges and more. Epic Games reviews some of the most popular creations from Creative and rotate these into the Battle Royale map in an area called “The Block”.[1] Featured creations are also shown in the “Creative Hub.”
SOURCE: 
So we get back to the question if Fornite is bad for kids. Now obviously, parents we want to be careful with our children and make sure there are not becoming addicted to playing FortNite or other video games. Because too much of one thing is never a good thing. Not sure who said that or who I’m quoting, but it is TRUE! However, I feel that some parents may just go “cold turkey” on the video games with their kids and then actually be depriving them of the actual computer screen time that could very well have led to their talents and gifts God has given them to become the next Microsoft genius or Facebook programmer.
CONCLUSIONS:
Now I’m not here to tell you what to do with your child. That is not the reason for this post. Plus there are hundreds of debates online that you can find on whether FortNite is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, etc. etc. Just google, “fortnite bad for kids” and it will come up with 35 million results!
Here at Simply Coding for kids we can tell very quickly with in the first 3 months if a child has the ability to become a great coder OR he or she just likes playing video games and learning to code is not his/her thing and should probably pursue something else. That kind of investment of a mere $60 bucks to find out if my child has what it takes is totally worth it in my opinion.
This post is going a bit longer than what I wanted. If you want, we actually do a whole 
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TO FOLLOW YOU THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW, YOU ARE NO LONGER PRIVATE. Make sure you monitor the people your child allows to follow them. If you don’t k
now who they are, ask. Being social media safe, means constant check ups to stay social media safe. If you have any questions on how to make your social media accounts private, 
Make sure you know who is commenting and liking their photos and posts. If you don’t know who someone is, ASK!
3. Account privacy is most important
Teach your kid not to share passwords, even with their best friends. You never know who else will find out. Keeping information private is the best way to say safe on the internet. Teach your kids to logout of computers, even if they are personal or home computers. Also make sure to check your search engine settings. Most search engines allow parental controls that will help narrow the list of possible choices that appear when your children are surfing the internet.
4. Keep up with software
Use antiviruses and pop-up blockers. There are plenty of free or pay-for-use pop-up blockers and antiviruses available on the internet. Antiviruses keep your computer safe from bugs and malware. This is just like putting up a fence to keep your toddler in the yard. It’s a precaution if everything else goes wrong.
To find that best antivirus for windows, 
This had quite the impact on both of us. We then decided to coin the phrase underneath our logo and it has now become our company motto! We want to provide a 