Khan Academy's Java Script Intro to Coding Class

 JAVA SCRIPT and the BASIC LESSON
 Business Insider

Online Coding Class

Now I Have A Huge Appreciation For What Programmers Do All Day

• Madeline Stone   November 14 2014
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As a tech lifestyle reporter at Business Insider, I often write about programmer culture, telling stories of awesome office perks, parties, and late-night hackathons.

But when it comes down to it, my liberal arts degree gives me little ability to understand the difficult work programmers spend all their time doing.

I had heard about Khan Academy, the nonprofit online learning platform backed by big-name investors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google, and how effective and fun its programs are.

When Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, started the site in 2006, it was just a series of YouTube videos he had made during his time away from work as a hedge fund analyst.
Eight years later, Khan Academy largely follows the same video format, though on a much greater scale. As of February 2014, the site had 10 million monthly visitors, a huge leap from 144,000 at the beginning of 2010.

Even Bill Gates himself has endorsed the platform, telling TIME, "I've used Khan Academy with my kids, and I'm amazed at the breadth of Sal's subject expertise and his ability to make complicated topics understandable ... He started by posting a math lesson, but his impact on education might truly be incalculable."

I decided to give it a try.

How It Works

Khan Academy has a huge selection of classes in subjects ranging from biology and organic chemistry to world history and macroeconomics. In the computer programming section, they offer courses in introductory JavaScript, games and visualizations, and natural simulations.
Since I'd never taken a computer science class before, I chose the easiest class, "Intro to JS: Drawing & Animation." A menu showed all of the tasks I would complete in the course — 101 in total.
Like other Khan Academy classes, the JavaScript course is structured around a series of video walk-throughs. The student is then given challenges and projects to try out each skill. 
Screenshot, Khan Academy
First, I learned how to code some basic shapes. During a five-minute video, Sophia, one of the Khan Academy instructors, drew some rectangles at various points on the screen.
Screenshot, Khan Academy

It seemed simple enough. In my first challenge, I used the commands I had just learned to make an "H" out of rectangles. It took just three lines of code.

After a bit of tweaking of the numbers, the computer determined that I got it right — and gave me some points as a bonus. Those points would later go towards earning badges and upgrading my profile.

To the left, you can see the code I wrote, with the results on the right. A fun character congratulated me.
Screenshot, Khan Academy

Things Get Tougher

The course quickly became more challenging, and in the second section, I learned how to color in shapes. That wasn't too tough in itself, but the end of the section brought on the first of the projects, which I would later come to dread.

Projects are when the program gives the student a set of objectives to achieve in his or her code. Since each one involves a good deal of creativity, other Khan Academy students or coaches are asked to evaluate projects to make sure they met each objective.

In the first project, I was asked to use the shape commands I had learned to make something that looked like dinner. I decided to use my drawing and coloring skills to make a pizza.

It took me a bit of time to figure it out — I'm new to programming after all — and I was happy with it for the most part. Another user gave me a passing grade on my pizza.

Screenshot, Khan Academy

One cool aspect of Khan Academy's projects is that once you finish a creation, you can save it to the system as a "spin-off," and anyone else in the programming course can build on it. 

When I finished my pizza drawing, I scrolled down to see what the other Khan Academy coders had come up with for this particular project. The system displayed the drawings that had received the most votes from other users. Those were much more impressive than mine.
Screenshot, Khan Academy

I tried not to be too disheartened by the comparison, though some of my drawings took me quite a bit of time.

As you can see in the evaluation criteria for my next project, the program asked me to draw an animal with at least five shape commands and variables for width and height.

He was pretty cute, though I probably made the coloring too light.

Screenshot, Khan Academy

Again, some people were able to make some amazing things from what was a relatively simple assignment. Here were some of the most impressive spin-offs from the "Draw an Animal" project that I drew the penguin for. Screenshot, Khan Academy

It got even more fun — and complicated — when I learned how to animate my drawings. I could do things like make a train drive across the screen, or make a sun increase in size until it exploded.

Screenshot, Khan Academy

 

Screenshot, Khan Academy

 

Of course, that was child's play compared to what experienced programmers could do, but I was excited about how much I was learning in such a short amount of time.

And as I learned more and more skills — text, strings, functions, loops, arrays, and object-oriented design — I was able to incorporate them into more and more complicated code. 
It was difficult, but I started to really enjoy the results. Screenshot, Khan Academy

What I Thought

As I worked my way through the course, it seemed to become more difficult to get evaluated. I'm not sure if it was because not enough people had progressed through the course to have the skills necessary to evaluate my work, but sometimes I would have to wait a few days before someone would give me a passing grade that would allow me to move on.

I found that a little annoying since I was trying to complete the class after work hours, but someone with more spare time might not.

Overall, realizing how difficult coding is gave me an entirely new appreciation for the apps and programs I use every day. Small things like an extra semicolon or improper placement of a line of code could set off an entire program. 

The skills I learned were elementary in comparison to the work that professional programmers do regularly. That was pretty eye-opening.
Though I found programming difficult, I thought Khan Academy was a fun and accessible platform on which to learn it. I could tell that the course was geared towards younger people, with lots of cute characters with their own names and personalities. When I made a mistake, I didn't get a glaring "ERROR" message but an adorable little creature that said "Oh noes!" Things like that helped when the going got tough. 
 Screenshot, Khan Academy

I don't think I have a future in programming, but I'm glad to have gotten a new perspective on the industry I cover. Plus, knowing that I was using a nonprofit organization that seeks to help anyone get access to a free education was an added bonus. 

Bill Gates would definitely approve.  

Coding, 1969: Margaret Hamilton and the Apollo Project

Margaret Hamilton, lead software engineer of the Apollo Project, stands next to the code she wrote by hand and that was used to take humanity to the moon, 1969.

EDUTOPIA  Coding in the Classroom

Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher

Computer Fundamentals, Computer Science and IT Integrator from Camilla, GA

15+ Ways of Teaching Every Student to Code (Even Without a Computer)

Originally Published: December 4, 2013 | Updated: March 23, 2015

• 7.7KSHARES
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According to Code.org, 90 percent of U.S. schools are not teaching any computer science. Eyebrows were raised in 2013 as the U.K. passed a plan to educate every child how to code.

In 2014, Barack Obama made history as the first U.S. president to program a computer.

Yet critics claim that often only the more affluent schools offer computer science courses, thus denying minorities potential to learn the skills required by the 1.4 million new jobs that will be created during the next ten years.

In my opinion, parents of every student in every school at every level should demand that all students be taught how to code. They don't need this skill because they'll all go into it as a career -- that isn't realistic -- but because it impacts every career in the 21st century world. Any country recognizing that will benefit in the long term. Here's how you can start.

With the following resources, you can teach programming with every student and every age.

Apps and Tools to Teach Coding All Year Round

Code.org Resources

While the Hour of Code is in December, Code.org has suggested resources for educators, unplugged lessons (those not requiring computers), and tutorials to help you teach computer science to kids of all ages any time of the year.

Teaching Coding to the Youngest Students

     •   rsb:  Check out Hour of Code with FROZEN theme <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1-paxNG4kw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

• Tynker Games: Use these age-appropriate games to teach your elementary students coding concepts. From Puppy Adventures to Math Art and Maze Craze, you'll find games that your grades 1-8 students will enjoy. Tynker also has a curriculum and STEM Product Library that you may want to peruse if you're interested in combining programming with social studies, English, math, and science.
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• Kodable started as an app targeted to students as young as kindergarten age, but it's now a complete curriculum. The first 30 levels are free, more than enough for an hour of code. They recommend this for age 5 and up, but there are stories of kids even younger using the app with great success to learn to program. iPad schools will want this app on every device. Students don’t need to know how to read in order to program using this game.
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• Cargobot (for age 5 and up) starts very easy but becomes more challenging as your progress. In the game, you're moving blocks around with a claw. This is an intriguing game because it was programmed entirely on an iPad using Codea. Students can also record solutions to the 36 unique puzzles and upload the videos to YouTube. This is free on the iPad.
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• Some more advanced programs have “junior” versions. ScratchJr is the version of Scratch intended for ages 5-7 and available as a free iPad app. A favorite of some programmers, LightbotJr targets children ages 4-8.
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• Robot Turtles is a board game to teach children the basics of programming without having to use any technology.

Teaching Coding to Age 8 and Up

• Hopscotch is the free iPad app for upper elementary and above. Wesley Fryer has created and excellent free ebook (Dropbox account required) for Hopscotch in the classroom, full of challenges that you can use with students. He also recommends activating the emoji keyboard (go to Settings > General > Keyboards) for use with the program.
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• Scratch is a programming game that can be downloaded or used on the Web and is supported by MIT. They've got a powerful Hour of Code tutorial where students can program a holiday card in their web browser. Or, if you want options for other times of the year, use the one-hour "Speed Racer" activity to teach your students Scratch. Teachers can watch this tutorial video to learn how, visit ScratchED's Hour of Code Ideas forum to ask questions, or search "Hour of Code" on the forum for lesson plans using everything from coordinate geometry to Latin. Scratch is considered acceptable for beginners. (Some educators use Snap, originally a version of Scratch but now written in Javascript that is supported by University of California at Berkeley. There are several alternatives to Scratch with a similar interface. Give this list to your IT department if there are technical reasons why you can't run Scratch or Snap.)
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• Lightbot has a version on just about any platform and even has an online one-hour version. This puzzle game has a free version which lasts an hour but sells full versions on iTunes and Google Play. It teaches planning, testing, debugging, procedures, and loops.
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• Alice is another popular platform with a unique storytelling aspect. You can use it to create a game, tell a story, or make an animated video. Like Scratch, Alice is free and supported by a powerful community of educators. There are two versions of Alice. (The newer 3.0 version still has a few bugs but also sports many new, very cool animations.) This longstanding platform is a rewarding tool that kids will want to keep using past the initial hour. Alice is considered more for the intermediate student, but experienced teachers can use this with beginners.
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• Kodu is another programming tool that can be easily used on a PC or XBOX to create a simple game. There's also a math curriculum. This is one method that Pat Yongpradit, Code.org's Director of Education, used in his computer science classroom. (I've used it as well.)
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• Gamestar Mechanic offers a free version that you might want to use for your hour, but if you fall in love with it, the educational package allows teachers to track student progress, among other features. The company supports educators, and there's also an Edmodo community that shares lesson plans and ideas for the tool, along with videos and a must-see teacher's guide.
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• GameMaker is an option if you want to make games that can be played in any web browser. The resources aren't as comprehensive and the community isn't vibrant, but this one has been around for a while and might be fun for a more tech-savvy teacher.
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• My Robot Friend is a highly-rated app according to Common Sense Media. It costs $3.99, but no in-app purchases are required to go to higher levels.
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• SpaceChem is an interesting mix of chemistry, reading, and programming for age 12 and up. As students read the 10,000-word novelette, they have to solve puzzles by assembling molecules. SpaceChem created a helpful guide for educators. This tool is available for download on Steam and installation on Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. (Download a free demo.)
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• CodeCombat is a multiplayer game that teaches coding. It's free to play at the basic level, and students don't have to sign up. This has the advantage that teachers don't have to know computer science to empower learning in this programming. It's recommended for age 9 and up. See the teacher guide for the information and standards covered in this game.
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• Minecraft.edu is an option that lets you install and use Minecraft in the classroom. While this does require some purchase and setup, Minecraft seems to be gaining in popularity among educators as an in-house, 3D world-programming environment that kids love. Minecraft.edu has a Google group and best practices wiki. (My son took a course at Youth Digital that taught him Java to mod Minecraft -- while pricey, it was a great course.)
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• Do you want a board game for older children? Code Monkey Island is designed for children age 9 and up. This is a great addition to your game corner.

Flip Your Classroom or Use an Existing Curriculum

• Follow the Hour of Code lesson plan tutorial on Khan Academy for ways to teach your students. These lessons are for older students with one computer each, or they could be adapted to a flipped class model.

Use Hardware and Make Something Cool

Programming, making, and creating have never been easier. If you're getting into the maker movement or Genius Hour, these are staples for your classroom. While they may take longer than an hour of code, they're definitely something 21st-century schools can use, because students are programming and building with their hands.

• The Raspberry Pi is an inexpensive computer. While Kickstarter's Kano kit isn't available yet (but is likely what we'll be talking about next year), there are so many things kids can make with the Raspberry Pi. After setting one of these up with my 15-year-old nephew, I recommend that the teacher be a tad more advanced! This is definitely a tool I'd use in my classroom. (Cost for a kit runs less than $100.)
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• I am in love with the Hummingbird Robotics kit -- it makes Arduino easy. An Arduino is basically a motherboard that you can make, plus a programming kit. I have one of these in my classroom, and the students are fixated for hours. (Cost for a kit is around $100.)
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• LEGO MINDSTORMS are part of my curriculum every spring. Students love LEGOs! I have six older MINDSTORMS kits that we've used for years. The newer NXT kits even have cool robots that can be made and programmed. This product has been around for years, so there are many resources for teachers. If you purchase an older kit on eBay, make sure it will work with newer operating systems.
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• Dash and Dot are two endearing little robots that can be used with age 5 and up. These robots have apps that can be used to program them, for which children age 8 and up can use Blockly, the visual programming language created by Google. Older students can even use Objective C or Java to program the bots.
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• Sphero and Ollie are fantastic robots that can go almost anywhere (my students have taken them across water). The SPRK education program gives teachers and parents a curriculum to use the bots and teach programming even when the adult is still learning.

In this post, you've seen 15+ ways to teach coding in your classroom, but there are many more. Please join the movement to help reach every child by sharing your story in the comments -- or a link to your favorite resources for teaching kids to code.

Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher's Profile