Tech Double Shot!
TWO TECH IDEAS TO START OFF YOUR WEEK
February 17th, 2016
The Coding Issue
It's the first day back after Presidents' Day Vacation and what could be more presidential than Donald Trump's Valentine's gift to Jeb Bush. See it for yourself here at jebbush.com.
Or perhaps you're partial to old-school Founding Father-style Presidents presented in modern-day hip-hop mashup form. In that case, maybe this is more your speed.
But even if you're mainly concerned with the present President, you may want to take this moment to check out his recently published thoughts on Computer Science for All. Be sure to check out the "CS for Educators" section or just check out the resources below to see how you can get started with coding or take the next step in building your computer science skills.
Scratch and Scratch Jr.
Here's the description of Scratch from its About page:
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.
Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.
Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
ScratchJr is much like Scratch just a bit simpler and available for iPads and other mobile devices.
Here are a few recommended sources for those looked to add to their coding toolbelt:
Code.org - Features fun games and quick activities to learn introductory coding concepts
Codecademy.com - Provides tutorials in several of the most common languages used today
Processing.org - Great for creative and artistic expression using code