#lakeside 1516 Hour of Code
Reflections from educators, learners, and parent volunteers
Reflections
Before Hour of Code, I used to think this about coding...
After Hour of Code, I now think this about coding...
I was happy that CISD is beginning to introduce familiarity with coding concepts to its students. However, the implementation of Hour of Code in school left something to be desired. The experience was akin to having a guest fitness instructor show up to the gym, pass out balls then letting the kids go about their business. After the kids found their seats, the instructor directed turn on their iPads, navigate to Star Wars, then "do the exercises". From that point, the three adults were left meandering as the kids experimented. Not that it's a terrible thing, it was great that students sometimes lean on each other for assistance. But I feel that, prior to starting, some sort of demonstration or presentation on programming concepts and how the site works would've helped. Using sites like code.org is great but, to me, it seems the site is built to allow individual learning. Some sort of curriculum built with more teacher-student/group interactions would be more ideal from my perspective. Having the concept of a LOOP or IF statement explained then demonstrated prior to the exercise would most likely be more effective than having a student read what it is from a web page then try to put it in practice.