Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Coding Online -

Over the past year so many new tools for teaching Computer Science have arrived.

Image from Code in the Browser


Here are just a few:

Several of these let you start trying out code without really being aware of what language you are using. It leads to the question - does language matter?

I am starting to wonder if we even should be teaching a specific language in the beginning. Perhaps a better approach is to expose students to successful coding situations, build some positive experiences, then start to get more depth with one language.

This list is a quick start. Let me know if you know of any sites that should be listed.

*Updated 4/7/13

4 comments:

  1. One that I am having fun with is TouchDevelop. https://www.touchdevelop.com/ There is also Try F# at http://www.tryfsharp.org/ Lastly the beta of Scratch 2.0 is all online at http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/

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  2. Codecademy is my favorite. Khan Academy recently launched a CS section of their site https://www.khanacademy.org/cs which is also good. And although not "coding" in the same sense, http://www.w3schools.com/ is good for basic HTML, CSS, etc.

    Here's another list that includes all the MOOCs: http://mashable.com/2013/03/13/learn-to-code-free/

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  3. Some collaborators and myself put together one for Python, which we think alleviates some of the downsides (no clear path through content, bad UI, teaches cannot track students)

    http://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/

    If you or your students are interested in Python check it out, and your feedback would be valuable of course! We presented it at SIGCSE.

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  4. Dave - I heard great things about your session...I was stuck in another meeting and missed it.

    Thanks for the link - I like that the interactive coding is embedded in the narrative. Much better way to learn than just reading power points!

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So, what do YOU think?