I guess the ‘hour of code’ initiative is really taking off and nice to see more and more kids looking at things such as Codea, Scratch, Hopscotch etc…
Although, I always think (especially with my own kids!) theres a step missing before they get as far as even touching the computer, just to get them interested and understanding the basics before they start…
Whilst getting some ideas for Xmas for my daughter, i noticed this on Amazon - seems to have got some good reviews and think its a bit of a master-stroke, especially for any teachers and educators on here who want to introduce coding to the little nippers in a fun way before diving into Codea.
I don’t really get the rule of the game. The instruction is based on what? Does each player hold some cards too? What are the kinds of the cards? The information is quite limited.
If someone could provide the complete instructions, concise rules of the game, and the whole cards set, I think the game can be provided using an app, no real cards required. iPad and Codea would be the best tool to build such game.
I think the point is to engage the kids without them thinking its anything to do with computers, programming etc… in a fun way. Personally, theres far too much iPad/computer related stuff that kids do anyway, distilling it down to a simple card game means it would be a lot more engaging.
I notice the age range is quite young (4-7) all the way up to 11 years old. I think there is certainly a gap in the market for this sort of ‘early’ learning stuff re:coding. Even Scratch would be pretty hard for a typical 4 year old IMHO.
Hi bee and andymac3d. I know the guy who created Bits and Bytes. andymac3d is on the right track. The point of the game was to create something that children of all ages could use to learn computational thinking (as per the new school curriculum in England). Especially important for kids in KS1 - there isn’t many primary schools that can afford tablets for children age 4-7.
You could easily make it an app (and I know he is developing one at the moment) but the point of the card game was that it was affordable and not reliant upon technology yet still teaching computational thinking. The way he explains it - for the price of one cheap netbook a school could buy 10 games of Bits & Bytes teaching up to 40 children.
I’m a 12 yr. old, I started coding using Codea after I thought I was getting good with using Scratch to make “block” code. I am learning how code with Codea by reading Ignatz’s tutorials. Right now I am still a beginner, but i’m learning more and more.
