Amazing tool for the budding programmer!

Submitted 11 years ago
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Pedagogy
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My Take

Khan Academy's programming resources are amazing. To get directly to their computer science resources, go to this link: https://www.khanacademy.org/cs

There are step-by-step tutorials on how to begin coding through their "Learn Programming" option. These tutorials include great videos, demonstrations of the coding process, and coding challenges. It's a nice combination that students can go through at their own pace, step by step. This page is also a great resource for students who want to learn more about programming at home; you can direct them to this site to independently learn more!

How I Use It

First off, you need students to sign up for the site, or their projects will not be saved. One important thing to know about the Khan Programming site is that the programming language being used is called Processing. It's really an artistic programming language, which means it is mainly used to draw shapes and so on. Students love it as an introduction to programming since they get to create an art piece through coding. I have them start by creating a basic house, then customizing it through the programming. It is difficult for students as the y-axis is backwards in Processing, but they get the hang of it with some practice. I highly recommend using the Khan Computer Science page as a wonderful intro to programming.