tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post8366935443494984627..comments2024-03-29T05:14:10.903-07:00Comments on Geeking with Greg: Code Monster and teaching programming to kidsGreg Lindenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-30765877506561680052012-11-23T07:28:08.002-08:002012-11-23T07:28:08.002-08:00Stan, I wanted to let you know that a new feature ...Stan, I wanted to let you know that a new feature just launched that lets you jump lessons. It was a frequently requested feature, especially from teachers.<br /><br />You can find it at the bottom of the page, where there are a collection of links "How to Play | Lesson Sections | About ..." Clicking "Lesson Sections" brings up a way to jump anywhere, which is what you wanted for your kids, and what many teachers have wanted for their classrooms.<br /><br />It also lets people sample how much content is there. There's about 400 lessons, about a textbook's worth of material, including some very cool, very short pieces of Javascript that do fractals, animation, and simple games. Lots of fun things to play with!Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-41403305441351821352012-11-21T10:24:19.900-08:002012-11-21T10:24:19.900-08:00Great stuff here Greg! Just spent an hour or so wi...Great stuff here Greg! Just spent an hour or so with my 8 year old daughter and she loved it!Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13714388010142336551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1433496835021223682012-10-17T12:45:47.448-07:002012-10-17T12:45:47.448-07:00Hi, Stan. Short answer is that the way to reset C...Hi, Stan. Short answer is that the way to reset Code Monster is to hit the Back button a bunch of times.<br /><br />Longer answer is that there is a privacy issue here that Code Monster is trying to walk. Code Monster doesn't require any login, so it has no idea who the kids are, and it does that on purpose to maintain privacy. It still is able to keep track of what lesson people are on and is still really easy for one person to use (even easier than having a login, actually), but the cost of no login is that it's harder to have multiple users.<br /><br />A few teachers at schools have asked about ways to support multiple people in their computer labs. And a couple parents have mentioned that they want to have more than one child use Code Monster.<br /><br />Right now, the only real choice is to click forward and back in the lessons or use multiple computers or web browsers, which isn't that bad. Other ideas have been tossed around like a feature that allows people to jump to lessons or special URLs that jump to lessons or reset, but all of those add user interface complexity and possible confusion when just clicking a lot or using multiple browsers is pretty easy, so they weren't added.<br /><br />If you have further thoughts on this or any other suggestions, please feel free to write me directly (monster@crunchzilla.com) or post additional comments here. Thanks, Stan, and hope your kids are enjoying Code Monster!Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-52297510324852357222012-10-17T11:00:13.294-07:002012-10-17T11:00:13.294-07:00Is there a way to reset the Code Monster or establ...Is there a way to reset the Code Monster or establish a way for more than one child can use the same computer? Perhaps an identifier?<br /><br />Thanks;<br /><br />StanAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01572512501394127011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-7954201624377626872012-10-06T05:50:54.281-07:002012-10-06T05:50:54.281-07:00Novel and noble idea! I will try it on my 11-year-...Novel and noble idea! I will try it on my 11-year-old daughter.<br /><br />>> adults who are young at heart and might want to dabble in programming <<<br /><br />I think this is a big market segment as well. A number of my MBA friends appear to have a "dormant geek" inside that would likely love this sort of offering.Rama Ramakrishnanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13385945925566716371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-90297703537002476262012-10-04T09:02:01.595-07:002012-10-04T09:02:01.595-07:00Thanks, Carlos! There's been two requests so f...Thanks, Carlos! There's been two requests so far to do a Spanish language version, one for French, and one for a German version. Definitely on the idea list, thanks for the suggestion!Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-70689734866664604772012-10-03T16:36:10.387-07:002012-10-03T16:36:10.387-07:00Thanks, JM! Curious what you are using for Lua sc...Thanks, JM! Curious what you are using for Lua scripting for Minecraft? Luacraft? Or something else?Greg Lindenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-77531291617799606812012-10-03T00:23:23.103-07:002012-10-03T00:23:23.103-07:00Great idea!
I agree it's hard to find resource...Great idea!<br />I agree it's hard to find resources like this, but it's even harder to find then in languages other than English. Since this platform is targeted to young kids, this could be a problem for non English-speaking children.<br />Have you guys thought about porting it into different languages? I would be happy to help with the Spanish version :-)Carloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09015457725360114303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-86279549530017998942012-09-29T13:33:55.908-07:002012-09-29T13:33:55.908-07:00Good stuff; trying it on my 10 & 12y olds.
My...Good stuff; trying it on my 10 & 12y olds.<br /><br />My 12y old has been wanting to do programming for a while now. The main issue he running into, is about expectations. He is so immersed into computing that he immediately wants to build games or complicated web sites. So when he goes through programming tutorials he gets bored, because learning how <br /><br />This was much easier when I started, because simply being able to make the console print Hello World was an achievement.<br /><br />Interestingly, he has caught on Lua scripting for minecraft; because the programming there helps him do the kind of stuff he wants and the environment he's manipulating has much higher level primitives and objects.JMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11995498680543470684noreply@blogger.com