Generative coding for kids

There are tons of possibilities to teach kids about coding: online applications, mobile apps, software for pc's, and so on. It's hard to say which is best, but I always start from Scratch. I prefer it because it has a very basic approach, when you start from the beginning you have to work a little, without finding everything ready. There are logic blocks that help avoiding sintax errors: you can construct the code with these blocks that snap together like magnets. You can see the result immediately and start having fun with a few blocks.

But there are a lot of blocks to do everything you could do with a traditional computer language. Plus, there is the graphics result of the code, so you can see what is going on and create animations, stories, videogames and so on.

A great positive aspect of the platform is that, once a project is published, everyone can see the code that generated it, modify it and reshare it. Even these aspects of web sharing are usually unknown to most students.

The social aspect is also very interesting, first of all kids can understand what means having an account on a web platform, holding their password and username, remembering it the next time we'll meet, verify your email address: don't take it for granted, they are usually not very aware of what it means, anyway they have cell phones and Instagram, TikTok account and so on. We should expect their cell phone use as spectators, someone has installed apps on the cell phone for them and logged in. They probably didn't notice these steps.

This leads me to something I believe strongly in: kids should not be left alone with their electronic devices, we should sit next to them and use the device together when the time is right. We have to welcome a new electronic device as we would welcome a guest into the house, getting to know hit all together.

Another reason why I use Scratch is because it is very inconvenient on a mobile phone and this attracts kids to the computer, forgetting to check notifications all the time.

After a few basic lessons, I introduce generative graphics, which is always exciting. Sometimes I use turtle graphics, sometimes just rotation and zoom effects, other times symmetrical live drawing. Every time the kids amaze me for what they can create, there is always someone who goes a little further and also manages to be an inspiration for others.

I leave the link to my profile on Scratch, if you want to try some of my projects, but you can find tons of them. If you are interested, I have made a book (italian only) with ten ready-to-follow lessons like tutorials; you can use them to teach or give it to some of your children or friends.

Now my son is eighteen, so we tryed something with p5.js.