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The world is changing and it's changing faster, towards a better future.
If programming is taught from an initial age,
then the young generation may even surpass older generations.Technology is getting developed and getting involved with education,
even in kids' education. Kids'
programming skills need further encouragement and here we've listed top
ten tools to teach programming to kids, which are not necessarily to be
taught through school curriculum but at home too.
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1. Alice:
This
is a tool to create animations, which are quite entertaining. It
teaches 3D programming to kids in an interactive mode. It also offers
hands-on tutorial for creating animated films and video games too.
2. Crunchzilla Code Monster:
It's
designed for kids and has 59 lessons. The speech bubble allows moving
from one lesson to the next and the lessons are quite easy as well as
interactive. The tutorial introduces variables and parameters in
JavaScript coding and it also explains errors. Kids may love the
JavaScript tools and the simple graphics. It allows kids play with
coding in colourful ways.
3. Scratch:
Scratch
is a tool which is developed by MIT Media Lab and it's a visual
programming language, meant for 6+ kids. It was released in 2007 and
since then more than 800,000 users have joined the tutorial which is
related to games and animations. Projects are also shared from this
website and projects are uploaded to the site under the license of
Creative Commons attribute. It's free and it can be accessed on all
major platforms including Mac, Windows and Linux.
5. Etoys:
This
tool is aimed at parents to teach programming to kids. They can make
graphics, write own stories, develop simple games and so on. It's also
free of charge which also gives access to music, animated objects,
graphics and sound effects.
6. Logo:
Logo
is actually one of the oldest programming languages used for education
purposes. Created in 1967, this language is used for educational use and
basics of computer science. It implemented Turtle Graphics and it has
several resources like Turtle Logo and FMS Logo. Kids enjoy the moving
turtle and also the location commands to draw shapes and lines.
7. Hackety Hack:
This
is an application which is open source and it teaches programming
basics in Ruby language. It's an interactive tutorial which runs on
Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. It also teaches the basics of
Ruby syntax and it gives students a solid foundation in Ruby language.
8. Hopscotch:
Hopscotch
teaches programming to children in the simplest possible way. It can be
downloaded for free on iPad and kids are taught to develop and create
animations, games and stories in an interactive manner through
drag-and-drop methods. This tool makes programming fun and enjoyable.
9. Waterbear:
It's
a very recent development and inspired by Scratch. It also has
drag-and-drop objects and it runs on JavaScript. The program allows
children provide the logic via parameters and this learning environment
is offered on browsers and now through any download. Waterbear is in its
initial stage though, which has to undergo several developments.
10. Kodable:
This
app is free and iPad users can use it to teach programming to kids,
aged 5 and above. The interface is quite a child-friendly one and it's
very simple to understand. Programming becomes fun with this tools too
which can be enjoyed by all – from 2nd standard children to 12th
graders.
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