Our First Step Into Learning About Coding With New Friends at BotLogic.us

One of my goals for the year is to integrate coding into the curriculum K-12.  

I wrote a post at the beginning of the summer break called One Thing I Am Going To Focus On And Learn This Summer...Coding And Integrating It Into Our Curriculum. Even though we have tried a few digital tools over the last couple of years, we have never learned about it as a class or part of the curriculum.  

To be honest, I know very little about coding myself.  I took a class in graduate school where I had to write a little code to create a website, but it was basically following along with the book to copy what they had already created.  I can change the size and color of things...that is about it.  I have tried Scratch and Coding Academy.

And I created an awesome Symbaloo, Coding Coding Coding, with lots of cool coding websites and resources.  But, still do not know very much about coding.  

So as I started my planning this week, I also made connections with people who did know about it and companies that were creating amazing websites, apps, and resources for students, teachers, and families focused around coding.  

The best connection I made this week was with Brad Wedell on Twitter.  Brad followed me on Twitter and sent me this message.  

I looked up @BotLogicus and was super excited to see it was a game that teaches programming concepts!  

I wrote Brad back and asked if he would like to teach the 3rd graders about it.....and me too.  

The kids were so excited when I told them who we were going to Skype with.  They asked if it was an author and I said, "No, it is someone who builds websites and games."  

We had tons of smiles and anticipation then.  

Brad first told the kids how he got interested in programming and where he learned how to code.  A lot of them were so intrigued by where he went to college and told me that was what they were going to do too.  

After the 3rd graders asked a few questions, Brad showed us Botlogic.us.

As the website states, "BotLogic.us is an educational puzzle game that challenges children to tackle complex logic problems while applying programming concepts."

The kids couldn't wait to have Brad show them how to use the website and play the game.  

                                          

The object of the game is to get the little robot home. He played it on a couple different levels.  

Once they saw him play it a few times, they were ready to get started with BotLogic.us on their own.

I just love how easy it is for players (students) and parents to log in.  Once they select "I'm A Player" or student, students select their age from a drop down menu and click on a button that says "Play Now." 

This takes them into a "Welcome" screen where players can choose to "Start Game" by selecting a level to play, 1-20.  Or they can also view a nice tutorial about BotLogic.us.  This will be very helpful to our other third grade who comes on Thursday to learn with me. 

The 3rd graders did an AWESOME job in the library today.

They were excited, engaged, and determined to get the little robot home with the most posts possible.

I can't wait until these 3rd graders come back next week and use Botlogic.us.  And I bet there were lots of kids using it tonight at home too.

They just loved it.....as you can tell by all of the pictures I took.  We are going to reach out to others through Twitter, Facebook, and other personal connections that are programming too.

You can read more about Botlogic.us here on the website above.

Thank you Brad for Skyping with us. It was a pleasure and so much fun.  I hope you will come join us again.

And please don't forget to follow what our students are going on coding, programming, and all other nice things.