ScratchJr Visual Programming Language App

You have to tip your hat to the jack of all trades primary school teacher. It’s not an easy job, though there are some awesome visual programming language apps like ScratchJr specifically designed for young children to make life a little easier.

Today there are mature/well supported visual programming languages like Scratch and ScratchJr specifically created to introduce young children (beginners) to coding concepts.

See the example ScratchJr video below of a simple visually programmed game introducing basic coding concepts without having to type or understand a single piece of code. Kids can build animations and stories without even realising they are discovering the fundamentals of coding.

I guess the best thing about visual languages like Scratch is the teacher doesn’t need to understand a programming language per se to teach kids the basic concepts of coding.

Programs like ScratchJr are the spark which gives kids an interest in going further, my first introduction as a teenager to a programming language was BBC Basic on a BBC computer at school and it involved a lot of typing to print things like Hello David over and over again!

Continue Reading Teaching Coding in Primary Schools