Hour of Code

Resource: Hour of Code

15 Million Students worldwide have learned an Hour of Code.

Link: https://code.org/educate

Subject: Technologies

Year level: K-12 (This program offers a range of activities and you will choose activities based on the capabilities of your students)

Strand: Digital Technologies

Substrand:

  • Knowledge and understanding (how data are represented and structured symbolically).
  • Processes and Production skills (defining problems and specifying and implementing their solutions).

Content Descriptor:

Cross curricular priorities:

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Information and Communication Technology
  • Critical and Creative Thinking

Description:
Hour of Code is a worldwide application that introduces students to coding. It has a wide range of hour long tutorials at various age and stage ranges. The activities range from creating an interactive greeting card to creating java script.

These hour long tutorials can be implemented on computers, tablet or smart phones and can be worked on either collaboratively or individually. There is also the opportunity to teach “unplugged” sessions where computers are not required but students’ engage in activities designed to develop their computational thinking.

This application comes with detailed instructions for teachers and requires no previous computer knowledge for either the teacher or the students. A short film is available to demonstrate how to implement the program in your school.

Activities:
There are a range of activities that can be implemented alongside the hour long tutorials, these include the “unplugged” sessions where students work on their critical thinking skills, and handout sheets are available from the website.

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4 thoughts on “Hour of Code

  1. This would definitely be a great way to incorporate the digital technologies into any subject! a very organised resource for teachers and one that sounds and looks fun for students.

  2. This is an invaluable resource for teachers and students alike. Many teachers have limited technical knowledge when it comes to using ICT, so having a site that offers one hour coding tutorials reduces teacher stress and means the students are getting the specific knowledge they need.

    I like the versatile nature of the tutorials, with various competency levels and opportunities for the students to work collaboratively. The hour tutorials are engaging and ensure the students are kept on task at all times.

    I also like the “unplugged” sessions, as they can be used as a back up option, when an inevitable ICT failure happens.

    This is a fantastic resource that I will take into the classroom.

  3. As someone who has a limited understanding of coding, I really appreciate the idea behind this resource. I explored one of the resources used to teach coding (CodeCombat) and found it engaging, entertaining and easy to use.

    I would like to add that there are many resources found on this site that cater for older students, such as year 7’s and year 8’s. The only concern I have is that it’s an American site, and so you have to make your own connections to the Australian Curriculum.

    I do wonder whether there is an Australian equivalent to this website, but overall, I really like this resource and find it easy to navigate.

  4. Hour of Code:
    For a subject most foreign to me this resource provides a fantastic starting point for learning about and teaching coding. The world of computer programming is to be embraced as our students immerse themselves in this technology and is our responsibility to provide an engaging resource such as this to structure that pathway. A wonderful resource thankyou.

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