Teaching Kids to Code through Games
With our world becoming more and more connected day by day, with more and more of our devices becoming "smart" or "intelligent", with the Internet of Things becoming a reality, it is increasingly important for people to master at least the basics of coding. Learning to code can be hard, but it can also be a playful experience, as it has been shown several times by various initiatives. And learning to code as a kid by playing is much easier than starting later (trust me, I have tried).
Let me first talk about a little personal experience. Once upon a time I was introduced to the first computer of my life, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Most of the kids around me saw it as a gaming console - and it had some of the best games of all times - but me and some of my friends considered it something more. We started learning its BASIC language - and unknowingly it has paved our way to a brighter future. We have become the ones that could write an autoexec.bat in the old times, and most of us have become either programmers, or web developers, when we grew up (not just buffs sitting in front of computers browsing Facebook and hunting casino promotions at www.europalace.com).
Code Kingdoms, a London based startup, is the latest initiative to start teaching kids to code. The company has built an educational JavaScript software that targets six to 13 year old kids, which can be played either through a web browser at the startup's website, or on an iOS device through a native app. The CodeKingdoms app has two versions: one is strictly educational, destined for schools, with all gaming related content stripped from it, and the other - the more useful, I think - is a game with some coding knowledge needed to solve some of the puzzles, perfect for playing at home in their spare time.
It is known for some time that the best way to teach a child something new is to hide it inside of a game. Code Kingdoms does exactly that, with the goal to be entertaining enough to drive kids' attention away from Minecraft, for example. “Code Kingdom is a game that teaches kids how to code but in a way that is really fun for kids,” CEO and co-founder Ross Targett says, considering that using game dynamic to teach brings a certain "stickiness" to the learning experience. The initial project was lacking some of the things games use to make their players return day after day. "So we went back to the drawing board and made sure the game was actually very powerful. But the original coding tool we built to get kids coding is still a fundamental part of it,” Targett says.
