“I used the Code Editor with my computer science students yesterday and it worked a dream! Students were able to write and run code without any issues.” 

– Head of Computer Science

The Code Editor is designed for learning, rather than for professional use, and is informed by our understanding of pedagogy and computing education. It can be accessed from a web browser without installing any additional software. 

Earlier this year, we announced that we’d be introducing classroom management features and we’re now pleased to confirm that we’ve launched the beta version of Code Editor for Education with school accounts. You can be the first to try out the new features, together with the many schools who have chosen to pre-register their school accounts.

Simple and easy classroom management

We’ve kept the educator interface clean, simple, and easy to use. School owners can invite other teachers to join, add students, organise students into classes, and help students reset their passwords quickly. Educators can create coding projects to share with students and view their work.

All features, totally free

We’ve added these classroom management features because one of the key problems we’ve seen educators face over the past months has been the lack of an affordable tool to teach text-based coding in the classroom. We will always provide the Code Editor and all of its features to educators and students for free. 

Safe and private by design

We take safeguarding seriously, providing visibility of student work at all times, as well as features such as the ability to report a concern. In line with best practices protecting children online, we minimise data capture so that we have just enough to keep students safe. 

Future developments 

As the platform is currently in beta, we’d love to hear what you think of the new classroom management features — please send us your feedback. 

We’ll be actively looking to develop new features over the coming months. Such features are set to include an extended set of Python libraries, custom instructions that sit alongside starter code projects and teacher-to-student feedback capabilities. All new developments will be informed by ongoing educator feedback. 

Find out more and register for a free school account.

The post Introduce the Code Editor into your school appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Our new integrated learning experience allows young people to follow the project instructions and work in the Code Editor in a single window. By providing a simpler workspace, where learners do not need to switch between windows to read instructions and input code, we aim to reduce cognitive load and make it easier for young people to learn.

How the new integrated experience works

In the integrated project workspace, learners can access the project instructions, coding area, and output (where they can see what they have made) all in the same view. We have reorganised the project guides into short, easy-to-follow steps made up of simple instructions, including code snippets and modelled examples, for learners to work through to create their projects. The project guides feature fresh designs for different types of learning content, such as instruction steps, concept steps, code snippets, tips, and debugging help.

We have also optimised this learning experience for young people using mobiles and tablets. On mobile devices, a new ‘Steps’ tab appears alongside the ‘Code’ and ‘Output’ tabs, enabling learners to easily navigate to the project guide and follow the steps to make their projects.

Try out our new learning experience

We are testing our new integrated learning experience as a beta version in three projects: 

• Hello world (part of our ‘Introduction to Python’ project path) 
• Target practice (part of our ‘Introduction to Python’ project path) 
• Anime expressions (part of our ‘Introduction to web development’ project path) 

In each of these projects, young people can choose to complete the original version of the project, with the project instructions and Code Editor in separate windows, or click the button on the project page to try out the new integrated learning experience.

We’d love to hear how your young learners get on with this new integrated experience. Try it out in the three projects above and share your feedback with us here.

Code Editor developments have been made possible with generous support from the Cisco Foundation.

The post An integrated learning experience for young people appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Visit Scratch Island on Code Club World

Code Club World is a great place to start coding for children who have never done any coding or programming before. The Code Club World online platform lets them begin their coding journey with fun activities, starting by creating their own personal avatar.

Then on Scratch Island, kids can code a game to find a hidden bug, design a fun ‘silly eyes’ app, or animate a story. No experience necessary! We’ve just added a parents’ guide to explain how Code Club World works.

Explore Scratch projects 

For kids who feel ready to move beyond the basics of Scratch this Scratch Week, our Projects site offers a catalogue of projects that further enhance kids’ coding skills as they earn badges and explore, design, and invent.

With the More Scratch path, they will create six projects to make apps, games, and simulations using message broadcasting, if..then and if..then..else decisions, and variables. Then with the Further Scratch path, they can explore the advanced features of Scratch in another six projects to use boolean logic, functions, and clones while creating apps, games, computer-generated art, and simulations.

Scratch and electronics with a Raspberry Pi computer

If you think your kids would like to learn how to build physical projects they can program in Scratch, then take a look at our Physical computing with Scratch and Raspberry Pi path. In these six projects, your young people will learn how to use Scratch on a Raspberry Pi computer to control LEDs, buttons, and buzzers to make interactive games, displays, and instruments.

Discover young people’s Scratch creations

Be inspired by the amazing things young tech creators worldwide code in Scratch by visiting the Coolest Projects Global 2022 showcase. Young people are showing off Scratch games, stories, art, and more. In our Coolest Projects online gallery, these creations are displayed amongst hundreds of others from around the world — it’s the ideal place to get inspired.

Learn something new with our Introduction to Scratch course 

Are you curious about coding too? If you would like to start learning so you can better help young people with their creative projects, our online course Introduction to Programming with Scratch is perfect for you. It’s available on-demand, so you can join at any time and receive four weeks’ free access (select the ‘limited access’ option when you register). This course is a fun, inspiring, and colourful starting point if you have never tried coding before. 

If you’re a parent looking for more coding activities to share with your kids, you can sign up to our parent-focused newsletter.

We hope you enjoy exploring these resources during Scratch Week. 

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