Hour of Code with Vidcode - Parent Guide
Getting Started
The Hour of Code is a week long event (Dec 4-11) where millions of people code - oftentimes for the first time!
On Vidcode, we offer a multi-hour, self-paced curriculum in JavaScript for your child to learn the fundamentals of programming and beyond! We teach programming through the lens of art. It's collaborative, social, and creative. For the Hour of Code we've created a special experience to get your child started.
Coding Overview
This hour teachers your child to program using JavaScript - one of the most popular languages used to build the web! They'll use JavaScript to program series of images, finishing up by creating their own stop motion masterpiece. This lesson requires a modern browser and keyboard.
We recommend students work in pairs for this activity.
Can be student led or teacher led (see below for tips for a teacher-led Hour of Code)
Recommended ages: 10+
Hour of Code with Vidcode includes the following steps:
- Coding challenges
- Example projects
- History of Creative Coding
- A final project
Overview: The Hour with Your Child
Your child's Hour of Code activity is going to be full of creativity, technology and fun! Below is an overview of what this hour of code looks like, and what you can do with your class before and after, in addition to the hour of student-guided learning.
Before Hour of Code
Off the Computer
What is programming? Before Hour of Code on the computer starts, have a discussion with your child, and see what they think about code.
Do they know that coding can be creative and collaborative?
As an introduction, we recommend one of our off the computer activities to introduce the concepts of programming before they start working with their computers. We've created Drawing and Math unplugged activities for you to introduce your child to programming, no computers or internet connection needed!
During Hour of Code
Setting the scene
Laptop, paper, pen, Optional (print storyboard, note, cheat sheet)
We recommend 2 kids per computer if possible so that they can engage in pair programming. That being said, our lessons are also built for a self-guided idividual experience. We encourage kids to discuss their aesthetic and technical choices with each other, brainstorm together, and record their video together.
First 30 mins
Around 30 mins - participants will be recording a quick selfie video. If you have a video you want to upload instead, that works great as well! The main point here is that they are working with content they created or found instead of our sample content.
We’ve found it's quite powerful for kids to be able to code their own photos and videos. It helps them relate what might be foreign to them, computer science, to something that is familiar, a video they created!.
At 45-55 mins
Your child should be starting to finish up around this time. On the final screen, we offer some more activities for anyone who finishes early.
One of these is a series of questions that they can use to teach JavaScript to someone else using vidcode. There is no need to be an expert to teach others - encourage your child to teach/ tell someone else what they have learned.
The other option is to start a more advanced Vidcode project, where they code a meme!
After Hour of Code
Wow! At this point the Hour of Code is complete! Pat yourself on the back because you just introduced someone to an entirely new way to apply and create with technology in their lives.
After the Hour there are plenty of new art + technology coding projects for your kids to pursue on Vidcode. They are free of charge, collaborative, technical and creative.
We encourage you to talk to your child about what they've learned. We've put a Guide together for participants to complete together, to save what they've learned. They can fill it out at that link and compare their answers to the answers provided, or they can use this PDF.
We encourage participants to create an account once they've completed Hour of Code, to save their progress and all of their videos. They can share their videos and code with family and friends.
Security & Safety on Vidcode
Site safety
Vidcode is Https secure site. That means that we have secured our servers and user data to industry standards.
Do they need to sign in with their email?
For the Hour of Code you don’t have to sign in at all to participate. If your child wants to save their video + code at the end of the lesson they can download it without signing in or sign in then save it online.
What happens when they publish?
We won’t share any videos publicly unless you indicate “public" when you publish the video. You can feel free to share your link and the final video with whomever you choose.
Who can do this?
EVERYONE! You and your kids don’t need to have any experience with computer science previously to participate in our exercise. Vidcode Hour of Code is a self-guided experience. We’ve also supplied supplementary materials and FAQs for you to have in case your child gets stopped at any point. These materials are optional and are provided to help you help them as they learn.
We’ve even created a parent Q&A twitter where you can post your questions to be answered by the Vidcode community. We are all beginners and learning from each other!
What are they doing?
Today your kids will be creating videos and coding them with the most popular language for the web: JavaScript! They will be flexing both their creative and technical muscles in a project-oriented way. It’s easy, simple and they can do it on their own. For parents who want to get involved we have provided a cheat sheet for you.
Creating videos
About midway through the Hour your kids will have the chance to create or upload their own video to code. They can be as creative, social (or anti-social) as they want.
Coding
They will be learning the fundamentals of computer program as they edit their videos with code. Instead of press the “play” button they will be writing the play(); command (or method!) to the video with code. It’s pretty powerful stuff!
Pair Programming
Pair programming is a technique in which two programmers work together on the same code, typically side by side. Schools also employ these techniques in the classroom. Pair programming is a great way for students to teach each other new tricks. As your kids learn through the Hour of Code we encourage them to work together in pairs on one computer, and switch off for every quiz or coding project.
Docs
The docs tab in the coding workstation has tips and tricks of lines of code for your student to write. They can also take advantage of the Reference Guide.
FAQ
The FAQ is available any time with commonly asked questions.
Log in
You can log in as a parent or teacher, or create an account for a student to use. Create an account here.
This is NOT necessary to complete Hour of Code
Publishing Videos
At the end of the Vidcode Hour your student will have the opportunity to “publish” their video. When they publish it is not automatically public, similar to YouTube, they can select “private” and their video will not be shared. They can 'download' their videos, save the url, or create an account to access all of their videos at any time.
Still have questions?
We're always listening! Contact us at [email protected] with questions, or learn more at vidcode.io.