LiveCode Forums

I have demonstrated elsewhere that is is perfectly possible to "strap" a Scratch-like interface onto the front
of LiveCode: but to my mind that is a rather pointless exercise . . .
- -
. . . my parents got me swimming with a pair of flippers . . .

. . . once the flippers were removed I sank like a stone and it took about 5 years for me to regain
my confidence: so, no benefit whatsoever from the flippers.

Okay, we can agree Scratch is not on par with LiveCode and it has shortcomings. We can slam it all we want but that is not promoting LiveCode in educational circles which should be our goal.

Back to your post:

There are plenty of resources around "for kids", and they fall into 2 categories:

1. Ones for kids to "fool around with" by themselves.

2. Ones that can be integrated into a series of structured classes taught at school.

If there were a bit more concentration on #2, and getting more teacher uptake, #1 would come
into play as children 'turned on' by #2 would become more interested in #1.

What can we do to further the cause and achieve both of those stated aims?

We can look at what other successful languages are doing and see what we can easily use to promote and encourage LiveCode in the home, in the classroom and convince other educators to use.

I again refer to BitsBox which is becoming very successful in its adoption in educational settings.

According to Amazon, and other sources:

VOTED #1 STEM BOX FOR KIDS - Kids start by coding from examples and progress quickly to inventing their own apps.
PERFECT FOR KIDS AGES 6 TO 12 - No previous coding experience is necessary. Each kit includes a helpful Grownup Guide and unlimited email support, too!
REAL COMPUTER PROGRAMMING - And crazy fun! Bitsbox delivers coding projects that teach kids to make video games, greeting cards, simulations and more. Bonus! Apps work on real phones and tablets!
EXPLORE A NEW CONCEPT EVERY MONTH - Subscription box mailed monthly. Each one builds on the last and encourages kids to code more complex and exciting apps.
WARNING: FREQUENTLY LEADS TO FITS OF GIGGLES & LAUGHTER - Coding for kids with Bitsbox strikes a balance between challenge and entertainment, as kids practice life skills like problem-solving, typing and persistence.

And the 1 page from the company: https://bitsbox.com/#overview-panel

Can we make getting started in LiveCode this easy?
Can it make it more attractive and more appealing to try?
Then make it as simple to write your first programs or app?

For Parents?
For Educators to try? and for use in Classrooms?

Right now, it is too much trouble to figure out what to do? what software to signup for? and get started?

It is even too much work to try it out. We need to figure out a way to make it easy to try out and create something right away.

Agreed?

I would be willing to collaborate on making a very simple and cute stack that does something. Maybe the student drags a few controls from the tools palette and places them on a ghost-like template. Then drag a button around the screen, running over other controls and have the button's history of collisions recorded live. This might involve a field that records the interactions, and maybe use revSpeak along the way. Whatever.

The card could have "animations" that show how to actually drag a control from the palette, and how to drag it across the screen

Anything that takes ten minutes and does something with feedback.

Maybe in lesson 2 we can make more dramatic activity. That is the time to try to hook the student in, because they will become bored with only lesson 1, and will want to do more. There we can open the SE and show how to make stuff.

Craig

That would be great. A simplified tools palette would make a big difference. An easy project 1 would be something like "Hello World" but made more fun. Project 2 could be a greeting card with 2 cards and having them change the backgrounds and add a graphic Each project would be easy and give them freedom to be creative. Each project would come with a list of "Try this" suggestions to help them get started and more involved.

I do not know how to simplify (replace? ) the tools palette. If there are any instructions, I am willing to learn otherwise someone else will have to do it. We could create a "Starter" or "Junior" version.

You have some good ideas.

Which version should we start with? An old one like 6.5 or 8.4 or 10.6? One that has a smaller footprint and limited in what it can do? (and not compete with the paying versions?

and not compete with the paying versions?

Has to be free.

The hard part is not building a simple stack. It is deciding how much interaction the user needs along the way. It has to be that some coding goes along with the playing, pretty much from the start. Otherwise the promise of LC is never evident. If that scares some away, then they were never going to move forward anyway. But the coding has to be very straightforward and readable.

I do not think the SE should appear at all at first; maybe a field can hold some commands that the student writes, even if selected from a list of possibilities, and a button that fills in the syntactic blanks and then "does" the field code.

Maybe that is something that will work. Instead of teaching what the "put" command does, offer a list of commands, using simple but valid LC, where one selection or the other will do one thing or the other. Then later teach why that particular choice did what it did.

Craig

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