child-led learning

I wanted to share with you about a coding class from CodeWizardsHQ that my son recently completed.  This online coding class had my son intrigued and wanting to do more. The ability to code is an extremely important skill that today’s youth will need for the jobs of tomorrow.  Coding is required in so many positions today, the need for skilled computer savvy people is growing exponentially.   CodeWizardsHQ  also offers homeschool computer programs as well as online coding classes for all students.

CodeWizardsHQ set up an introductory Class for members of the Homeschool Review Crew.  They had a number of timeslots we could pick from in order to see how their training program works.  I have to admit…. my son wanted it to be much longer.  He didn’t get to complete everything he wanted to due to the limitations of the one hour class and the very new to coding people who were part of his group. 

I thought I would walk you through some of the technical stuff and let my son tell you about his experience later on.  First a bit about the program from CodeWizardsHQ themselves.

What do you get?

As I mentioned earlier, we received a one hour online class to test out their program.   This consisted of getting an email from David and Kevin walking us through the important aspects of the program. An introductory video was used to point out the benefits of using their program to teach coding (teacher support, classroom setting, learning from each other, feedback given), the exponential growth in the need for good coding skills, and how their program work.  Regretfully I was unable to attend, but Kevin nicely sent me a PDF of the slides used in the presentation so I didn’t really miss it!  Wasn’t that sweet of him?  

My son took the class because we could only have one person on and listening well at a time.   This review will be filled with overheard comments concluding with my son’s overall impression of the class.

At the start of the class, based on what I overheard, the instructor took a moment to learn a few things about each of the students.  I heard my son say “I don’t know what I want to learn, but by what I have seen its an important skill to know” as well as the fact that he has done some coding in the past. 

A quick complaint I heard was “I wish some of the people not talking would turn off their audio as I hear people talking in the background.”  I mentioned to my son that is a hard issue to control and that CodeWizardsHQ had asked people to meet in a quiet area. 

We weren’t initially aware that we would need to have two screens open so it took us a bit of time to get that part figured out.  Once we did, the rest of the class moved smoothly.  They use the Go Meeting program to conduct the teaching part of the program. 

There is another open page with the students private dashboard.  We received a special code that helped us open this page. I assume each person received their own code. The class we took was an introductory one. 

At the top of the dashboard are the controls to learn the programming. The join class button takes you to the Go Meeting app.  Editor is where items are edited, progress lets you see the changes you have made.

As you move to the editor page you will see a page like this.  At times this page will just have a column of grey on the one side with words/names.   And if you click on one of those words you will see either an image pop up or a bunch of code. 

My son was taught with some pre-existing elements, examples follow.

By the end my son had officially made a checkerboard of conversation and images.

Comments overheard: “I now understand why learning in a classroom takes so much longer now”.  “Some of the students are slow, so I have to wait, I can change anything I want while I wait.”

Instructor quality?

Good.

Sound?

Instructor good, everyone else horrible.

Ease of use?

“I found it very easy to use. I know a couple of students didn’t get the first thing done”

Do you like it?

Yes. Would have been nice if everyone could have figured it out.

Would you want to take a 12 week course?

Yes I would.

Anything you would change?

“”What they need to do is have two instructors. One to keep the advanced students going and one to help the ones who have fallen behind.”

“I would have liked them to spend some time explaining what html does rather than just how to change it.”
“Didn’t teach about elements, opening and closing brackets. Would have been better to start completely from scratch.”

“All we were taught was how to change part of an element and how to copy and paste an element.”

“One of the things I liked is that if you made a mistake with your HTML , such as you forgot to make a opening bracket or a closing bracket or if you added them something in that shouldn’t be there, it would pop up in red text if it needed to be changed.”

My lad thoroughly enjoyed being part of this class and would happily take a courses from CodeWizardsHQ if he had a chance to do so.  

CodeWizards offers several classes, each 12 weeks long.  One hour live class each week which comes with 24/7 access to the code writing platform, email support, one-to-one assistance as needed, weekly progress updates recorded classes along with the necessary web space to complete projects and an online student community.   A certificate is issued for each completed courses. 

CodeWizardHQ
I received a one hour introductory class into HTML coding.

Their normal classes run for 12 weeks and at the end of them you will get a certificate of completion.
Online, Coding Classes for Kids,
Three Levels to work through, Certificate upon Completion, Along with Internship.
For Class Pricing.  
CodeWizardsHQ is not a homeschool curriculum company, but they are open to providing classes during the day for homeschooled students. Learn More Here. 

60 members of the Homeschool Review Crew took this class, CLICK HERE to read them.

Facebook along with the Facebook group for parents who are interested in coding for their children 
Twitter.
Pinterest.
YouTube.