Simran, age 6, bonding with the "Panda".

Though I am an "Early Adapter of Technology" (at least according to Facebook), I've been wary of the new coding learning tools aimed at early readers (ages 5+). 

For example, I have trouble swallowing a $180 price tag for a cube bot that will teach a 3 year old how to command basic directions. My first question is: What happens when the kid wants to make their cube run like a Roomba?

Young kids, specifically 5-7, are especially difficult to create coding tools for because of their non-linear, imaginative thinking.  I've seen kids this age more excited for an empty, refrigerator box than a shiny, new piece of technology. Any parent or teacher can tell you how hard it is to hold the attention of a kid this age.

At the same time, anyone who knows my lab knows how much I love Makeblock. The $100-a-pop mBots are a staple of my coding clubs, and The All-In-One Neuron Kit is a fixture in my intermediate coding classes.

Something that Makeblock has done well, and consistently, is to create open-ended, durable learning kits that have kids really working through coding as an ongoing process.

Authentic learning means that kids should be using coding toys to interact with or expand their environment in many ways. ​Makeblock has managed to avoid an all-too-common pitfall of creating a coding toy that does a specific function, like avoid objects, in a limited context. 

Despite my brand loyalty to Makeblock, I passed on their new Codey Rocky Kickstarter back in November. Lucky for me, they sent me one.

Codey Rocky is a cute, unisex mini-bot that can unlock the world for young coders. It can move, play a video game, connect to Wi-Fi and give you a weather report. It's a trip and a half.

So a lot of the kids I used the Codey Rocky with already have experience with the mBot coding robot.  Aside from the Scratch-based, mBlock 5 programming interface, there are a lot of areas where the mBots and the Codey Rocky stand apart.

Mainly, where the mBot is fairly straightforward as a customizable robot with a few sensors (distance sensor & line detector sensor), the Codey Rocky is an entirely different beast.

The biggest thing for me about the Codey Rocky is the controller head. The panda head of the robot is also a game controller with 3 buttons, a volume controller, USB-C port and a power button. It's loaded with

Basically, if my kids create a Scratch-style, block -based game on mBlock5, they can program it to play it with the panda controller head (instead of a mouse or keyboard). 

To me, that functionality immediately raises the potential of the Codey Rocky ten fold. The reemergence of retro-styled games, like Flappy Bird, Minecraft, and mobile apps, means that my students would kill to be able to create a video game that can be played with an actual controller.

I'll be posting a video about this soon...as soon as I figure out how to code my own version of Flappy Bird in mBlock 5.

This is an area where I don't think Japan has quite caught up to the rest of the world, at least where I am in Kansai. It seems like every other private school kid got a Google Home this last Christmas but, aside from talking to Google, do they really know how to use the IoT features?

The Codey Rocky can connect to your devices, which means you can program it to get a weather report for you or send notifications to your smartphone.

Here a brush-up on the "what" of the Internet of Things (IoT)? And here, my families are still blown away by App Inventor. 

In terms of features, the Codey Rocky is nothing like anything I've ever seen. It's way more than I expected and a daunting vision of what programming education could be at this very moment, but probably isn't yet.

Not only is it powerful tech, but it's so accessible. I think the most ringing endorsement I can give for it is that the Codey Rocky is clearly designed to grow with the coder. As the coder learns, they can access the higher functions of the Codey Rocky.

I'm going to be getting a bunch of these for this year's Makers Camp (sign up if you haven't already!). It is a wicked bot.

The world needs empowered minds. Technology and mankind's increasing interconnectedness are increasingly placing the burden of responsibility in the hands of children and young adults. 

Empowered minds see problems and have the ability to create solutions. Their solutions create real change in their world. We are seeing evidence of this youth power in political and cultural movements around the globe at this very moment.

The bar we use to measure achievement is rising. Universities and companies are looking for people with developed, empowered mindsets because those individuals are more likely to thrive.

Here is Learning Lab Kobe's Checklist of Essentials for an Empowered Learning Space.

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When I speak to other international educators, families and companies about international education in Japan, one of the major concerns is always writing.

Why aren't kids motivated to write well? Why is the quality of writing not higher? Why is the writing filled with errors?

There are certain key differences between Japanese and English that make it more difficult for families and children here to understand how English develops as a language.

After teaching literacy in K-12 education in the United States and experiencing English instruction in Japan, I have noticed that teaching English with Japanese expectations creates extra challenges for English learners here.

The way that we measure good writers in native English classrooms is very different from how ESL/ELL kids in Japan are measured. I will try to provide specific examples in this series of posts

The basic idea is that kids need to focus more on writing, vocabulary building and phonics earlier, in order to be successful writers later.

Japanese kids are expected to know how to correctly spell in Japanese (hiragana) from an relatively early age. This makes sense for reasons I will explain in a moment.

When English develops organically, the very beginnings of correct spelling are not something teachers expect until the end of 1st grade. That means that the children know some specific words that they can spell correctly and can try to spell unknown words with some degree of phonetic accuracy.

​It is more important to learn new words and practice using them in writing than to be able to spell correctly. That means that it is better for your child to spend more time reading and building vocabulary instead of practicing spelling. 

Kids use "invented spelling" until a relatively late age (up to 11 years old). Invented spelling is the use of phonics and spelling patterns to spell unknown words. The resulting invented spellings can be incorrect, but should phonetically match the word. 

​Please read up on Gentry's stages of spelling for more information.

I could have included a second chart to the second one above to encompass all of the basic characters and phonemes of Japanese. Each character connects to ONE (and only one) sound.

As a comparison to English, I invite you to visit Phonics Talk, which has a concise, EIGHTEEN charts to include all character to sound combinations in the English language. We may only have 26 characters in English, but we have 44 phonemes (unique sounds) and 70 letter-sounds combinations.

English, as a language, is a bit of a nightmare. Originally Germanic in origin, Old English went through so many changes that it didn't resemble today's English until the end of the 1700s. Modern English, as it is now called, is a mixed bag of Greek and Latin roots, borrowed words from other languages and its own Germanic roots.

Spelling and pronunciation, as a result, are highly irregular.

Perfectionism in spelling is not an issue unique to Japanese learners of English. There is a lot of educational research that has gone into what happens when kids focus too much on correct spelling.

Here are some common issues educators see with kids who think about spelling too much:

• They are slow writers
• They don't produce as much writing as other kids in their classes
• They are not independent writers; they often ask how to spell things while writing and feel uncomfortable writing on their own
• They become frustrated with their writing more quickly
• They have trouble starting writing assignments
• They have trouble expressing their ideas clearly in writing
• They are not actively adding new vocabulary into their writing
• They don't like writing

I underlined the second point because if is so important for writers to write a lot. A garden grows where you water it. Writing skill develops where you practice it.

What your kids are doing!
Kids apply their skills to coding:

• Mathematical reasoning
• Research skills
• Reading comprehension
• Technology literacy
• Logical thinking
• Critical thinking & Problem solving
• Hand/Eye coordination
• Fine motor skills 

Teacher terms
Coding requires learners to adapt and further develop their existing skills in the context of coding.

What your kids are doing!
Kids identify types of games or apps they want to recreate. They write the initial code, using a guide, and then must debug their code to get a functional final product. Usually debugging is >50% of the process. It helps them develop patience and perseverance.

Teacher terms
Complex actions in any game/app need to be broken down logically into their basic functions before they are translated into code. Debugging, or fixing coding errors, is a major part of writing code and requires problem-solving and critical thinking

What your kids are doing!
Kids can imagine a game or product they want to create, break that project up into its parts and create it. They can integrate their knowledge, skills, and processes to make something new or improved!

​Teacher terms
Creating a successful product involves using the Design Cycle and an understanding of how codes interact. Balancing technical knowledge & experience with risk-taking & flexibility leads to better products.

Learning to code is a long process that is littered with far more failures than successes. For seasoned coders, the sting of the failures along the way only makes success sweeter, but, for new learners, the failures can make coding seem impossible, frustrating and boring.
​
The big question is how do we teach all these facets of coding to kids? Are there some parts more important than others?

The end-all of coding is to create something from nothing, but just learning coding languages as knowledge or skill won't teach you that. Coders code because they are creating something that works, so kids should learn how to code by creating things that work in real life.

The big question is how do we teach all these facets of coding to kids? Are there some parts more important than others?

Here's my answer:

Teach coding by addressing all of the areas listed above, but always aim towards making something of value. Teach skills, but apply them towards creating functional products. Teach coding languages, but emphasize how to use those new codes in flexible contexts.

Authentic learning is essential to teaching coding usefully.