Computational Thinker
ISTE Standard for Students 5
Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
5a: Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models, and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.
5b: Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.
5c: Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
5d: Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.
Tool demonstrated: Code.org
What is Code.org? My knowledge on this subject cannot be contained—are you prepared?
Code.org is a website that facilitates students of all grade levels and ages in learning the basics of computer code and how coding languages work. Through accessible and engaging minigame-esque tutorials, Code.org flexes analytical and computational muscles in order to imbue students with a deeper understanding of what “coding” is, how code works, and offers a peek behind the curtain of how various electronic tools function.
In my perusal of Code.org, I completed a tutorial on the homepage called Minecraft: Hero’s Journey, based on the #1 top selling video game of all time: Minecraft. Minecraft is a game all about using tools and blocks to accomplish creative or adventurous tasks, with or without other players. In this Minecraft-based Code.org tutorial, students were tasked with giving commands to an “agent” who would then assist the player’s character in building bridges, clearing obstacles, or opening doors to allow the completion of specific objectives. Code.org uses “code blocks” for accessibility, meaning that while students aren’t typing out every single specific string of Java code they are still putting the essential components together. Students even have the option of seeing what the code they built would look like if they had been typing it directly into a more traditional coding interface.
Want to give Minecraft: Hero’s Journey a try for yourself? Click the link below! Want to read my process reflection (and view the sweet certificate it gave me for completing the tutorial) instead? Just keep scrolling!
The final level of Minecraft: Hero’s Journey places the player into a “sandbox” to do whatever they’d like with the skills they have learned thus far in the tutorial. Here, I made a minecart track across a bridge, and a bridge back across the water with two separate functions.
Reflection:
In a nutshell: Code.org (and Minecraft: Hero’s Journey in particular) offers engaging twists on traditional coding education. Through hands-on activities, “code blocks,” and engaging pop culture references, these tools make students think, perform, and associate with schemas they have built outside of the classroom.
I’m a huge fan of Minecraft. In eighth grade, my middle school technology teacher helped my best friend and I pitch and teach our own Minecraft class during our school’s “Spring Electives” schedule switch-up. Not only was it absolutely awesome to a bunch of middle schoolers for us to be able to play Minecraft during class time (and get credit for it!) but the suggestions my technology teacher made about how we could tailor the game to teach generalized technological knowledge were incredibly genitive. We associated the functions in Minecraft with other games that students had played, even comparing control styles and input mechanics across platforms like PCs, consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation, and even mobile games and apps.
This Code.org tutorial brought all those memories crashing back. I know how incredibly powerful and motivating it was for me to see something I cared so passionately about be represented in my school while I was growing up, and I could feel how many students around the world were getting inspired to learn how to code through playing this tutorial. To all unaware, Minecraft has a wildly popular modding scene, meaning that not only does the community love the game, the community loves coding special modifications to make the game run differently and sharing them around the internet. Since the students who are completing this tutorial are able to see the Java code they wrote with their “code blocks” at the end of each level, they are able to more directly see how code they wrote is able to change the outcome of what happens in a video game they enjoy. I can already see a new generation of Minecraft modders being borne out of Code.org and analogous sites—the potential for crossover is strong.
Not only is this cool for the Minecraft scene, but these actions allow students to get a fuller sense of how the technological constructs around them function. As I referenced in my piece on Anchor.fm, tools like Code.org and this tutorial in particular help to give students technical vocabulary to describe the creative works around them. Students are able to understand what the term “function” means in the context of a piece of code, and are then able to associate this knowledge with real-world technical interactions. When something weird and unexpected—even “glitchy”—happens in a game or virtual tool, students who are able to peer behind this proverbial curtain are able to make conjectures about what may have happened. For example: in this tool, if you give the “agent” six “walk forward” commands when they only have four spaces to travel, they will bump directly into the wall twice because they are taking an instruction that is impossible to execute. After experiencing this, the next time a student comes across a glitch in a game where a non-player character is continually bumping into a wall, they are able to make a rational connection between being given an instruction and having the correct “pathing” (or pathfinding) to execute the instruction correctly.
As educators tasked with promoting the knowledge of an increasingly technological world, it is our responsibility to break down creative walls for our students so that they can hypothesize about the things that go on “behind the scenes.” Code.org, especially Minecraft: Hero’s Journey, fulfills this requirement and ISTE Standard for Students 5, particularly 5c and 5d pertaining to automated problem-solving and extracting key information for finding solutions. This program promotes engagement, understanding, and abstract rationalization about technological constructs in students’ daily lives.
