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Catroid is a visual programming language for Android devices that is inspired by the Scratch programming language for PCs, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is the aim of the Catroid project to facilitate the learning of programming skills among children and users of all ages. No desktop or notebook computer is needed.

"Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input."

Also free microsoft programming language for kids. We use Scratch in the LRC from 7th grade on, but need to move it down to 6th. We also want to begin programming clubs for creating games and apps. This might be a good starting point for Primary.

"Blockly is a web-based, graphical programming language. Users can drag blocks together to build an application. No typing required. "

"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience. "

I have requested access to the resources.

A review of Kahn's programming  tutorials i a "living coding" environment

"Score another win for the iPad, quite literally. Educational courseware provider Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is touting the results of a yearlong pilot program that indicates the company's HMH Fuse Algebra 1 program improved student's test scores. "

"Why not you? Make your New Year's resolution learning to code. Sign up on Code Year to get a new interactive programming lesson sent to you each week and you'll be building apps and web sites before you know it"

We really must get to work on setting up a code club.

"Setting up a library iPad program Guidelines for success"

"About KidsRuby makes it fun and easy to learn how to program. Download Now or check out the code on Github."

"Students will work in teams to create a real-world mobile app during the 12-week, after-school course. Enrollment is optional, but as of Jan. 24, 30 Apex students had registered, said Julie Oster, director of the Academy of Information Technology, an Apex High School program that follows the NAF curriculum."

A superb game for anyone teaching the 'control' section of ICT. Move your robot around the scene using a string of commands. A great introduction to programming. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Some more advanced Scratch cards

This SAT prep program is free and has more than 60 lessons in math, reading, and writing. It also includes a score projector. This is something parents CAN have their children do to prepare for the test (unless you want to get my FAVORITE book for this -- SAT prep for dummies .) 

How one school is managing ipads and byod.

AR SPOT is an augmented-reality authoring environment for children. An extension of MIT's Scratch project, this environment allows children to create experiences that mix real and virtual elements. Children can display virtual objects on a real-world scene observed through a video camera, and they can control the virtual world through interactions between physical objects. This project aims to expand the range of creative experiences for young authors, by presenting AR technology in ways appropriate for this audience. In this process, we investigate how young children conceptualize augmented reality experiences, and shape the authoring environment according to this knowledge.

"A program launching December 13th enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook's "chat" messaging system. The service is the latest tool from Facebook aimed at improving safety on its site, which has more than 800 million users. Earlier this year, Facebook announced changes to how users report bullying, offensive content and fake profiles."

One of the common concerns we hear from K-12 users of Google Docs is the lack of clip art. This is understandable as most people are used to the large amount of clip art available in Microsoft Office programs. Well, that may be changing a little bit now. Today I was working in Google Documents (updating a Chrome help guide), when I noticed a new option for inserting something called "Stock photos". Basically if you go to insert an image as usual, you now have five options: Upload URL Google Image Search Picasa Web Albums Stock photos