ESSENTIALLY A CODING MASTER

This week for my EDTC 300 class we were put to the task of discovering more about coding. At first my reaction was a little nervous as I have never done it before. However, after my professor Katia Hildebrandt showed the level of coding we would be doing my worries were washed away. Out of the programs she showed us I decided that I would use code.org and do an hour of cord. I’ll take you through my process of coding and then give you my thoughts on it. So the coding activity that I chose was of the game “Flappy Bird” and the reason I picked it was because it was something I played too much of when it first came out.

So the first step was fairly straight forward as it gave me the option of what happens when I click my computer mouse. The goal was to get the bird to go up so I choose it to flap so that would happen. Also, I added the laser sound effect for my bird because who doesn’t want a bird that makes laser sounds. Again, this is for a lower grade level so they start to gain an understanding of coding so it may seem as though it’s a tad easy for my age.

Fast froward and I have slowly added more codes into my flappy bird game. On step four I now have the speed that the game will go and I chose normal because I wanted the authentic experience. However, the biggest thing added was the fact that when my bird hits an obstacle the game now ends. So far I think I’m getting the basic understanding of what coding is.

As the next steps of the hour of code went by I made my game a bit more interesting. Now the game also ends when the bird hits the ground. However, the biggest addiction to my game was the fact that after the bird passes each obstacle the player gets a point and the background will change. Also, whenever you click now the bird will change into something else. I wanted to make the game different than the original and now it’s a bit chaotic which is pretty fun.

Now for the last step of my hour of coding you can watch me put together my flappy bird game from the start and see just how high of a score I can get!

From this assignment I think it helped myself learn the fundamentals of what coding is exactly. I know I’m not some type of coding genius because I put together a flappy bird game but it has made me gain more experience in the subject then I ever had before. I knew computers and what not run on codes but that is about it. From what I’ve gathered from doing this activity is that coding is something that lets the computer know what it should be doing.

I thought that coding was actually pretty neat if I’m being honest. However, I know my opinion might have been different if I would have had to do a much higher level of coding. I still feel that it was good for myself to gain some knowledge so I actually have an understanding of the topic. Coding is something that is essential in our lives and should be taught to students at a young age. I looked at this article and I couldn’t agree more with it. Coding is something that even if you aren’t going to be some type of software engineer is still helpful. The process of coding that could be learned through activities like an hour of code or code academy can really help improve critical thinking skills from a young age. That’s why I think that coding is something that is very important to learn in our society.