With programming in the classroom on the up, our education team have seen schools going coding crazy. And one tool we've seen making an impact is Hopscotch, a really intuitive iPad app that teaches the programming basics to young coders.
What is Hopscotch for iPad?
Hopscotch (Hopscotch Technologies, free) is a free iPad app that's great for helping pupils learn the fundamentals of programming. Using a simple drag and drop method, you move pre-made blocks and objects to build a complete program. This completed script then lets you run animations or simple games. It's based on the popular visual programming language Scratch, which was created at MIT in 2006.
How can it benefit the classroom?
Using a simple interface, Hopscotch will appeal to young coders at every key stage, and give them a taste of the kind of programming skills they might want to take further. With an emphasis on coding and programming in ICT, Hopscotch is an easy way in for both learners and teachers.
What's the best feature?
The greatest thing about Hopscotch has to be the friendly design and ease of use. Pupils pick from one of a range of cool characters (we can't choose a favourite between the monkey and the ice cream), and then it's just a case of dragging and dropping commands into line to create animations and games.
Where can I get it?
Hopscotch (Hopscotch Technologies, free) is available from the App Store on your iPad or from iTunes. Best of all, it's completely free.
Want to know more about our favourite apps and Apple iPad for the classroom? Get in touch with the team on 03332 409 333, email learning@Jigsaw24.com, follow @Jigsaw24Edu on Twitter or ‘Like’ our Jigsaw24 Education Facebook page for all the latest technology in education news, reviews and articles.