Building from their previous work coding the Ozobots with color combinations drawn on paper, this morning in the AT&T Classroom the students learned to program their Ozobots using flash codes , i.e., rapidly changing combinations of colors that are displayed on a digital screen such as a tablet or iPad. The students are programming flash codes using the OzoDraw tool in the Ozobot app. OzoDraw allows children to select from multiple gameplay modes and draw lines and patterns (flash codes) on a tablet’s screen for the Ozobot to follow. The Lippman students used the tool in the Free Draw mode that offers a blank canvas on which students can design and code their own digital track. The tool also offers a Playground mode with mazes and backgrounds that children can use as a starting point.
Later this morning, the students were introduced to OzoBlockly, a visual programming language with a drag-and-drop interface composed of graphical programming blocks. The students’ work with the Ozobots over the past week has tied in with the AT&T Classroom’s participation in the Hour of Code. The week of Dec. 4-11 marks National Computer Science Education Week and all schools are encouraged to participate in the “Hour of Code”, a global initiative aimed at providing coding and programming experiences to classrooms around the world. In additional to Ozobot tutorials, numerous coding and programming activities and resources for children can be accessed at the website for National Computer Science Education Week (https://csedweek.org) and at the website for the Hour of Code at https://hourofcode.com.
