
Show HN: BlockStudio, an Online Environment for Children to Learn Programming - disqard
http://www.blockstudio.app
======
disqard
[Show HN: BlockStudio, An Online Environment for Children to Learn
Programming]

Hi folks,

I've been working on this project for a few years now: www.blockstudio.app

BlockStudio is an online environment for learning programming.

Its programming paradigm is different from the more common "code blocks"
program construction model. I recommend going through the tutorial if you are
sufficiently interested (you'll need to sign up) -- or just play the game
featured on the landing page (made by a 9 year-old kid from WA).

The website has been around for a while now, but I wanted to share it with
this community now because:

a) Somebody here might be looking for this sort of thing for their
child/niece/nephew/student (I've seen it come up before [0])

b) There's consistent (though low) traffic on the BlockStudio site, and that
means there are interesting projects created by children aged 8 through 14,
which I thought would be worth sharing with you all.

c) The website is at a place where I personally feel comfortable with a large
number of people checking it out.

Please keep (b) in mind, if you decide to leave comments on these children's
projects (commenting is unlocked after creating a user account and completing
some tutorials). Of course, I trust this community and welcome your feedback
on _my_ work -- especially opportunities for improvement in the system/UI
itself.

Thanks in advance!

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16764039](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16764039)

~~~
Impossible
Is there a way to learn about or try the language without signing up for an
account? I understand it being necessary to save and publish games, but not
being able to try the tutorial without signing up isn't a great experience.

~~~
disqard
That's good feedback! The challenge is:

1\. There are six tutorials (2-5 minutes each) to learn the basic vocabulary.

2\. It's possible to finish them all in one session, but I don't expect anyone
to do that

3\. I've currently avoided using cookies to save/restore progress within the
tutorials, because children in schools often will use the same computer.

You do make a very good point that it's a bit much to ask people to sign up
just to try the tutorial. I'll think about removing that constraint (while
informing the user that they'll lose their progress when they leave).

Thanks for making time to check this out.

~~~
em-bee
i think that's fine. you can use 'saving your progress' as an incentive to get
people to register.

~~~
disqard
Agreed. Thanks for chiming in. It can be hard to calibrate whether a
particular strategy is reasonable or not, so hearing what the folks here have
to say has been helpful!

