The students were excited to do this activity again because some students didn't get a turn being both the programmer and the computer. I noticed last time that some teams were getting frustrated when their programs didn't run properly and I could see that it was a "communication" problem. We started this class off by talking about their experiences and where there was confusion. Then I asked for a volunteer to read a simple board book to the class. I handed Ava the book and waited for her to read it. I asked her why she didn't start reading and she said she didn't know how to read Chinese!
So how does this apply to programming? The computer programmer and computer need to understand each other in order for things to work properly. Before starting the Move It Move It activity, students should agree on some basics:
- Are you using arrows or NSEW?
- If you are using the compass rose, will you allow directions like NE, SE, NW, and SW
- Will you be writing your instructions from left to right? or up to down?
- Which way is the computer programmer facing when writing instructions?