Community reviews for Pencil Code

I think it is a really cute and informative way to introduce students to different coding languages and coding in a very simple and easy to learn manner. Whether they want to code art, music, or a simple creative game, Pencil Code allows them to do so. In my experience I was able to code a simple line of music with multiple instruments with little knowledge of coding!

There are many things I like about this resource. First, how you can play and pause to see how your code functions. I think the interactive-ness of this resource is great since you can edit the pencil code, press play and get visual feedback on whether you coded correctly or not. With this, it is very easy to see where you might have gone wrong in the code which can help students understand basic coding logic at the start. I didn't like the User Interface between all the different functions. I totally understand there are a lot of functions and dividing the functions into 8 blocks which dropdown for more is likely the best approach, however, I believe this could be very overwhelming for beginner students. This would be especially overwhelming if students have no coding background as some of these tools are very large and have lots of text. An example of this is in the Snippets section, the "forever #, -> fd #, if not inside [window], stop() +" function would be extremely confusing for people knew to coding.

Pencil Code is a beginner-friendly coding platform that allows students to explore code and art. It offers flexibility for students to start with block-based coding and transition to text-based coding. However, it lacks the structure and scaffolding found in competitor platforms, which may require additional effort from teachers. Debugging can be challenging, and the small user community limits opportunities for collaboration and learning from others.

One of the best things about Pencil Code is that it's web-based, meaning that users can access it from several devices. This makes it a very versatile tool that can be used at home or in the classroom, without the need for any additional hardware or software.

Overall, Pencil Code is an excellent app for kids who want to learn how to code. Its user-friendly interface, visual programming language, and range of coding challenges and tutorials make it an excellent choice for kids of all ages. If you're looking for a fun and engaging way to introduce your child to coding, Pencil Code is definitely worth checking out.

I feel as though this is an easily accessible way for a teacher to teach their students coding. It's a great introduction to how coding works. I liked how it was pretty simple and you can just immediately start coding without too many issues in your way. However, a teacher would have to sit me down and tell me how to use it constantly, since there's really no tutorial when you first access the website. There is a guide link you can click on, but even that was a little difficult for me to follow/read. This can be very difficult, even for the teacher at times, since they may not even know how to use the website correctly.

Block coding is a really great way to start learning how to code, and this platform is definitely an easy and accessible way to get started. However, there is a lack of guidance- such as in debugging and lesson planning- that might make it difficult for students to use this on their own.