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Parents' Guide to

Codea

By Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Innovative tool for programming on the iPad.

App iPad Paid Productivity
Codea Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

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What’s It About?

Starting with a boilerplate that includes the two required functions -- set-up and draw -- that serve as the hooks into the Lua program, kids then fill in the specifics of the program. CODEA is visual, so as kids type in the command, for example COLOR, a pop-up appears for them to choose their color from the color wheel. Kids will then see the code for the color they chose.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1 ):

Point kids to the GETTING STARTED section's Codea Wiki to try out the FOR KIDS tutorial. It offers a step-by-step guide for beginners. Codea as a development tool itself is fabulous, but the ease of use on the iPad along with the visual pop-ups within the code and the immediate response of code errors make it a winner for beginners. The tools and resources are easily accessible on the iPad, so the app is touch-screen generation friendly.

User-friendly, though, does not mean easy. Programming is challenging, and kids should not expect to pick this up for a few minutes and whip up their own featured app. Learning to program takes time, patience, and focus. The tool is straightforward, though, with no game-like bells and whistles, so kids will need to find some internal motivation to work through it. But for those who are motivated, Codea puts the resources kids need to learn and practice programing on the iPad.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Point kids to the GETTING STARTED section's Codea Wiki to try out the FOR KIDS tutorial. It offers a step-by-step guide for beginners.

  • Parents can work together with younger kids to alter an existing program to the kids' specifications.

App Details

  • Device: iPad
  • Subjects: Math : functions
  • Skills: Creativity : producing new content, Tech Skills : digital creation
  • Pricing structure: Paid ($14.99)
  • Release date: April 19, 2013
  • Category: Productivity
  • Topics: STEM
  • Publisher: Two Lives Left
  • Version: 1.5.2
  • Minimum software requirements: iOS 5.0 or later
  • Last updated: October 14, 2019

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