Blackbird Helps Students to Code + Create with Confidence

The Blackbird coding platform is exactly what I was hoping for to help students learn text-based coding. We incorporated it into a two-week Code Dance Create camp for middle school students this summer funded by the Oregon Department of Education, and it was wonderful to see how even brand-new coders learn the skills. Students with special needs excelled with it, too, and everyone had the flexibility to work at their own pace. I volunteered to share our story with the hope that many more students and educators can benefit from this artfully-designed educational tool that helps every student learn to code with JavaScript, not just block coding. I've used so many different tech tools in over 30 years of teaching, and Blackbird is the best I have seen. 

A great feature of Blackbird is how it offers science and math interactives that simultaneously teach the JavaScript coding, and it gives students a lot of reading and writing practice in enjoyable, interactive ways. The integrated Workspace feature also allows students to build from all of built-in resources, including animations and games, to create their own open-ended games and anything else they can dream up. 

I was also able to work with a high school student to create a template for a choose your own adventure game. The student had experience working with Blackbird at Franklin High School in Portland, OR, where my colleague Joe Rowe had used it for years with great success. All his students were able to create their own games with it and share them with Blackboard’s built in collaboration features. Educators can also easily share activities with students, track their progress through their teacher account, and even award feathers for jobs well done. Another fun, motivating feature is how students can earn stars for completing activities without help, but it also great that they have the option to click the “Show Me” button when they need help completing tasks. I personally leaned on that feature heavily when running through the engaging tutorials that led to immediate, colorful graphics, animations, interactives, and games.

Blackbird is such an enjoyable, well-designed tool that really helps engage students to learn coding, science, math and more. Just let me know if you have questions, and I’d love to hear about your experiences with it, as well.

Rick Reynolds, M.S.Ed. Founder, Engaging Every Student Co-Founder, Code Dance Create rick@engagingeverystudent.com

Here's one of our students, Jose, really enjoying Blackbird. He even created is own cool animations with the open-ended Workshop feature.