Week 6 Microbit and Coding

 This class was by far the most challenging class I have experienced in this subject. The world of coding has always been this foreign and scary world to me. We had to lovely tech wizards come in to class today and volunteer their time to shine light on the world of micro bit and coding. This for me was a challenge but a very rewarding one as I can now say I have done coding!! WOO! We learnt how to set up a conductor and a receiver code between two different micor:bits which in its basic form can create a patterned game of repetition/imitation.

Games like this is in the classroom are really important as it's another way to learn and can be a way to teach basic forms of music without actually having in-depth musical equipment/instruments. I see the value in using teaching methods like this for the non musical kids doing music at school as it is another way to convey musical concepts with out using the obvious forms of instruments and traditional practices of teaching. With pro's comes con's. The biggest con for this I feel is that it over complicates what music is and turns the class content in to more of a science/tech lesson instead of a music lesson. I initially had some struggles grasping todays lesson content which makes me wonder if the teacher is struggling how much will the inexperienced student struggle and how much will they learn.

We can all agree music is being disguised in the cool word of tech and code which makes music more interesting for the student who doesn't have a big interest in music. A way to include all types of students and brains in to music education. Below is the call and response game with the code we made in class. 


                                           (Microbits made in class, links below for code made in class)

https://makecode.microbit.org/_UKA7YhhVkFY2 Conductor Code

https://makecode.microbit.org/_DwWJ269TxFga Receiver Code


In class the guest speakers let us play with code powered xylophones made out of PLAYDOUGH!!! That for me was a mixture of awesome, amazing and fun!! Below is a collage I made of photo's taken in class of me having a play with the play dough xylophone and one of the micro:bits!




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