Even in the age of AI, coding is an important aspect of learning because it fundamentally teaches a way to solve problems, think critically, solve problems in a technical way, and builds inherent confidence and knowledge around building and creating things. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said that despite the increasing role of AI in coding, the ability to logically break down problems and design solutions to systems remains crucial.
So coding for children is a key part of their growth in the technological world. Often, children understand all aspects of problem solving by using block-based, text-based core languages such as C, Java, Python, App Development, Web Development, Game Development, Cybersecurity, Robotics, Computer Mathematics, etc. As a unified set of knowledge areas, they provide an important foundation for the technical areas. At UnicMinds, we make sure we cover the entire field of children’s acquisition of strong basic knowledge and skills and have established courses to ensure cross-application of these fields.
Today, there are several excellent platforms that enable children to learn technology and its underlying mechanisms in an easy-to-understand way. Discover some of the best online coding platforms for children and teenagers to learn how to code.
- Scratches
SCRATCH is a block-based visual programming language and website for children to learn logical building blocks of programming without the burden of syntactic correctness and memory required for text-based programming. There is no doubt that Scratch is one of the most popular platforms for kids to learn coding.
- code.org
Code.org is a nonprofit organization whose mission is that every K-12 student in every place should learn to code. They also organized global code events.
- Khan Academy
Salman Khan’s nonprofit has changed the educational space forever. My favorite quote is when he says “two cars in the garage are enough, and now it’s time to do things for others”. You can learn a range of courses from graphics and dynamic programming to web development and deep learning.
- unified
This is a platform for developing real-time 3D games in C# – a comprehensive set of solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and 3D content. If you have basic programming skills, you can start learning and programming games using the C# programming language. You will choose programming skills and skills on the go, however, you must have a basic understanding and programming knowledge to venture into Unity game development.
- Swift Playground
Swift Playground is an educational tool and development environment for iPad and Mac computers. Swift Fiddles is a applet in the Swift programming language that runs directly on the browser. Swift Playgrounds are for beginners and are very kid-friendly because it does not require coding knowledge.
- Roblox Studio
The world’s largest platform offers kids the opportunity to design and create their own games. Roblox Studio is the ideal place for children with some basic programming skills for LUA to develop their creativity and coding abilities. Kids can build their own games in the studio with a variety of reusable assets and tools.
- Moving
A block-based drag-and-drop platform that allows learners to build their own applications without detailed encoding. It helps to create your own mobile apps for iOS, Android and mobile networks. Unicminds used Thunkable earlier, but we stopped using Thunkable in our courses – however, it’s a great platform for learners to develop applications.
- W3Schools
Provides tutorials, programming problems and explanations of programming languages. I remember growing up on W3Schools.com and Howstuffworks.com in the early 2004-5s. These tutorials are detailed and full of them. If you’re in the middle of encoding, W3Schools can also serve as a quick reference point and want some clarification on the features or anything else.
- Google Colab
Google COLAB is a cloud-based free platform provided by Google that allows users to write and execute Python code. Now COLAB can act as a paired programmer through Google AI – Colab AI to help you prototype ideas, generate boilerplate code and learn about new libraries.
- Replenish
A platform designed for programmers to develop applications ranging from simple scripts to full stack programs. REPLIT provides a browser-based cloud IDE that helps programmers collaborate and process the same project simultaneously. It also incorporates AI capabilities, such as Replit Agent, to assist with coding tasks.
There are several other platforms, such as Codecademy, Tynker, etc. We chose to list these to cover all types of platforms and all types of young learners.
Hope this is useful, thank you for reading.
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