Talk to me about coding please!

[Howmanysleepstilchristmas]

Ds says he wants to get into coding. Do we need a pc? Is there anything we could buy to encourage him without one?

A pc would be helpful. Or you could look at getting a raspberry pi which is excellent for coding and reasonably cheap.

Cheap compared to a computer anyway. Not necessarily cheap in itself.

You could look for your nearest code club.

So don’t you need a computer with a raspberry pi? Do you need any other device or is it a stand alone thing?

I'd get a computer. Just a lot more versatile. Budget wise there's some fab deals out there, looking maybe £300-£350 for full set up.

Would say go for a PC rather than a laptop

How old is he?

If you get a reasonably priced laptop he can use free software called scratch to learn thr basics of coding and go from there

Scratch or python are good coding software. I saw The Works have loads of coding for beginners books too

A raspberry pi is a computer. It is a very cheap computer that if your TV has the right ports can use your TV as a monitor. Then buy a keyboard and mouse and SD card and off you go. However it doesn't run Windows it runs Linux. It has some simple computer programming languages on there scratch and python.

However if you have a normal pc you can download these onto that too.

The reason a raspberry pi goes a bit further is say you can buy a make your own robot kit that you can write a program on the raspberry pi put the pi in the robot and then control the robot.

However if you are just looking to write programmes that run on a computer rather than making things work the pi is the same as a computer just not as powerful and with less storage space.

However you can download scratch if you have an android tablet (don't know about I phone but maybe) so no computer required. That is the same language as they have on the pi. Uses little pictures that you can program to do things, write little games etc

How old is he?

If he's small then just something to run Scratch on, or maybe a subscription to Tynker. A basic laptop will run either of those fine.

If he's a bit older maybe a Kano (raspberry pi) as that could branch out into other raspberry pi projects.

He’s 13. I have a laptop (currently unusable due to multiple pop ups a minute about possible viruses) but it’s 7 years old and not used in 6 so don’t know if it’s worth cleaning up or not? He’s learnt python amongst others in school.

Realistically what's your budget?

Do you have one of these near you?

coderdojo.com/

Coder dojo is amazing if you have one nearby. The dc bought themselves dh a lego robot that uses a scratch like programme on the tablet. They also have raspberry pi each that they use with scratch and built other robots with the tonnes of other lego we have. We are now a three robot house (if only they were actually useful...)

Ok, I would wipe the laptop and reinstall windows.
That will remove all the pop ups.
Even a 7 year old machine will be capable of running python - free to download.
And at 13 he will be a bit past scratch especially if he is already using python.

I would suggest trying to clean up the laptop you have first (unless you think having two laptops is the way to go).

We have a micro bit that my 9 year old has used for some basic coding and I’m planning to get her the Inventors Kit add on for it for Christmas. It is possible to code on the micro bit through android and iOS apps (android seems to work better) but it can be fiddly and frustrating, would definitely be easier on a laptop or pc.

I personally wouldn’t buy a pc, a laptop can be connected to a monitor just as easily and there just aren’t enough benefits to outweigh the portability of a laptop.