Until recently I always thought that Kodu was more of a Secondary School thing but it is actually really easy to use and simple games can be made with just a few lines of code. I looked at many basic tutorials for Kodu but couldn't find one that was quite right so made the decision to start making some tutorials myself. These can then be used in lessons by pupils to work at their own pace. This has several advantages.
1) Videos can be paused by the children so if they don't understand something they can rewind and play it again.
2) Instructions can be split in to smaller chunks rather than giving a lot of instructions at the beginning of the lesson.
3) Videos can be watched anywhere if children want to continue their learning at home.
4) More able pupils can explore further and change and adapt their games if they finish the video tutorials early.
4) This way of learning suits a number of different learning styles: Visual - Kodu is being visually demonstrated. Auditory - instructions are being given. Kinaesthetic - actions are carried out regularly following what has been seen and heard on the video.
Anyway, my first tutorial is now ready and I would like to share it with you. Please feel free to use it to train staff about Kodu or in class as an introduction to Kodu as I will be doing shortly. If you do use it then please let me know how you have used it, how you got on and what the impact/feedback was.
The tutorial is quite long but is split in to sections so that it can be paused as necessary. The idea is that children will have the tutorial running alongside Kodu on their computer so that they can follow the instructions section by section. This first tutorial introduces some of the features of Kodu and shows how to program a simple collecting game. There are many tutorials that cover this material so mine is not new or unique but I hope you find it helpful!
The embedded video below is a lower quality version of the video. The higher quality HD version can be accessed by following this link: https://vimeo.com/120836400
Kodu Lesson 1 from Michael Emerton on Vimeo.