On October 25, 2000, the Ministry of Education proposed the strategic goal of “popularizing information technology education in primary and secondary schools, using informatization to drive the modernization of education, and striving to achieve the leap-forward development of basic education in our country.” Since then, programming education and artificial intelligence education have appeared more and more frequently in primary and secondary school classrooms.
In recent years, driven by the dual drive of the times and policies, "programming" is not only the name of a type of work, but also the name of a course. The importance of "programming" has gradually become more prominent. However, what is difficult about programming at the beginning is its concepts and logic. Many children are unwilling to continue exploring when they first get exposed to it.
“Interest is a child’s best teacher” is no joke. Many parents also hope that their children will learn the knowledge they like. So the pain point is "children have no interest, find it boring, and the tools are not easy to operate." In children's world, only those who are interested will be willing to explore. So how to stimulate children's interest in programming? "If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools." Having an excellent set of "tools" is a great shortcut to solving problems.
In line with the values ????of "Kids No. 1" and "No fun No die", Coding Cat, after experiencing countless product explorations, hopes that teenagers aged 7-16 can learn complex programming through graphical programming. Programming language logic reduces children's psychological resistance to programming, and independently developed a graphical programming tool Kitten (also called a source code editor) suitable for children.
1. What is Kitten?
Kitten is a graphical programming tool source code editor specially created for domestic students.
As Codemao co-founder and CTO Sun Yue said, "It is between C++, Python and Scratch, with excellent computing functions, a wide range of third-party libraries, an open ecosystem and Huge developer community. "At the same time, Kitten (also called the source code editor) takes up only one-fifth of Scratch's memory, but can support multi-person collaborative programming and access to more than 100 types of hardware, and has a voice that children can learn. Recognition and AI modules.
The editor interface is completely in the form of cartoons. Whether it is cartoon images or UI design, children will feel full of childishness when they first come into contact with it. Enter the URL experience: kitten.codemao.cn Of course, unlike traditional programming tools, Kitten replaces codes with building blocks.
By moving the position of the building blocks and setting parameters, you can intuitively feel the changes in the screen, and gradually understand the direct relationship between screen interaction and programming code. In addition to being easy to use, it also has many functions. Just put some building blocks to do some neural network training, including functions such as cloud computing.
Through artificial intelligence learning, the character’s ability to pass levels is getting stronger and stronger. With artificial intelligence learning building blocks, artificial intelligence programming is no longer out of reach. Users can use such building blocks to create character games that can perform intelligent learning. After each "learning", the character's ability to pass levels will become stronger.
2. Kitten is famous for being the darling of exams
The most important thing in learning knowledge is to “apply what you have learned”. Kitten does not show any weakness in this regard. Every year, she cooperates with major ministries of education The announced national competitions and examination cooperation are favored by major professional competitions. Allow children to test their learning achievements in professional exams.
NOC Coding Cat Innovative Programming, as a long-established Coding Cat competition, has been held for two consecutive years and has attracted widespread attention from teachers and students in primary and secondary schools across the country. In the 2018-2019 season, Coding Cat competitions covered more than 30 provinces across the country. , cities, districts and municipalities, attracting more than 5,000 schools and 100,000 teachers and students to participate. In the tradition of the competition system, contestants in the primary school group need to use Kitten to answer questions and create within a time limit, while contestants in the middle school group need to use Kitten and Python for a two-dimensional examination.
The "National Primary and Secondary School Information Technology Innovation and Practice Competition (NOC)" is one of the whitelist competitions for national primary and secondary school competitions announced by the Ministry of Education. It is an event that uses information technology to cultivate the innovative spirit of teachers and students. and practical ability, it is a quality education practice platform for young students to popularize the science of artificial intelligence and lead scientific and technological innovation, referred to as the NOC competition.
NOC Programming Cat Innovation Programming is one of the main events in the National Primary and Secondary School Information Technology Innovation and Practice Competition.
3. What is the highlight of Kitten?
Kitten is a graphical programming tool independently developed in China and possessing intellectual property rights. Compared with the common compiler Scratch, Kitten has the following advantages:
In terms of interface design: the colors are more colorful, brighter, and softer, which is more attractive to children; the interface background color uses a large area The eye-protecting light yellow color makes it easier for children to feel tired during long hours of programming learning; the icon design is cuter and easier to attract children's attention; the cute and playful cartoon materials make the cartoon games more exquisite and more in line with the needs of the children. Asian aesthetics.
In terms of the number and types of building blocks: Kitten has many types of modules and a large number of expansion building blocks. In addition to the AI ??building blocks mentioned above, there are also hardware, cloud variables, materials, drawing boards (+music), Format conversion (schr can be imported), code language conversion, etc. There are breakthroughs in width and depth, enabling richer effects.
In terms of subject integration: Kitten integrates multiple subjects and can integrate newly acquired subject knowledge with programming to consolidate practice. Use speech, speech recognition and translation building blocks to create Chinese-English interactive games, which can be easily used in teaching English classes.
In terms of platform support: Kitten supports mobile phones, tablets, and web-based multi-terminal devices, and can also export programming works to exe format, small programs, etc. Facilitate subsequent creation and exchange of works. Kitten is more systematic and can be seamlessly connected with Codingmao's subsequent Turtle editor, making it very coherent from graphical programming to Python learning.