Edinburgh. Raining. The whinny of a horse blares through the window, as numerous bowler hats and long skirts walk past. We hear “Action,” more whinnies, and then “CUT!”
Thistle Street Lane South West, where LiveCode lives, is dressed with Victorian influence. There are fake bricks layered over the real ones lining the street and there is fake poo sprinkled on top of the straw next to the goats and chickens.
The Secret Agent, a new TV series premiering in 2016 and starring Toby Jones, is being filmed here. In Edinburgh. On our street. Outside our work. And they say you need to go to Hollywood to visit film sets.
Each of the LiveCode Team takes a turn using the restroom on the second floor so they can discreetly open the window and lean out unseen, snapping photos of the set and the actors milling through it. It’s hard to pick out the cameraman at first, which makes the whole set look more and more like reality. And, in a way, that’s what we all want. We want to believe in the magic. We want to engage in the creativity. We want to be a part of the story. We want this to be real. We want our lives to be real in it.
I think that’s how I feel about anything creative. Whether I’m writing, photographing, or painting, I want to make something meaningful. I want to make something that will help someone else, change someone else.
And I think coding is a lot like art in that way. Coding allows people to create something meaningful. To make something out of nothing. And, hopefully, whatever they make will help others – practically or inspirationally. Both are important.
This fall, I’m in charge of the Hour of Code project. Our job is to create a tutorial that teachers can give to the students in their classrooms and for an hour in December, those students can create something out of nothing, learning to code and engaging with computer science – many of them coding and doing anything computer science-related for the first time.
This is important. Coding, programming, and learning computer science are essential to success in a 21st century career. And while UK schools include computer science in their curricula, there are still many schools internationally that don’t employ computer science as part of their programs. The Hour of Code believes Computer Science should be included in a student’s curriculum the same way that English and Math are.
And, at LiveCode, we agree. We believe everyone can code and that LiveCode makes it easier for everyone to learn. So, in honor of the Hour of Code, we’re submitting a tutorial for children 14+. They’ll be able to create soundboards, popular tools used by DJs and podcasters to create sounds for their shows. Teens love them – and we do, too!
As a non-coder at LiveCode – bound to copywriting and blogging (you’re welcome), I was the guinea pig used to test the Hour of Code tutorial. And, I have to say – I had a blast! It was so fun to not only learn to code, but to also create something concrete and fun: an animal soundboard with animal images and animal sounds.
Here’s a brief walk-through of what I did in layman’s terms:
1. I opened a stack in LiveCode and set its properties, renaming it and resizing it.
2. I added a background, buttons, and images, setting the button properties.
3. With a little code, I added sounds to the soundboard, so that when I click on each animal button, the corresponding animal sound can be heard.
Alright, so the instructions within the tutorial are more specific than mine are, but these are the larger steps to creating a soundboard. And, as a non-techie, I was able to figure it out on my own and have a lot of fun doing it. I hope the students in the Hour of Code tutorial have as much fun as I did!
Do you know a student or teacher who you think should participate in the Hour of Code? You can share our tutorial with them later this fall. It will be made public on our site and students will be able to learn how to make an animal soundboard like I did. They’ll also be able to make a piano soundboard and their very own customized soundboard with their own image and sound preferences. The possibilities truly are limitless.
Let’s create together and make something out of nothing – one Hour of Code at a time.
Join the conversation