5 Free Apps to Help You Teach Coding

Many of us have become so accustomed to clicking or dragging and dropping our way around digital media that we’ve completely forgotten the fact that someone (a coder) is the reason it all works so effortlessly for us.

Coding is literally everywhere we look, touch, tap and scroll—and considering our increasing reliance on digital technology, it’s safe to say that the world is going to need more code speakers to make it all work!

More and more educators realize this and have started using free applications to teach their students how to speak this language. If you’re not sure where or how to begin your coding lessons, check out these five free coding apps below.  

5 Free Apps to Help You Teach Coding

Scratch can be used by anyone who wants to learn coding, but this app specifically targets eight to sixteen year olds by teaching them how to program interactive stories, games, and animations. Once students are satisfied with their final product, they can share it with the Scratch community or simply browse and connect with other users on the site.

The closest thing we can think of to compare Hopscotch to is a digital version of Legos. This app has been designed specifically for touch screens, so there’s no typing involved. All you do is drag and drop blocks of code and watch your characters spring into action.

Tynker is a bit like Scratch, but unlike most coding apps, Tynker has been designed with teachers in mind. The app features starter lesson plans, classroom management tools, and a dashboard where you can track your students’ progress. While you will have to upgrade your account to access the entire catalog of lesson plans, Tynker makes starter lessons available for free.

Daisy the Dinosaur can tear up a dance floor like you’ve never seen—but you’ll have to solve the challenges by dragging and dropping the right code into place to help her do it. This app is a fun and intuitive way to learn basics of object coding, sequencing and looping events.

The Fuzz family crashed their space ship on Smeeborg and only you can code them through the planet’s Technomazes. Kodable has been designed for students ages five and up and comes with 30 free levels of coding challenges.