Coding for Kids
Remixing With Tynker
Pablo Picasso once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Does that make imitation flattering? Or just a reproduction?
Did Tina Turner take the song “Proud Mary” to heights that CCR couldn’t? Did Joe Cocker raise the bar on the Beatles when he covered “With A Little Help From My Friends”?
That’s open to debate. How about when Run DMC rapped over Aerosmith rocker “Walk This Way”? A hit song, sure, but greatly impacting the music and culture of millions of Gen X suburban teens by introducing them to urban hip hop.
Meanwhile, computer coding is like any industry in that once a path is forged other coders can follow it, improve it, or take it in a completely different direction.
So, how cool would it be to build on someone else’s work and use it as a launching pad to transform it into your own?
Remix culture in the tech industry has been growing in recent years, a reaction to copyright restrictions that many believed were inhibiting creativity.
At Tynker, coders can REMIX Games, Apps, Art, Stories, and Animation that other coders have posted to a community board, like the one pictured below.
Then, they’re off on their own! However, Tynker makes sure that the original project’s author gets credit in all future copies.
Of course, remixing is just part of it. Tynker offers over 3,700 courses and tutorials for all experience levels, starting with kids ages 4 and up. Our award-winning programs emphasize interest-based paths that make learning to code not just fun but fast.
Oh, and we have Minecraft. Yes, that game that has your kid mesmerized. Your kid who’s really good at it. Well, at Tynker, your kid can remix Minecraft, raise the bar; making their own Mods and Mobs, Skins and Items and Blocks. They’ll know. And they’ll figure out how to do it by learning code. Soon, they’ll be the one being remixed.
Eventually, they’ll learn real world coding like JavaScript and Python, as well as data structures and web development with HTML and CSS.
For real inspiration, take a look at the young coders on the Top Makers board, which hosts original projects.
Each month, our Tynker team reviews every published project and features the best of them on a blog called Maker Stories, where we get to interview Featured Makers and find out what inspires these young coders to create.
