Testing Osmo Coding Kit

Searching for new tools and possibilities for next year, I was looking forward to test the Osmo coding kit with my own hands.

I have to say that I really liked it. The first surprise was that the blocks are magnetized, therefore is much easier to connect them and, at the same time, it will make them last longer as there will be less friction among the pieces.

The second surprise was that when you start adding blocks in front of the iPad, the app highlight the tiles that you would walk through, so it is a kind of debugger in real time (My favourite feature).

On the other hand, the only problem would be that you can’t save your progress as in other osmo apps (Its an issue for shared iPads in a School). I would add lessons or assignments, and something to make it easier to track student´s progress to my wish list.

I have to recognize that at the beginning it looked a bit weird to have the “Run” block at the bottom instead that at the top, but you get used to it quite fast.

After playing with it for a while, I gave it to a group of Year 2 students and they managed with it perfectly. They were engaged and had fun with it.

We will definitely use this kit with Primary 1 & 2 students next year!