Teaching with LiveCode in High School

For the last ten years Marty Billingsley has been using LiveCode in her middle school classroom at The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. We asked her why she uses it and whether she would ever consider giving it up. Here's what she has to say about how LiveCode works in her classroom, for her students and for staff:

“I use LiveCode because it is easy to do simple stuff, and powerful enough to write anything I want. I started using it when Apple discontinued HyperCard. I chose it because it was robust and I loved the ease of use and ease of creating a user interface. RunRev has added a bunch of functionality to the HyperCard set but has not made it more complicated to use.”

Billingsley teaches 13 and 14 year olds who have had some basic introduction to programming via Scratch and Logo, and LiveCode is the next step up in their development process. She runs an elective, 12-week course three times every year that meets for about three hours a week, and by the end of the course her students have written a simple application on their own initiative.

The course is games based; for the first eight to nine weeks they go through a series of projects that takes the students through the basics of programming, and culminates in a simple adventure-style storyline game. In these introductory projects, students learn to put images and text on the screen, and add buttons to progress to the next screen or launch animations The programs have students apply basic concepts like variables, loops, if statements and recursion. For the final three to four weeks of the course students are free to create whatever they like.

The students come into Billingsley’s course with varying degrees of ability and commitment, and LiveCode has the flexibility to adapt. “The simple user interface makes it un-intimidating, but it has the depth and power to hold the interest of the more experienced students.”

Initially some students are anxious about learning programming and unsure what to expect. Billingsley eases students into the course each term by creating a simple alphabet stack in the first two days. Each student is assigned a letter, and at the end all the letters are collated into a standalone application that they take into the nursery school to use with the young children. “This approach is very motivating for my students, to see something they made in actual use so quickly.”

At the other end of the scale, Billingsley had two students in class who were programming for the iPhone before joining the course. One of the students turned out a networked "Pictionary" application in LiveCode, in which modifications on one screen show up on another. “It was quite impressive.”

Billingsley knows that getting girls interested in computer science can be an issue, but believes the LiveCode graphical user interface helps. On one occasion Billingsley was working with a male student to make a spaceship missile-dodging game when she noticed a female student watching intently. “She saw the demonstration and walked away and made a game of Winnie the Pooh dodging bees, using exactly the same principles but in a more comfortable setting for her.

The cross-platform nature of LiveCode is important to the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, as it offers students the ability to learn on the Macs available in the school and also to build their applications for PCs which they often have at home. The value of taking work home to show parents offers students another great opportunity to share progress and success.

LiveCode also provides simple yet detailed documentation to help educators and students build their skills. “Overall, I’m very happy with the documentation, as it allows the students learn and grow on their own. We frequently use the LiveCode dictionary, and access support materials online. Students can usually find code examples by searching for what they need. However I do see an opportunity in the market for a really good beginners book. It would be great to have a resource that explains the overall concepts in a simple way targeted at K12 students.”

The only other drawback Billingsley finds to using LiveCode is a need for more time with the program. “There is never enough time! I'd love to introduce my students to some of the more advanced concepts it supports, such as networking, but there is a limit to what we can squeeze into only 12 weeks!”

“LiveCode is a marvelous teaching tool. I never want to give up using it.”

Overall, LiveCode has helped the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools with coursework that appeals to a variety of age groups and skill sets. “LiveCode is a marvelous teaching tool. I never want to give up using it.”