Standard: AL DLCS 5.6: Create a working program in a block-based visual programming environment using arithmetic operators, conditionals, and repetition in programs.
Wonder Workshop, the maker of Cue, markets and sells robots that engage kids in coding. The Cue robot is the most feature-packed robot Wonder Workshop currently sells, with a feature-packed app to match. The free Cue app takes students through a journey with a "superhero" as the Cue bot is called. Students personalize the robot to give it a unique personality and have access to creating their own story with the bot. Other modes include "Create" and "Code" which allows students of all experience levels to code using both block-based code and javascript. The Cue app and robot are designed to appeal to upper elementary to middle school aged students. The app is available on both iOS and Android, which means that Google Play Store-enabled Chromebooks will have access to connect.
Sphero Edu takes the popular Sphero robot and makes it suitable and applicable to the world of education. The app itself is free and allows teachers to create classes (which also happen to sync with Google Classroom). From there, the Sphero Edu app has tons of content rich lessons that can be used across the curriculum. Lessons range from topics on digital citizenship to real world applications of math and science. The app is available on both iOS, Android, and Chromebooks can be used by students from 3rd grade on up through high school.
The Root Coding app puts a different spin on coding. Like the Cue robot, Root is packed with a ton of sensors and capabilities. It is free for any user and can be used with or without a robot using the virtual simulator which is available if students do not have access to a Root bot. Any Bluetooth-enabled device can control the Root robot and coding within the app ranges from simple blocks with images to text-based python code for advanced users.
All three of these apps were reviewed by Common Sense Education, which is one of the go-to places for credible and reliable reviews of edtech tools and sites. Although the reviews do not seem to be updated over time, the reviews they provide give relevant information about privacy, data sharing, content quality, and teacher benefits of use in the classroom.
Out of the three apps I have shared, my pick for the app that would best suit teachers for teaching the standard listed above is the Sphero Edu app. While it does not offer a simulated robot like the Root app does, it is the only app of the three that allows teachers to assign challenges and projects individually to students in the imported class. This gives teachers the capability to differentiate instruction for students who are not as comfortable with coding. One of the only downsides I have seen from experience in a large class setting is that when multiple students are attempting to connect to multiple Spheros, it is difficult to determine which Sphero a student is connecting to, as they are not able to be renamed. Overall, in teaching students from the very beginning of how to program, to complex and intricate combinations of coding blocks, Sphero Edu is a high quality program.
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