{"id":9998,"date":"2019-06-12T18:56:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T17:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/?p=9998"},"modified":"2019-06-12T18:56:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T17:56:03","slug":"microbit-ios-app-much-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/microbit-ios-app-much-improved\/","title":{"rendered":"micro:bit iOS app: much improved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since returning to the classroom I&#8217;ve been using micro:bits with my class of 8-11 year olds. We have had a deal of fun with them, some of this is on the <a title=\"microbit \u2013 Banton Biggies\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/nl\/bantonbiggies\/tag\/microbit\/\">class blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We normally use pc laptops and chrome to access the <a href=\"https:\/\/makecode.microbit.org\/\">MakeCode<\/a> editor. In the second year I tried using the <a title=\"\u200emicro:bit on the App\u00a0Store\" href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/gb\/app\/micro-bit\/id1092687276?mt=8\">iOS app<\/a> but out of a class only one or two children managed to get their micro:bits connected. At the time I put this down to multiple micro:bits and iPads in close proximity.<\/p>\n<p>I have occasionally tested new versions of the app and the most recent one seemed a lot better. It displayed the webpage code editor in app and flashing seemed simpler. Today wanting to move our micro:bit guitar project on when the PCs were in use elsewhere in the school I decided to give the app another run. I am very glad I did. Everything about the app seemed to be better. I think that coding and flashing to the micro:bit for an iPad is simpler than using a pc. We had no problems in getting code written and flashed to the micro:bits.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d highly recommend the app if you have both iPads and micro:bits in your classroom.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d also recommend the Microsoft MakeCode <a href=\"https:\/\/makecode.microbit.org\/projects\/guitar\">Guitar<\/a> project. I&#8217;ve been working with a mixed age group class and the mix of tech and &#8216;art&#8217; fits very well. Some of the younger children are getting their first experience with coding and the art and construction can keep them motivated when the coding concepts get tough.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"10001\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/microbit-ios-app-much-improved\/microbits\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,675\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"microbits\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10001\" src=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits.jpg 900w, https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits-620x465.jpg 620w, https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbits-668x501.jpg 668w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since returning to the classroom I&#8217;ve been using micro:bits with my class of 8-11 year olds. We have had a deal of fun with them, some of this is on the class blog. We normally use pc laptops and chrome to access the MakeCode editor. In the second year I tried using the iOS app [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mf2_syndication":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnjohnston\/status\/1138867597422866433"],"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21,296,559],"post_format":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wwwd","8":"tag-classroom","9":"tag-ict","10":"tag-microbit","11":"kind-article","13":"h-entry","14":"hentry"},"better_featured_image":{"id":10002,"alt_text":"Screenshot of microbit app","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":900,"height":675,"file":"2019\/06\/microbit-app.jpeg","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"microbit-app-150x150.jpeg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-150x150.jpeg"},"medium":{"file":"microbit-app-620x465.jpeg","width":620,"height":465,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-620x465.jpeg"},"medium_large":{"file":"microbit-app-768x576.jpeg","width":768,"height":576,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-768x576.jpeg"},"post-thumbnail":{"file":"microbit-app-668x501.jpeg","width":668,"height":501,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-668x501.jpeg"},"sempress-image-post":{"file":"microbit-app-668x501.jpeg","width":668,"height":501,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-668x501.jpeg"},"rpwe-thumbnail":{"file":"microbit-app-45x45.jpeg","width":45,"height":45,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-45x45.jpeg"},"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":{"file":"microbit-app-50x50.jpeg","width":50,"height":50,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app-50x50.jpeg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":9998,"source_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app.jpeg"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/microbit-app.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p57zFQ-2Bg","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"kind":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10003,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9998\/revisions\/10003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9998"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnjohnston.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_format?post=9998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}