The first class starts without computers at all. ‘Who will be our first robot?’ Hands shoot up. ‘Ok, this is our robot. From today, you lot are all programmers!’
The ‘Creative Computing’ course runs across all grades, led by 3D artist turned teacher Howard Kingston.
The course was given to about 100 students, from all grades. They all start at the same place, but where they get to is up to them.
The International School of Nagano, Gojo campus, is an IB (International Baccalaureate) Elementary School with a fledgling Junior High, (‘Middle School’) programme. The School is set in dramatic scenery in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, and exploring nature primes students for developing inquisitive minds.
ISN School in Nagano, Japan
One of the core tenets of IB education is individual agency.
The same cannot be said for robots.
That first lesson has students-as-robots bumping into desks and stuck in loops as they are fed variously effective ‘programs’ by their classmates. Until they successfully navigate the maze of desks and reach the ‘goal’ of the ‘soft corner’ at the back of the classroom.
Along the way they discover the power of ‘if’ (If there is a desk, turn right.) and soon after ‘else’.
‘With this ‘If’ we can make a lot of things. You are going to see some of the things we can make. You are going to make things that haven’t even been imagined yet.’
Something From Nothing
At the core of the course is a ‘make it from scratch’ ethos. A carefully curated selection of lightweight (low resource, high efficiency) and fully online graphics applications help to open a world of creative possibilities on the student’s humble chromebooks.
Students begin in the simplest possible way. In Figuro online 3D editor, they make a cube.
‘We use Figuro because it‘s fully online with no installation and light enough to work well on the Chromebooks. We’ve found that it‘s quick and easy to pick up for first time users - it‘s not as daunting as industry standards like Blender and Maya while the skill base students are building transfers across very well because it operates like a lighter version of them’.
The students then select the top edges of their cube and hit ‘connect’. ‘Ping!’ a new edge appears. They select the new edge and pull it up and there they have the simplest form of a house.
Creating a basic house in Figuro
Some students make tall thin houses, some students make short wide houses. Some industrious Grade 6 students develop their houses into luxury condos complete with swimming pools.
A whole town created in Figuro
‘If we put all your different houses together, what do we have?’ ‘Lots of houses!’ ‘And what do we call lots of houses all together?’ ‘A town!’
From the simplest of beginnings, the children build out, adding trees, an island, a character.
Exporting worlds from Figuro to Godot
Students take their creations from Figuro into the Godot online web editor, the fully online version of the incredibly versatile and popular open source 2D and 3D game engine. Suddenly they can explore the world they’ve been building. Putting the’If’ from their first lesson into practice they make and run their very first actual scripts - the simplest possible character controller, a door trigger so that they can explore inside their house, and later a boat controller to get them from their island to their friend’s island.
‘What I wanted to create with the course is a series of moments where possibilities open up, and students feel the slightly giddy excitement of ‘oh wow, if we can do this, we can do this. And this and this and this…’ I want children to be motivated by that feeling of ‘what can we do next, what’s around the next corner?’
Learning By Doing
IB education is structured so that learning happens in pursuit of an ‘inquiry’. ‘Put simply - to find this out, we need to learn x y and z. On the Creative Computing Course students learn skills in order to complete the task, in order to build the thing, in order to realize their vision. Hopefully they feel like they’re making, creating, doing, rather than studying. Along the way, they learn.’
A class working with Figuro
Ownership Changes Engagement
When students create something that belongs to them, they naturally become more invested in the learning process.
There are no predefined solutions and no single correct answer. ‘I want the different classes and different students to gradually branch away from anything I ever conceived, and for students to create and explore their own unique worlds.’
Along the way students develop:
- 3D design skills
- Spatial reasoning
- Problem solving
- Creativity
- Digital literacy
- Programming fundamentals
- Persistence and resilience
Because these skills emerge through making something that means something to them, that they feel ownership of, students learn more deeply than they would through abstract, isolated exercises.
More students working with Figuro
Sparking Imaginations
As the course progresses something that all educators hope to see emerges - genuine enthusiasm.
Students talk about their projects outside class, they begin making additional props and items for their islands. They discuss ideas with classmates. They continue building out their worlds after the lesson ends, something which Figuro as an online app naturally facilitates.
‘In IB education what we’re looking for and hoping to inspire in students is that they start to make connections beyond what we directly teach, extending and relating what they are learning beyond the immediate subject and beyond the classroom. This is formalised in the SOLO taxonomy, a method of assessing children not according to how many ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ answers they make, but how they are making these connections and relating their skill and knowledge acquisition to a wider context. And I feel that that is what we’re seeing here, already.’
Students are not simply completing an assignment - they’re building something meaningful to them.
Putting things together in Godot
A Different Vision For Technology Education
Technology education is often reduced to software tutorials or coding exercises.
Creative Computing offers a broader vision.
Technology becomes a medium for creativity, exploration and self-expression.
Students learn technical skills, but they also learn how to turn ideas into reality.
Howard Kingston, teacher at ISN
‘It’s a lesson I was keen not to miss that Figuro itself is built, using that powerful ‘if’ conditional logic, by an actual human, Jeroen, who we can reach out to and talk to. That helps tremendously to remove the feeling of a barrier to participation. Just as the students are learning that they can build what they had perhaps previously imagined was only made distantly and mysteriously by giant game studios.’
‘While we have been developing the Creative Computing course here at ISN, Jeroen has been shaping new features specifically for the teaching environment, and we have been passing feedback as we go. It has been exciting to see the software iterating in real time, We encourage the students at ISN to employ ‘design thinking’ in their own work - that is the cycle of empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test, and we get to watch it play out in this real world application which we are an active part of.’
‘I want students to feel that they are not only passively receiving media but are actively participating, that they can reach out into the world and change it.’
‘In that regard I’m also looking forward to using Figuro’s new classroom tools once they’re ready. I’ve been giving feedback during development, and it’s exciting to help shape features that will make it easier to follow each student’s creative journey.'