Vidcode

Cool coding tool tuned to teens' passions aids creativity

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 2 reviews

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

7–12

Subjects & Topics

Arts, Computer Science, Digital Citizenship, Digital Literacy, News & Media Literacy, Relationships & Communication

Price: Free to try
Platforms: Web

Pros: Allows for quick creation, using students' own photos and videos for built-in engagement and a personal touch.

Cons: Videos take a while to upload, and there's an assumption of some prior knowledge of coding without much introductory help.

Bottom Line: Women-created platform expands the traditional scope of coding to visual elements students interact with online everyday.

Teachers can use Vidcode as an independent assignment for students to explore coding. Assign projects on Vidcode to assess learning -- e.g., asking students to make a stop-motion video of a topic you studied in class. Or, use Vidcode as a go-to tool to boost your beginning coders' skills with Java and HTML5. Vidcode would also fit perfectly in a STEM or STEAM classroom to build skills for student creation, computer science, and digital media writ large. If teachers want to keep going with the program, there are pay versions available with more support and advanced projects.

Vidcode is a site created by women that aims to get tweens and teens excited about coding by emphasizing creativity and social media culture and expression. Users can upload their own photos and videos and use premade effects to create projects such as stop-motion videos, music videos, memes, and much more, all while learning about the code that makes these things possible. When users create their accounts, they can choose to link their Facebook or Instagram accounts to grab photos and videos to use in their projects.

When students log in, they'll see two screens in a project: a lesson on the left and a space to input code on the right. Students can experiment with code, and the lesson screen offers hints on how to change the coding to see subtle and dramatic changes occur in the project. Students can then share their projects and videos with their friends or teacher, making the coding experience a social one.

Vidcode is a great tool for students to get started with coding. While its developers' main goal is to get kids passionate about coding from an early age, the tool is appropriate for any teenager learning to code. The site uses JavaScript5 (to create video filters) and HTML5 (to control how the videos on Vidcode look). These two technologies are great introductions to coding, and the site gives helpful hints on how to use these types of code,  as well as how slight changes to the code can make big real-time differences to the project at hand. It's especially great that students can pull in videos and photos from their own social media sites (Facebook and Instagram); even though videos can take a long time to upload to the site, this feature builds genuine buy-in and investment for high school students.

The lessons assume some knowledge of basic coding terms, so very beginning users may need a little more guidance along the way. Unfortunately, basic coding info isn't easy to come by on the website. More help functions, a user guide, a glossary, or the ability to ask questions to a person in real time would be helpful improvements to an already powerful learning experience. 

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

By creating music videos, filters, stop-motion videos, and memes, students see code's relevance to things they love and are naturally motivated.

Pedagogy

Helpful hints peppered through each lesson allow girls to understand coding basics. Sharing creations empowers students to express themselves. 

Support

Lessons assume some knowledge of coding, so users who don't know anything about coding may get a little lost and find few places for help. They can email questions, but more instant feedback would be helpful.

Good product that teaches kids the basics of coding! It is very engaging and easy for kids to understand.

This is a good teaching tool to teach coding. I like how the topics engage students and are very relevant.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Unclear whether this product supports interactions between trusted users.
  • Personal information can be not displayed publicly.
  • Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Personalised advertising is not displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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