Hello!
I was wondering if there was a reason we aren’t able to add Javascript to weblab? My students are really enjoying HTML & CSS and I feel bad that we won’t be using them for the rest of the year after unit 2. Is this a possible feature I could request? Is there a way to do it I just don’t know about?
Thanks!
Javascript in Web Lab was disabled last year due to security concerns. See this posting for more information and for an alternative.
Good luck!
Mike
Ah, I guess that makes sense. Thank you! Do you have any experience using Glitch in the classroom?
Personally, I haven’t used glitch. Another alternative that I have used and do use is http://replit.com
I guess it could be blocked in some districts, but it does work in my district and also allows javascript.
It has free accounts for teachers and students (although there are paid upgrade plans). It doesn’t appear to have any serious limitations on the free accounts and it’s what I use when we get any more advanced than the basics taught in unit 2 of CSD.
Mike
Thank you! I’ll check it out.
I used glitch in my classroom for the last couple weeks. It was a great way to get students to stretch a bit and try new things. Here are some things I observed.
The interface is a bit clumsy to students who have not been exposed to a development environment other than codedotorg. They miss the ease with which they can add images to a weblab project, skeleton html in a new html file, ability to preview a page by selecting the file name on the file panel, and the most valuable feature they miss is the autocomplete for html tags and css rules.
On the other hand, I was thrilled students could work simultaneously in groups of two or three on the same project. Well, almost! Once in a while there would be an exasperated sigh that they were having a glitch (403 Forbidden error). I considered this a wonderful teaching moment. They did not lose any work. Oh! there was a way to rewind or look at the history of the pages they were building. This was useful for those oops moments when someone accidentally changed code that a peer had written.
On the whole, I was happy to have discovered glitch to allow my students to work on team projects that they can add to during the year.
Again, I haven’t used Glitch personally so I can’t make a direct comparison, so there may be some great things about Glitch that I haven’t encountered. Emmet (the algorithm that auto completes html tags) IS a feature inside replit.com. For example, you can type p.red and then tab and the code changes to <p class="red"></p> which is super helpful.
The other things you mention are still true. They get to learn exactly how to code their img tags and organize their assets into folders, so it is a good transition from the training wheels of Web Lab.
Thought I would just post this here for future teachers who may stumble across this thread.
Mike
I know I am a bit late on this topic. Please make it known that whoever does not know about GitHub, GitHub is the best website for storing code and knowing that your code is safe from being lost or corrupted. They have released “GitHub Codespaces.” GitHub Codespaces is almost an unlimited browser code editor that is almost just like the downloadable code editor, Visual Studio Code. GitHub Codespaces has plenty of features for all coding needs. It allows for package managers such as Node.js Package Manager (NPM).
GitHub Codespaces will allow for a no-limited course for education for coding.