Mindjoy <> Replit Mobile Pilot Collaboration 2022

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Mobile Coding Club Playbook

Set-up

Set-up is extremely important to support you in effectively facilitating engaging and efficient sessions for your learners. Here are some of our top-tips:

Classroom/Venue Set-up 🏫

Flexible seating / set-up 🪑

Flexible seating gives learners more autonomy over their learning environment and means they can listen to their needs and choose an environment/way of sitting that works best for them. This can look like:

Different seating options (chairs, standing tables, benches, carpet, beanbags, etc)

Seats that can be moved around

At Molo Mhlaba, the learners took turns sitting at their desks, or working while sitting or lying down on the carpet.

Flexible classroom layouts give learners choices, allowing them to experiment with learning techniques, and figure out how they learn best.

3. Experiment with different layouts of tables 🧩

Facilitator-focused (instructional) activities mean desks should cluster or face the area from which the facilitator will be instructing, while the desk layout for student-focused activities should allow for easy collaboration among learners. Here are some ideas:

Giant Oval for team building activities

Two sides (desks can be in groups or rows) facing each other

Open square or horseshoe for group discussions

Mix of rows and groups

4. Set-up Essential Areas 🕰

Dedicated teacher area (where you can keep all your stuff)

Home base - a space for each learner to call their own (this can also be done with facilitation through grouping, if it cannot be done in the classroom itself). This offers safety through familiarity, which is especially important for younger learners.

Transition area - a space where learners can go if they are waiting for the next activity

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Mobile phone set-up 📲

We used Samsung A23 devices at Molo Mhlaba - we chose these phones as we were looking for affordable Android devices.

Ideally one would have a 1:1 device and student ratio, but we had a ratio of 1 phone to 2 learners and this worked well too (we’ll touch on how to facilitate sharing with the devices under “facilitation”).

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Here are some of the ways we set-up and managed the phones to ensure safety, security and optimal learning and engagement:

Phone covers

This is especially important with young learners and teaches them how to take care of their own devices

Number all phones

Color-code and number each phone to be able to identify and easily count the devices.

Give each student group a correlating number and colour to easily track student usage and be able to double-check with the learners if a phone hadn’t yet been handed in or wasn’t accounted for.

Number and colour-code the phone covers and chargers too.

Write-up and sign a contract with person responsible for mobiles

We found that it was efficient (and easier) for only 1-2 people to be responsible for the phones. This meant they are responsible for:

Double checking that each phone is handed in at the end of a session

Checking that the correct phone covers are on the correlated phones

Making sure the phones are charged before the session

Making sure each phone has the correct apps needed for the session

We made sure that this responsible party sign

a contract⁠

which stipulated:

A list with IMEI or serial numbers with numbers allocated to each phone

Guidelines and agreements around using the mobiles (e.g. The phones are for educational purposes, do not borrow, no social media or applications for personal use)

Damage or loss clause

General guidelines to ensure mobiles are ready for use

How the mobiles should be stored and charged

If you can afford it, we also recommend getting insurance for the phones

Have a labelled box for keeping phones

You can even have separate compartments for each group’s phone so you can keep the cellphones and chargers together and even easily see which phones are missing

Hide and remove applications

Remove unnecessary applications (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc)

Hide or move other applications to a restricted access folder

This doesn’t mean that the phones have to be completely clear of fun playful apps, but it does help minimise distractions

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Watch Video on How to Hide Apps Here⁠

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Remove lock screen

Ensure there is no password or biometric protect that restrict the learner from accessing Replit or the other apps they might be using during the session

Set download permissions

Manage downloads to ensure the mobiles are used for only educational purposes

Download the Replit App beforehand

Alternatively, make sure that Google Chrome is downloaded so that even if there is an issue with the app, you can still access Replit through the Google Chrome browser (this works well on mobile too)

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Wifi 🌐

If the Wifi is unstable it is best to use a dongle

Always have hotspots and data available. This is particularly important for areas that experience regular power outages or intermittent connectivity. You can also buy data from two different service providers to increase resilience.

Ensure your internet source can handle all the devices (if not get another source)

We recommend testing this beforehand, preferably without the learners (or in a low-stakes setting with the learners where they are not trying to complete specific tasks).

Have the WiFi password(s) readily available for all facilitators

Having a gate-keeper for WiFi is extremely frustrating, especially when you are managing a classroom of young learners who have short attention spans. Save time by having them on-hand or on a vault app on the phones.

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Project set-up 🗂

We primarily teach coding in Python. Here are some of the hacks we’ve found to be useful when setting up Python coding projects in Replit:

Readme (readme.md) file:

We’ve found that it’s really useful to have a file which acts as a source of truth for the learners (where they can find their instructions and also keep track of their progress as they code)

This file also has a preview option making it easier for the learners to read the file or copy and paste lines of code into their main coding file

Main (main.py) coding file:

This is the first screen the learners will see when they open their projects

Adding comments with instructions to this file helps the learners get orientated when they start coding

Setup (setup.py) file (for Python Turtle Graphics):

The best screen size for Mobile output when using Python Turtle Graphics is Screen().setup(0.75, 0.75)

Building projects on desktop may not translate well to mobile - it is best to have the project open on mobile, and test the output so you can see what the learners will experience when they run their code

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Multiplayer projects:

Coding in pairs builds collaboration skills and encourages peer-learning. Coding can be overwhelming, especially for younger learners or learners who have never worked with text-based coding before. Working as a team makes the task seem more manageable.

As mobiles are small devices, more than 2 learners to one device is not recommended.

The 2:1 ratio ensures all learners get equal amount of screen time and each get to complete different parts of the project.

The smaller groups allow the students to explore their sense of identity and creativity through technology

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