Hedy is a textual programming language, specifically developed for (pre-)teens (10 to 15 years old). In contrast to programming languages for kids, like Scratch, Hedy doesn't use code blocks but textual code. So with Hedy you'll learn how to type code like the real programmers do, but in small steps with playful exercises. This way Hedy can function as a stepping stone to real programming languages like Python in an accessible and mostly fun way! If you want to know more, you can watch this video about the development of Hedy as a programming language.
Hedy is developed with middle school and junior high school students in mind (ages 10 - 15). It's important for the students to be able to read well. We recommend not to start with Hedy before the students have achieved at least a 3rd grade reading level. Students (and teachers!) don't need any programming experience before starting with Hedy.
Hedy is divided into levels, in which new commands are taught. Each level contains a variety of adventures to practice the newly learned commands. As a teacher, you get to decide which adventures are available for your students. Will they be making a restaurant, a calculator or a haunted house this level? Within each level, the adventures are arranged from easiest to hardest. So your students keep getting challenged. The adventures can be done by the students individually, or you can use them in a classical instruction.
The adventures also include a code example, to make sure the less digitally informed teachers are able to use Hedy too! Of course Hedy also caters to the creative teachers that love to make their own lesson plans and adventures!
After programming all the adventures of a certain level, your students can test their knowledge in the quiz. You can track your students' work and their progress on the class page.
Hedy is web-based, which means it works on any device with a browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge etc), so laptops, Chromebooks, tablets and even smartphones are suitable to use Hedy. There's no need to download anything before working with Hedy, just go to the website and you're all set!
All Hedy teachers, programmers and other fans are welcome to join our Discord server. This is the ideal place to chat about Hedy: we have channels where you can show your cool projects and lessons, channels to report bugs, and channels to chat with other teachers and with the Hedy team. Here you can find a video on how to join the Discord Community.
Organizations in the EU have to comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) when processing personal data. Because this is a complex issue for many schools, you can use all Hedy programming functionalities without sharing personal data. The easiest way to do this is to use Hedy without creating accounts for the teacher and students. Without accounts, all functionality is available, with the exception of personalizing levels, saving students' programs and viewing their progress. That is limiting, but there are schools that use Hedy in that way.
A second way is for a teacher to create an account with an email address without personal data, for example "docent25@email.com". Apart from an email address, which is only required to reset your password, you do not need to share any information when you create a teacher account. With a teacher account, you can create anonymous accounts for students, e.g. rainbow-student1, rainbow-student2, etc (See 'Teaching preparations' for a detailed manual). This way you can use all functionality of Hedy, including saving progress, without sharing personal data of yourself or your students.
If the above is not sufficient for your context, we can sign a processing agreement for the processing of your personal data.