Revenge of the Kittens - Teaching HTML with EraseAllKittens

EraseAllKittens is a promising new website which claims to teach kids HTML in a new and unique way - using animated kittens!!!

According to the official website "E.A.K. (Erase All Kittens) is an online platform game, made by Drum Roll, that teaches kids to code and create on the web. It does this in a unique way - by encouraging them to hack into levels, written in HTML and CSS (the languages of websites) - in order to complete the game."

Whilst at first the concept seems a little bizarre, it actually works extremely well! The idea is that students create platforms / pathways to guide their character 'Arca' to safety using a combination of HTML & CSS. 

The whole concept exemplifies the Gamification model (The process of introducing game-like elements into a traditionally non-gaming contexts to make them more fun and engaging) with students being rewarded with animated gifs for successfully completing each challenge. There is also a dose of humour along the way via audio commentary and introductory videos (As the website suggests, I recommend that the students wear headphones whilst completing the challenges!)

Students use HTML & CSS tags to help guide Arca to safety (rescuing the odd kitten along the way)

At the moment, the project is just a demo and only covers paragraph, header and div tags, with a little introduction to CSS as a reward for completing the survey at the end! However, whilst currently only in beta, the concept shows great potential and I look forward to updates in the future. 

To find out more, visit: https://eraseallkittens.com/


Testimonials

@clcsimon @teknoteacher @EraseAllKittens just trying now with my year 7s :) pic.twitter.com/ag1T4LixW4

— Mr Moore (@GeekMoore) February 24, 2015

@clcsimon @EraseAllKittens 90% of my year 7's managed all the demo tasks without any support. It went down especially well with the girls!

— Mr Moore (@GeekMoore) February 24, 2015

 The kids have asked to play the @EraseAllKittens demo three nights in a row since @makerfaire_uk

— Gary Forster (@Forst3r) April 29, 2014

Loving on @EraseAllKittens: fun way to learn HTML coding. Wish it was around 5 yrs ago! Plan for classroom: https://t.co/QPyrdodQSk #edtech

— Tech in Teaching (@techinteaching) July 23, 2014