Tech Explorations
Use this list to explore and learn about technology in smaller doses, when you don't have time for a full-blown project.
🎧 Audio Note
If you see 🎧 the resource includes sound. Please use earbuds or headphones to avoid distracting others.
Art and Creativity
- Constraint Systems — 25 different creative ways to create and edit images and text
- IsoCity — create isometric city blocks
- js Kid Pix — create pixel art the old-school way
- Night Cafe AI Art Generator — allows both text-prompt image creation and style transfer
- Photopea — an astoundingly powerful browser-based image editor, works just like Photoshop
- Rooms.xyz 🎧 — create and share interactive isometric voxel rooms
- Sumopaint X — an easy-to-use, but still powerful painting program
- Wombo Dream — create unique art using AI (no account needed, no need to buy anything)
Computer Science and Web Technology
- Bitsy — create little games or worlds
- Decker — a retro-flavored multimedia platform to create and share content interactively
- Glicol 🎧 — make music with code
- mmm — create a website quickly, and let your imagination go wild (use your school email, no password needed)
- Pico-8 Education Edition 🎧 — Learn how to code 8-bit games with this retro fantasy console (start by clicking on the blue rabbit for basic info, then when you're ready, check out the manual and resources page ... and note that this can easily become a long-term project, too)
- Sliderland — a minimalist coding playground
- Tixy — a super tiny, simple (and fun) coding environment
Games and Emulators
- Pico-8 Education Edition 🎧 — in addition to coding your own, there are plenty of game cartridges to explore
- The Print Shop — explore this popular 1984 Apple II software which used fanfold paper to create items and get a PDF of the results
- Terms & Conditions Apply — this mini-game takes aim at the devious strategies companies make us face online (which of these have you encountered?)
- Townscaper Demo 🎧 — build a quaint waterside town
- Wayfinder 🎧 — this beautiful poetic experience from the National Film Board of Canada is procedurally generated, so no two sessions are alike
Music
- BeepBox 🎧 — create and share instrumental music
- Chrome Song Maker 🎧 — a fast and fun way to make music
- Glicol 🎧 — make music with code
- Learning Music 🎧 — learn how to start making your own electronic music [Note: with this resource, you can explore early sections for quick sessions, or take the whole course as part of a longer-term project]
- Learning Synths 🎧 — learn the basics of audio synthesis
- LudoTune 🎧 — create looping musical sculptures using an innovative cube structure
- tahti 🎧 — use this online groovebox to create your own compositions
- Wambox 🎧 — discover the joy of drum machine programming, with tons of examples and styles