Self-Portrait Coding (with bonus toggles)

I recently attended the fantastic Self-Portrait coding workshop at the APAC ADE Institute. Glen did an amazing job of stepping us through the process and I wound up with an uncannily accurate self-portrait coded in Swift. 

My self-portrait from APAC Institute

I came back to school, fully intending to run the workshop for our Yr 6s exactly as Glen had (albeit very nervously). I made several more self-portraits just to get myself into the swing of things and managed to get the process working quite smoothly.

Having become comfortable with the process, I decided to try to extend it and, to my amazement, I managed to combine some of the skills I’d picked up in the Keep Going with Apps playground with the self-portrait project.

The first thing I did was to create a button that worked to toggle my glasses on and off.

Then I managed to add a toggle for my glasses and a slider to adjust the size of the dog on my shirt.

This has really raised the ceiling of the activity, which was a great activity to start with. Students loved making their own self-portraits, and those who needed some extension work had a great time adding options that they could toggle on and off, including facial hair and expressions.

It’s a long way from something that’s going to be a hit on the App Store, but their coding adventures have definitely begun.