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by nitemice
2984 days ago
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I'm 24, so maybe a little old, but I was first introduce to programming with Game Maker. Later I did a little bit of Flash if you count that, and then moved onto Visual Basic.NET when I did 'Software Development' at high school. For a long time (since mid-primary school) I had been toying with HTML, mainly from a book from the local library, and by just looking at the source code of websites that interested me. I think it's clear that 'toys' like this, and like Game Maker, that make programming simple and user-friendly have been around for a long time, and don't necessarily stop people from learning more advanced concepts or languages, except if they lose interest. But even if they do, hoefully they will have packed up some skills that they can apply to other endeavours. |
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For me (26), part of what kept me interested in learning to program was the sense that I was working through something convoluted and solving some personal problem. Overcoming some sort of adversity. In this case, it was writing hodgepodge pascal to automate Runescape and Neopets, then also Flash for fun and profit.
I now have friends that are interested in the concept of programming, but have no application for it. I'm happy to aid in their journey, but when they ask me "What should I program?" I have no idea what to tell them. "Pick something arbitrary" I say, only to hear "What's that mean?". I feel like programming is something most people either come to organically or don't follow though with, regardless of challenge involved.
If we are to think about what would make a successful programming class, would it look more like math such that "Today we'll learn math, because math will totes be useful later for some reason" or would it look like "Make a computer do something interesting or useful with minimal human interaction".