[williamcotton]

Why not Logo as a first introduction to programming? Why muddy the waters with anything other than writing little programs to make a turtle draw flowers?

I know, it’s not web development, but it does present the broader concepts in a way that fully digestible!

I just don’t see how someone with no experience at all with programming can ever be expected to make an interactive web page in just 6 weeks.

[mike_hearn]

The usual problem is that students aren't interested unless they can see a direct path to employment. Logo doesn't fulfill that, obviously.

I can never quite decide if web dev is a blessing or a curse for learning programming. Whilst the learning curve for HTML/CSS might seem shallow, that's partly because these aren't programming languages. Teaching these things may feel initially productive because they're quite simple and you get immediate tangible results, but it sucks up time that could have been spent tackling an actual programming language meaning. When Javascript inevitably comes there isn't enough time left to teach it slowly enough, and students are struggling to bridge multiple technologies together that don't share anything in common.

[kibibu]

FYI Python has import turtle.

[jrm4]

Right, like I said above, you have to be VERY upfront about the huge chasm of differences between "theories/ideas that are important in programming" and "the pile of cruft you necessarily have to get through to get to anything REMOTELY useful today."

[threatofrain]

> I just don’t see how someone with no experience at all with programming can ever be expected to make an interactive web page in just 6 weeks.

I think it's possible with mentorship + React, esp. because many of his students may have had prior programming experience. Start with something cool to motivate learning how something works.

[williamcotton]

Yeah, but the course was advertised as “no experience necessary”. It seems that this premise is faulty!