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by analog31
4564 days ago
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Well, I'm not a teacher, but I've got two kids in 6th and 8th grade, who are learning programming. We've been doing this for a few years now. Both kids are proficient in reading and math, and are interested in a wide range of subjects. Oddly enough, they have radically different styles of learning. I think it's important to be perceptive of what things kids consider to be interesting, as opposed to what we grown-ups believe to be important. The kids will be bursting with ideas of things that they want to make, and the trick is finding a way to channel some of those ideas into projects that they can actually carry out within finite time and material budgets. But I've learned that what they make doesn't have to be a full blown polished app. The pride of making it themselves trumps any adult aesthetic or ergonomic sensibilities. Scratch is great. The animations and sounds provide enough creative space to keep kids interested for quite a while. They can teach one another. It has some practical benefits, being written for widespread installation and "safe" use. The accompanying Web forums seem to be pretty closely moderated by grown-ups, while still allowing plenty of fun chatter. The mechanism for sharing and modifying programs provides a taste of open source! We've had fun with S4A. This is worth checking out. Making stuff dance around on the screen is all well and good, but I think that interacting with the physical world really drives home the fact that you're making the computer do something. |
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