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Ask Slashdot: How To Introduce a 7-Year-Old To Programming?
THE_WELL_HUNG_OYSTER writes I'm a professional programmer and have been programming since I was a small boy. I want to introduce this to my 7-year-son but know nothing about teaching this to children. Since he enjoys Roblox and Minecraft very much, and knows how to use computers already, I suspect teaching him to write his own small games would be a good starting point. I'm aware of lists like this one, but it's quite overwhelming. There are so many choices that I am overwhelmed where to start. Anyone in the Slashdot in the community have recent hands-on experience with such tools/systems that he/she would recommend?
They were about that age.
I eased the process so, that I made them design the game story and visual look. Later on, they looked and gave input as I churned the code during the next few days. After it was done, and they wanted to change something about it, they had to do it themselves -- I left several 'little annoying things' that are easy to fix there, so that they would ask and would want them changed.
Being able to do noticeable effect with little changes made code less mysterious to them, and they were able to change little things on their own later on.
They don't want to be good at coding, and are interested in other things. But atleast now they have experience of that as well.
Kodu from MSR is excellent.
http://research.microsoft.com/...
"Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input."
PGP KeyId: 0x08D63965
Because Apple IIC C64 and others had BASIC essentially built in. And there were piles of magazines with BASIC programs to make and try. Now, the basic command line editors are not included in Windows. You can't drop to a command line and edlin yourself a working program. Maybe you can, if you download and install an editor, but doing that is the same as installing a compiler for C++, so the low barrier of entry to BASIC is gone. It's no longer any easier than any other language.
Learn to love Alaska
Yeah, it has to be his idea. So start with modding something that he likes, like Minecraft. If my parents tried to force me to learn programming, I definitely wouldn't be doing it today. Fortunately for me, they didn't understand anything about computers, which allowed me the freedom to learn it on my own.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Because it's a bad language that teaches people bad habits. On the bright side, you used to be able to write programs in it on a $99 Timex Sinclair, which was a pretty low barrier to entry.
Bullshit! Most of us learned to programme using BASIC when the only way to organise the code was by line numbers. We went on to learn assembly language for our computers and then integrated BASIC and assembly language programmes. Afterwards we moved onto other programming languages such as Pascal, Modula-2, FORTRAN, COBOL, Prolog, etc. Today we can learn any programming language necessary for our work or hobby projects. IIRC :Linus Torvalds cut his programming teeth on BASIC; we went on to create the Linux kernel and Git. You might have heard of them.
I have researched this subject extensively over the last several years. Most importantly, I have exposure to children between ages 6 and 14 that can program successfully with a text editor or IDE. The short answer is go straight to Python. You can read about my personal experience with my own children here: http://pychildren.blogspot.com... The main child is now 10 and using Python with IDLE and PyCharm. Also suggest you research this site: http://www.learningtech.org/wo... which I also have experience with by sending my own kid to the class. Note the Minecraft plugins from grade 4. Definitely wish I had started my eldest kid earlier as I think that age 8 would have been fine. There's a kid in my daughter's class that is 6 years old and completely killing it with PyGame. I think that I'm going to drop down from PyGame to Python Turtle (logo) with my daughter for a while. Good luck. Feel free to send me a note with your progress. I love hearing from parents with children under age 14 that are using text editors or IDEs.
Ah, a "No True Scotsman" argument. From personal experience, I always skipped past the "program an elevator" section of the book and went straight to the chapters on graphics and sound. When I ran into something I didn't understand, I'd read the relevant section earlier in the book, but the "behind the scenes" stuff isn't what drew me in at first.
I'll agree that eventually, someone who actually enjoys coding will take joy in writing whatever they can. An algorithm with a slightly better runtime complexity will be fascinating...but that's not necessarily what sparks the initial interest.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Leave it be. They're just kids.
I'd concur. My kids have an on-again/off-again interest in programming, but the crazy shit they come up with using Redstone wiring in Minecraft is just unbelievable. Sure, I could push them towards C or Ruby, but when I see them building logic gates, adders, flip-flops and the like in Minecraft I just think "they'll work this stuff out on their own". And probably have a better understanding of the fundamentals as they go on.
MIT's Scratch system is probably a good start for a lot of nascent coders though. It's not just about the code - it's also the community around it, like a Github for little ones. Strongly recommend looking into that.