This last school year, I volunteered at a local high school near where I work teaching Java and Web programming skills to any student who wanted to work with me. What I found excited kids the most were projects where they could interact with other students. Building applets for web sites is one example.
They were excited and driven to work on projects, not for there future marketablility or because it was clever in and of itself. They were excited because they could show their friends and they would say "Wow, that's cool". And then their friends would want to do something like it.
My recomendation, and the type of projects I focus on myself are those that have an interactive feature with others including students or other people. Fan web sites are one example, the ideterod (sp?) sled race example in a previous post was another.
These are the types of projects people, including students of all ages, do on their own because they already have an interest in the subject matter and get a chance to interact with others.
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This last school year, I volunteered at a local high school near where I work teaching Java and Web programming skills to any student who wanted to work with me. What I found excited kids the most were projects where they could interact with other students. Building applets for web sites is one example.
They were excited and driven to work on projects, not for there future marketablility or because it was clever in and of itself. They were excited because they could show their friends and they would say "Wow, that's cool". And then their friends would want to do something like it.
My recomendation, and the type of projects I focus on myself are those that have an interactive feature with others including students or other people. Fan web sites are one example, the ideterod (sp?) sled race example in a previous post was another.
These are the types of projects people, including students of all ages, do on their own because they already have an interest in the subject matter and get a chance to interact with others.
IMHO.