Rick Ross KidsCodeZone.com - Let's get this party started!
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To begin with, I must thank Michael Kölling for this excellent posting that inspired me to act on something I have wanted to do for a long time: create a resource devoted to helping kids learn programming. As a father of four beautiful daughters, it has become altogether too clear to me that schools aren't doing nearly enough to introduce young people to the wonderful world of software development. Even to the extent they are, they aren't starting early enough, and they aren't setting sights high enough!
I'd like your help to make "Kids Code Zone" a great resource that helps turn this problem around. No brains burn brighter than those of young people, and with the right environment and tools there is no limit to what they can enjoy learning. Programming is not boring, and it is not something that requires a Ph.D. to do. It is a richly fulfilling hobby that can grow into a lifelong passion with enormous career potential.
Let's begin here and now to make that possible for kids who haven't had the chance until now. With your help we can make "Kids Code Zone" a stepping stone into the bright futures of some of tomorrow's leaders. Please jump in and get involved. The more, the merrier!
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)
Comments
Kasper Graversen replied on Wed, 2008/01/23 - 5:18am
I'm very surprised you don't mention smalltalk in your post. In the smalltalk community good work has been caried out for decades already in relationship to teaching kids programming and computer interaction in general!
Not only that but smalltalk is possibly one of the simplest and best designed languages from a simplicity perspective. Check out sites such as http://www.squeak.org/
Also try the video feeds on google, there are plenty of vids of smalltalk and all the work they do in schools and with kids in general.
The last thing i would do is to teach kids java other language which have evolved to almost semantic monsters (e.g. the type parameters, autoboxing, annotations)..gah!
Rick Ross replied on Wed, 2008/01/23 - 5:35am
in response to: kbilsted
Hi kbilsted, and thanks for being the first person to comment here at KidsCodeZone.com!
I am a little bit confused by your comment, though, since didn't mention any programming languages at all in my post? Were you actually referring to Michael Kolling's post that I linked to?
This zone will be impartial to the various technologies, welcoming coverage of any of them which can help advance the goal of making programming appealing to young people and making it easier to teach and learn.
Your suggestion of including videos is a fine one, and I hope we'll gather both instructional videos and hands-on screencasts here. A good collection of these will undoubtedly be very helpful to people looking for resources.
Rick
Rebecca Reamy replied on Wed, 2008/01/23 - 9:28am
First off, let me say that I love the idea of having a site that will provide this sort of activity for children. I have a 4 year old and both me and his father are software engineers, so I would love to introduce him to what I do (and I think he'd like it).
I got my start in programming with Basic. It was a simple language and you could do some fun things with it (like make it ask a question and display the answer...do mad libs, etc).
I will definately be keeping an eye on this section of dzone and hoping that I can find stuff to contribute and will bring my son here when he gets a little older.
Todd Runstein replied on Wed, 2008/01/23 - 10:38am
Great idea. I've seen a few threads around that talk about teaching kids programming, but haven't seen a repository of tutorials or products.
I've used KTurtle with my kids. While they're not going to use it to write the next killer app, it does introduce basic concepts such as loops and conditionals. By memorizing a few simple abbreviations, kids can learn about programming before they can read (my boys were both pretty proficient at controlling the turtle around the age of 5). Best of all, the kids have fun doing it.
Brian Rock replied on Sun, 2008/01/27 - 1:45pm
Couldn't agree more. When I was in school (not too long ago, I graduated high school in 2002), the options were kind of limited. I remember middle school "computers" class was pretty much just keyboarding and word processing. Bleh.
I always wanted to learn how to program, but school didn't offer much. In elementary/middle school my dad showed me a few things with dBase, and I experimented myself a bit with C++, but neither got me off the ground very much.
When I got to high school there was finally a string of courses to take (Basic - Pascal - C++), but the courses really didn't do much besides give me a structured time to work on learning programming myself. It worked fine for me, but most of the other students didn't learn much because they didn't have the drive.
It'd be great to have a resource around to help younger kids get into it - and hopefully nudge grade schools and middle schools into integrating it into their curriculums.