Comments on: Why Johnny Can't Code and How to Help Him

By: RPG and Programming » Blog Archive » Learning Oberon-2

RPG and Programming » Blog Archive » Learning Oberon-2 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:19:15 +0000

[...] a blog post on my son’s blog, I ruminated on helping young people to learn to program and what might be a [...]

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:56:35 +0000

Kids are smart. I don’t think it matters what language you throw at them. It is how are you motivating them? I used to love to compete against other kids programming robots using p-robots. That competitive streak. Other kids may be motivated by publishing something or controlling their virtual world. That’s where a good teacher and a more free-form course would make a huge difference.

By: Jen Barron

Jen Barron — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:04:00 +0000

Reading this makes me believe I could go down an entirely new career path. Being able to tell a machine what to do, when I was 10 years old, was the most exciting thing to me! (Yes…I was a huge nerd.) Programming captured my imagination as a teenager, and it saddens me when I see so many kids now straying away from the field. I think it’s only because now, the languages, and the field itself just seems so complicated, and they are steering away from the subject in high schools now. Thanks again, Dad…for your thoughts!

By: SpencerBarron.com » Blog Archive » My Top Ten Posts - Not just real estate and not just me.

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:50:03 +0000

[...] Why Johnny Can’t Code and How to Help Him. by Curtis Barron - What! I find it hard to believe that my Dad’s post is the most popular post on my blog. It’s actually kind of painful. I wonder how much this speaks to the fact that niche expertise is the real strength of a search engine. Thanks for the contribution Dad. [...]

By: Chris Burrows

Chris Burrows — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:38:38 +0000

Your comments struck a chord with me. I was introduced to programming at school in the late 1960′s when we used to visit a local school for a few hours a week. They (Royal Liberty School) were one of the first (if not the first) school in the UK to have a computer. That initial experience gave me a head start at Uni and a solid foundation for my ongoing 30+ years as a professional software developer. Any efforts towards capturing the imagination of budding school-age programmers are to be encouraged!

By: CFinch

CFinch — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:15:45 +0000

I have been programming (semi-pro) for quite a few years now. I have mostly been using variations of BASIC and Visual Basic. A few years ago my son took part in a school program for gifted math and science students in grades 3-5. They used “Cocoa Beans” (now Stagecast Creator) to learn the basics of logic and programming by building small virual worlds where they controlled the behavior of objects within those worlds. I thought it was very interesting how they got the kids attention and kept their interest by using a game like environment to teach them programming. This was a good start but from there the languages and IDE’s seem to jump to far ahead and left my son and some other kids thinking it too mechanical and boring again. I have been searching for a programming language/environment for teaching kids to program and enjoy doing it. I would like an environment that had stages so the budding coders could grow and evolve in the progrmming experience. Thus allowing kids who need to keep it simper longer to do so while allowing kids who want more of the “real’ thing to move ahead when desired. I have found all kinds of languages and environments but none that really fit the bill as described. So far I still like BASIC (or variations thereof) mostly becasue the syntax is easy and not usually likely to create enough early frustration to cause kids to bail out. Leopard/JustBasic/Liberty Basic are what I use. Leopard is easy, free and can sovle some real world problems, which give kids that immediate sense of accomplishment. Just Basic is the free limited version of Liberty Basic (which I beleive Leopard was created with) and is a natural progression. The syntax is simialr and its adds just enough additional capability and complexity without overwhelming the budding programmer. Liberty basic has very powerful capabilities but still keeps the langauge and interface easy. Once a new prorgammer gets up to feeling comfortable with Liberty Basic, I believe he/she will be equipped to jump off into the deeper development realm of OO programming and all those other powerful and useful but hard to start with languages (C, C++, C#, Java, Perl etc.). The msot inportant thing in teaching kids to program, or just trying to stimulate some interest in learning programming, is make it fun and have a purpose. Having kids solve real world problems related to topics that they are interested in, is the key. Once the fire is lit it is usually self-sustaning.

By: W^L+

W^L+ — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:10:42 +0000

One of the good things about the older BASICs was that they had the very simple combined with great power. I remember seeing listings for Atari 400 and 800 with pages of PEEK and POKE statements. This meant that there was the ability to get a real understanding of what was going on inside the computer for those who were interested, yet the beginner did not have to deal with them.

Thus, I have to agree with Joel Spolsky that most modern high-level languages (e.g., Java) are not a good way to learn to program. I would have to say that object-oriented languages are definitely good, just not for beginners.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:43:11 +0000

Out of the list of programming languages to begin with I would definately choose Leopard. It has got to be the worlds easiest programming language and it has influenced me to go on and learn quite a few other programming languages such as Just/Liberty BASIC, Dark Basic, Basic4gl and VB Express, but without leopard I would never have got interested in programming. Leopard is the one, in my opinion to go for. A five year old could create fantastic programs with it. GO ON LEOPARD ! ! !