31–40 of 79 posts
Intended for a couple of youngsters with many hours of Minecraft under their belts, and curious about making games, etc. Did not go too crazy about fizzbuzz in Python on a terminal screen (youth these days ;-)
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What about 5 year olds? Lots of them have trouble typing in properly.
They did fine with the ZX Spectrum, where keywords autocompleted on a single keypress (eg, at a point where it was valid, pressing p got "PRINT" or j got "LOAD"). Every key had legends showing what it would produce. Great for a 5 year old who could read but not spell.
It's somewhat surprising to me that the "block editor" thing is so popular in these beginner kits. My son (almost 11) was introduced to it at school[1] and did not find it intuitive at all. We then got an Arduino and started to write some simple programs, and he took to it right off the bat. The Arduino programming platform is simple enough to get a 10-year old started off and scales so well to "professional" project…
When we introduce Python they struggle to get matching " and ( and indentation.
Sometimes it's about the pace of the lesson, what do you have to teach 30 kids in one hour? If you spend that hour explaining why the shell is different to a file 30 times, your lesson is over.
Eh, this was posted about the same minute I was ordering one Micro:bit from Amazon UK (this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01G8X7VM2/ - perhaps the AAA battery holder is not really needed, if one has an USB power bank, but ...). Intended for a couple of youngsters with many hours of Minecraft under their belts, and curious about making games, etc. Did not go too crazy about fizzbuzz in Python on a terminal…
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Yeah, the block editor is a quick win for younger children, but it's not good for teaching more realistic approaches to 'proper' coding; heading the Java or MicroPython route seems to be more suitable and engaging for older pupils. The guys who ported MicroPython to the micro:bit have done a great job but, regrettably, by the time the MicroPython framework has been loaded on the micro:bit, the amount of room left for…
Your script can be up to 8k in length. You have 16k RAM to play with. Obviously, this is a very constrained device and just getting a full re-implementation of Python 3 (sans standard library) is testament to Damien George's engineering brilliance. There's still lots of work to be done and efficiencies to be made. This is only but the start of the project. There are some quite interesting / complicated examples in th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the block editor is a quick win for younger children, but it's not good for teaching more realistic approaches to 'proper' coding; heading the Java or MicroPython route seems to be more suitable and engaging for older pupils. The guys who ported MicroPython to the micro:bit have done a great job but, regrettably, by the time the MicroPython framework has been loaded on the micro:bit, the amount of room left for…
Your script can be up to 8k in length. You have 16k RAM to play with. Obviously, this is a very constrained device and just getting a full re-implementation of Python 3 (sans standard library) is testament to Damien George's engineering brilliance. There's still lots of work to be done and efficiencies to be made. This is only but the start of the project. There are some quite interesting / complicated examples in th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think 11 is already too late for those blocks. I did some lessons with Blockly [0] in my son's class last years (kids of 6 and 7), and that worked fine for the oldest/smartest kids, though it was still a bit too hard for some. I plan to do it again this year (ages 7-9) to see how that goes. But after that, I think it's time for some Ruby or Python. I did Basic at that age. [0] https://blockly-games.appspot.com/
You know, what way is there today to get the simple experience of a C64 or a ZX spectrum? Several things there: - Instant on with a high level language interpreter - Simple architecture/ISA one can grow into - Maybe a monitor/assembler available from the interpreter - Powerful graphics, with simple things possible from the language, and full power available from machine code This would be perfect for around 8-10 year…
It's somewhat surprising to me that the "block editor" thing is so popular in these beginner kits. My son (almost 11) was introduced to it at school[1] and did not find it intuitive at all. We then got an Arduino and started to write some simple programs, and he took to it right off the bat. The Arduino programming platform is simple enough to get a 10-year old started off and scales so well to "professional" project…
It's very easy for us to harp on about how language 𝒙 is easier than Scratch et al, but we are able to debug programs that fail to compile or execute as expected. We are able to assist with writing the syntax from memory and we can set up the development environment (code editor, language framework and run time, etc). This is all stuff that block editors make easy.
It's also worth noting that most primary schools - which is the sort of level that Scratch is introduced - don't even have their own on-site IT assistant so if the teacher gets troubled by software then they often have to wait a few days for their contracted support to next visit the school.
It's somewhat surprising to me that the "block editor" thing is so popular in these beginner kits. My son (almost 11) was introduced to it at school[1] and did not find it intuitive at all. We then got an Arduino and started to write some simple programs, and he took to it right off the bat. The Arduino programming platform is simple enough to get a 10-year old started off and scales so well to "professional" project…
It's very easy for us to harp on about how language 𝒙 is easier than Scratch et al, but we are able to debug programs that fail to compile or execute as expected. We are able to assist with writing the syntax from memory and we can set up the development environment (code editor, language framework and run time, etc). This is all stuff that block editors make easy.
It's also worth noting that most primary schools - which is the sort of level that Scratch is introduced - don't even have their own on-site IT assistant so if the teacher gets troubled by software then they often have to wait a few days for their contracted support to next visit the school.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think 11 is already too late for those blocks. I did some lessons with Blockly [0] in my son's class last years (kids of 6 and 7), and that worked fine for the oldest/smartest kids, though it was still a bit too hard for some. I plan to do it again this year (ages 7-9) to see how that goes. But after that, I think it's time for some Ruby or Python. I did Basic at that age. [0] https://blockly-games.appspot.com/
You know, what way is there today to get the simple experience of a C64 or a ZX spectrum? Several things there: - Instant on with a high level language interpreter - Simple architecture/ISA one can grow into - Maybe a monitor/assembler available from the interpreter - Powerful graphics, with simple things possible from the language, and full power available from machine code This would be perfect for around 8-10 year…