Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#1

Post by jiblyyyy » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:29 PM UTC

Hi HN!

I run an education focussed r&d shop (www.jibly.com) and regularly work on mobile app projects for large firms.

This year, I wanted to start teaching a group of underprivileged children (orphans, refugees, etc) anywhere in the world, how to code for every commercial app project I do for companies.

So for every app project I get, a group of kids gets the tools and resources to learn how to code.

I'm thinking of donating laptops with pre-installed child friendly coding environments. Including books, manuals., etc..

What are some great ways to teach groups of children how to code, without being present every day?

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#2

Post by herbst » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:39 PM UTC

Check out what linda luikas does. Her work is amazing

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#3

Post by owebmaster » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:40 PM UTC

Games! Find games that the players can extend it with programming. It is the best way to make kids interested, imo. At least was what attracted me (games & animes).

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#4

Post by jiblyyyy » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:44 PM UTC

herbst wrote: post #2

Check out what linda luikas does. Her work is amazing

Adding a bunch of her books to the mix is a good idea! Tnx

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#5

Post by jiblyyyy » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:45 PM UTC

owebmaster wrote: post #3

Games! Find games that the players can extend it with programming. It is the best way to make kids interested, imo. At least was what attracted me (games & animes).

Game hacking. I like it. Will be introducing them to Scratch obviously

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#6

Post by andreshb » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 1:59 PM UTC

Without being present? Partner with other organizations that are present. At Coderise.org we discovered that the most valuable part of our after school 8 week program for teens was the time with the mentors that also serve as role models, those relationships are kept for years after the program and that's how the kids continue on a path of software engineering, participate in the local engineering meetups / community and end up studying engineering, building startups, and giving back

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#7

Post by bluedevil2k » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 2:10 PM UTC

owebmaster wrote: post #3

Games! Find games that the players can extend it with programming. It is the best way to make kids interested, imo. At least was what attracted me (games & animes).

Box Island is a good intro to programming that includes loops and conditionals. It's a video game, with some beautiful graphics.

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#8

Post by JCoder58 » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 2:12 PM UTC

Take a look at EToys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language)

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#9

Post by GiorgioG » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 2:13 PM UTC

Teach them how to solve problems before you even start talking about code.

Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?

#10

Post by ChrisBland » Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

Logo -- it helped me learn when I was younger. The best part is as it is visual, kids can see how what they type changes what happens on the screen. It gives them instant feedback in to learning how to give machines instructions. This software can be loaded on any laptop or other computer. It doesn't require any crazy hardware either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)