71–80 of 116 posts
I build tools for teaching adults to code, but recently started volunteering for a non-profit that provides a couple hours a week for kids to come in and learn HTML, CSS, javascript. It's 75% them trying to play minecraft and roblox, but seeing a kid whip open the chrome inspector is pretty inspiring.
Great question! I'm a fan of the Mozilla Thimble project - "An online code editor for learners & educators" - https://thimble.mozilla.org Easy to use code editor with live preview, fun starter projects to remix, easy to follow tutorials.
A nephew of mine (~9) got a Kano for Christmas and the setup and all the gamified coding exercises were really fun. He really enjoyed them. Perhaps something to explore as a platform as well as it's not too expensive and comes with what you need to hack around. It comes with Minecraft Py installed and has a few tasks to customize a level, character, etc. Python dev tools comes installed as well as Scratch and other e…
Lately I've reset the learning process focusing more on basics (networking, files, processes, utilities, etc) rather than programming.
There is a more advanced class that teaches javascript.
I've done this for several years. Here's what I've learned. TLDR: Focus on getting them to have fun & enjoy learning about 'code'. Don't care so much on how well they learn it. Every kid is unique & will respond to different things. Social & mentors are awesome. It's usually more fun to build with others if possible. Also they will want to easily share & show off their creations with others. Show them how to "hack" G…
+1 for the DOM Inspector. I have found that kids LOVE pulling back the curtain on a website to see the wizard and play with the code. A fun activity is to have them go to a news site and have them edit the headlines and replace the images to silly things and take screenshots to share with their parents. What really impresses me with this exercise is how quickly some kids will figure out some intermediate hacks when t…
Got some script for modifying a game or an excel function or some code that doesn't quite do what we want it to. Bash it with random changes until you suddenly fix/change/etc. it.
Get a bit addicted, rinse, repeat, suddenly a month later you can understand most of the code.
It was easy for the students to get started because it was connected to math that they already knew. Just different notation.
We use a web-based interface based on glot.io that was popular on HN a while back. The code is run server-side in docker containers.
Source code and screenshots: https://github.com/umutisik/mathvas
Web site: https://www.mathvas.com login details if you don't want to sign up: email: misik@uci.edu password: guestguest
I'm teaching three of my younger siblings to code. It was one of the more meaningful things that I've ever done and was nothing short of hard. Here are the things I've learned teaching my siblings full stack development in a few months. You have to be patient, programming is complex and takes time. Sometimes you have to re-introduce the basics multiple times and hold their hand along the way as they try to connect th…
1) Force them to learn how to navigate filesystems, the basics of file-based config, how to find and download files, and basic networking to make their video games work.
2) Give them little money, but a decent Internet connection, and make 3rd party private discussion forum solutions expensive, so they have to learn Linux and DNS and how to configure a webserver and a database and one or more scripting languages to stand up a discussion forum for their friends.
3) Make doing similar things for others pay way better than anything else they can do, even if they don't really like doing it 40 hours a week. Make this be true year after year.
I can vouch that this will work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1 for the DOM Inspector. I have found that kids LOVE pulling back the curtain on a website to see the wizard and play with the code. A fun activity is to have them go to a news site and have them edit the headlines and replace the images to silly things and take screenshots to share with their parents. What really impresses me with this exercise is how quickly some kids will figure out some intermediate hacks when t…
If you think about it, it's imitating how a lot of us auto-didacts learnt to code, especially in the 2000s. Got some script for modifying a game or an excel function or some code that doesn't quite do what we want it to. Bash it with random changes until you suddenly fix/change/etc. it. Get a bit addicted, rinse, repeat, suddenly a month later you can understand most of the code.