21–30 of 49 posts
Step 1: You don't.
The title of the talk is a bit misleading, since it's really all about teaching young people in a classroom setting with assignments and credit. Which happens to be very relevant to me personally right now, but doesn't at all help if what you want to do is get your nana to provide more enlightening diagnostic feedback with her tech problems. This talk does seem to confirm a lot of the things I've suspected about teac…
I have half an idea for a children's book that I may one day write called "Teach your parents to code" targeted at a child and a parent where neither of them can code. The idea is that you put the child in the driver's seat making them motivated to help their parents. At the same time, they have to learn the concepts in order to explain them. In explaining the concepts to an adult they not only self review what they…
I think it's a great idea for a book. Send me a PM when it's published and I'll buy one :)
Step 1: You don't.
This is true. It comes down to two things I think that go hand in hand 1. Do they have enough persistance to learn and then tackle problems 2. Do they even care? Most people just aren't wired that way and it's nice enough if you find someone who's even willing to listen to you talk about technical things
However, I strongly disagree with the popular notion that most people "just aren't wired that way" and can't learn to program. Certainly some people take to it much more quickly than average, but dismissing everyone else as doomed to never be able to comprehend the cosmic complexity of a while loop because their brains are fundamentally less than ours is kind of terrible.
Step 1: You don't.
Yes, or at least make sure that they actually want to learn before going down that path.
The complication is that teaching something is a very different and separate skill than being able to "do it".
Professional programmers ESPECIALLY have A LOT of trouble with pedagogy. You can see their profound dysfunction in this area if you spend time in stackoverflow. It makes me feel sorry for people that get into there the first time, totally unaware of the weird culture that awaits them.
Step 1: You don't.
A talk entitled "How to teach programming to your loved ones: Enabling students over example-driven teaching" and you reply "Step 1: You don't"... that's pretty harsh. How would you say the author should have approached it instead?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is true. It comes down to two things I think that go hand in hand 1. Do they have enough persistance to learn and then tackle problems 2. Do they even care? Most people just aren't wired that way and it's nice enough if you find someone who's even willing to listen to you talk about technical things
I agree that we shouldn't force programming down the throats of loved ones that aren't interested in our careers and hobbies. However, I strongly disagree with the popular notion that most people "just aren't wired that way" and can't learn to program. Certainly some people take to it much more quickly than average, but dismissing everyone else as doomed to never be able to comprehend the cosmic complexity of a while…
Step 1: You don't.
A talk entitled "How to teach programming to your loved ones: Enabling students over example-driven teaching" and you reply "Step 1: You don't"... that's pretty harsh. How would you say the author should have approached it instead?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Psyke Well that's a new one for me haha. It's just "psych". Like "Here's a million dollars. Oh, PSYCH!" An older (more complete) phrasing is "to psych someone out", meaning you mess with somebody (psychologically). I've also seen it spelled "sike", but never "psyke". I wonder if your spelling is common too.
Not sure. I have a hard time spelling any word where I don't have a good grasp on the etymology involved. Also there are some words that I can't spell AND pronounce, but if I have a hard time with one I can do the other (they change places several times before I get used to them). Finally, I almost always spell snake when I really mean to spell snack (including this time, I had to fix it). Psyke came up on the google…
Step 1: You don't.
I have helped engineers get up to speed on new tech more quickly than they otherwise would have. But that's not really teaching a skill. It's more like cutting down their search time for information a little bit. It would be completely useless if they didn't already know how to use documentation.
Software engineering, on the other hand, is something that can be taught.