How to teach programming to your loved ones [video] • Hacker News Board

Lerc wrote: post #20

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…

You will be interested to know that Brett Victor wrote a tutorial on lambda calculus for preschoolers. [1]

Also, I have a lambda-calculus ballet production in my head, but since I know nothing about ballet I can't really put it down to paper or make a production. Not that it helps you any, but I think it's a fun idea to ponder.

[1] http://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#34

Post by tossaccount123 » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

The best you can really do is point them in the right direction and help them when they get stuck, but learning to code really requires motivation that only they can provide

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#35

Post by dang » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 4:07 AM UTC

jackallis wrote: post #3

gabrielshaad wrote: post #2

Step 1: You don't.

amend step1: before teaching, make sure they shave their hair.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#36

Post by geniium » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 4:30 AM UTC

For the French speaker there is this amazing book named "Genie du code" that will teach you how to code : https://geniesducode.com.

Have a look, their project is amazing and the drawings are fun!

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#37

Post by yeahitslikethat » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #23

Lerc wrote: post #20

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 listened to Amy Bruckman give a talk about LambdaMOO some years back. She mentioned that kids frequently took much better to physical object-oriented metaphors than adults did. They might say things like "I don't understand why adults can't understand that a dog is-a animal, but a house has-a dog in it." I think it's a great idea for a book. Send me a PM when it's published and I'll buy one :)

Its brilliant. I hope he writes it.

There's a riddle that little kids get right away but Harvard grads hardly ever get.

What's greater than God. Meaner than the devil. Poor people have it. And if you eat it you will die?

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#38

Post by jeena » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 5:59 AM UTC

jniedrauer wrote: post #30

gabrielshaad wrote: post #2

Step 1: You don't.

No one taught me to code. I realize that this is not true for everyone, but for me, it is difficult to comprehend "being taught how to code." What does that even mean? Learning to code is synonymous with reading documentation and then implementing it. Do it a lot and you get quicker at it. Do it enough, and you memorize the standard library. Congrats, you know how to code. It's an entirely self-driven process. I have…

I never considered memorizing the standard library having anything to do with coding. Same as memorizing where the books in a real library are to have anything to do with being able to read.

Learning to code for me is learning the concepts like variable, loop, if, map, reduce, oop, sequence, array, function, return, lambda, monad, state, side effects, etc.

Once you understand this, it doesn't matter what language and libraries get thrown at you, you'll be able to work with it. The rest you can read up in the documentation, and over time, as you say, you'll not need to look as much because you memorize it. But in my opinion that's just optimization after you learn coding.

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#39

Post by a_w » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 5:59 AM UTC

yeahitslikethat wrote: post #37

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to Amy Bruckman give a talk about LambdaMOO some years back. She mentioned that kids frequently took much better to physical object-oriented metaphors than adults did. They might say things like "I don't understand why adults can't understand that a dog is-a animal, but a house has-a dog in it." I think it's a great idea for a book. Send me a PM when it's published and I'll buy one :)

Its brilliant. I hope he writes it. There's a riddle that little kids get right away but Harvard grads hardly ever get. What's greater than God. Meaner than the devil. Poor people have it. And if you eat it you will die?

> What's greater than God. Meaner than the devil. Poor people have it. And if you eat it you will die? Nothing?

Re: How to teach programming to your loved ones [video]

#40

Post by alexanderdmitri » Fri, Feb 01, 2019, 6:14 AM UTC

mrspeaker wrote: post #21

gabrielshaad wrote: post #2

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?

There's a really good article in the top ten on Lawyer News right now: How to Teach Your Loved Ones to Perform Legal Research.

A lot of the advice could be applied here pretty well.