11–20 of 224 posts
Was looking for exactly such a book for teaching my 7 and 8 year old brothers the theoretical basics of programming after getting them to create their own tiny games with MIT's Scratch.
As I'm also quite confident that Linda's execution will be of highest quality, I pre-ordered the digital version.
I think it could be a great way of repackaging programming education in order to reach out to a different demographic, and we'll have to try out to see, so I wish this project all the best. Having said that: > The book will be hardcover, 8x8 inches and 32 pages. The activity book is 16 pages and paperback. I don't see how you could cover even just the basics mentioned on the Kickstarter page in so few pages without g…
How is it possible to teach even the basics of programming in 32 pages?
How would you explain a simple FOR loop to a child through a story?
My kids have an old 8-bit machine .. and they love the thing. They can type in their own BASIC programs from tons of sources, or load up a hundred games and other educational apps from a disk that I know won't contain anything weird or offensive .. on a machine with no access to the Internet. Its a wonderful thing, hearing a 6-year old tell his 4 year old brother how to make a sound eminate with just a few SOUND and PLAY commands ..
Recently Chicago announced that they are going to make Computer Science a core subject for students K-12. And now this children's book is announced. It's really an inspirational time for not only diversity, but general exposure of CS to the mainstream. But seriously, what an amazing idea! Good luck with Hello Ruby!
For the game, it was "for kids" (he meant his younger sister), it was a BORED game, and did he mention it wasn't for little kids?
I am curious as to the format, book or board game, being relevant in this day
She's certainly very good at marketing, but based on the video and Kickstarter page I wonder how educational the book will actually be. A couple of sample pages would be helpful.
The reasoning is simple: Alan Kay and others have repeatedly demonstrated kids have a far greater aptitude for this stuff than is generally accepted. The packaging in this manner isn't the problem, the problem is the programming environments around today don't tend to do anything the kids are interested in without overcoming significant hurdles. i.e. unless you can do graphics easily forget it.
Back when I grew up in the 80s every 8 year old had to do Logo at school, partly to teach maths, partly to teach programming constructs. This was the part of the week almost everyone liked most. Make pictures, do maths, play with robots - what's not to love?
So, hope that theory is wrong, but it sets off too many alarms for now.
I think it could be a great way of repackaging programming education in order to reach out to a different demographic, and we'll have to try out to see, so I wish this project all the best. Having said that: > The book will be hardcover, 8x8 inches and 32 pages. The activity book is 16 pages and paperback. I don't see how you could cover even just the basics mentioned on the Kickstarter page in so few pages without g…
I like and support the intent, but I feel the execution will be a let down in terms of usability. How is it possible to teach even the basics of programming in 32 pages? How would you explain a simple FOR loop to a child through a story?