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Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

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Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#41

Post by 1angryhacker »

MartinCron wrote: post #34
1angryhacker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then why is the top comment banging on about solving problems for equality.

Because roughly 50% of children are girls, while less than 50% of programmers are. I just backed this to give to my son and my daughter.

...so if it's targeted at children, 50% of children will take it up, thus the ratio of male:female programmers will remain the same, there'll just be more of them.

The book is aimed at girls. It would be nice to think that children were not conditioned by gender stereotypes at the age of 6/7, but unfortunately they are.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#42

Post by supersystem »

throwawaycoder wrote: post #35
supersystem wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also this is a good example of why we should have diversity in the first place.

Because men would never have thought of creating a programming book for kids? http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aprog... Or maybe because men can't draw as well as women? Edit: probably I'll get downvoted for this so I'll just add that I think it's good this book is being made. Can't hurt to try different things to get kids interested. Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary.

"Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary."

I said nothing about gender nor did I intend to, that was your assumption.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#43

Post by bloat »

fidotron wrote: post #19

Cynic hat on . . . I'm not sure I get this. Looks like an effort to promote an illustrator more than actually achieve the stated aims. 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…

Many people, myself included, cut their teeth on machines where graphics were far from easy. Most of my early programs on the VIC20 and C64 were text adventures, and occasionaly I'd get into some games where the graphics were as exciting as moving asterisks.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#45

Post by MartinCron »

1angryhacker wrote: post #41
MartinCron wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because roughly 50% of children are girls, while less than 50% of programmers are. I just backed this to give to my son and my daughter.

...so if it's targeted at children, 50% of children will take it up, thus the ratio of male:female programmers will remain the same, there'll just be more of them. The book is aimed at girls. It would be nice to think that children were not conditioned by gender stereotypes at the age of 6/7, but unfortunately they are.

The current gender ratio is the result of decades of gender stereotyping that things like math and science and programming were "for boys".

I'm going to believe the author when she says that this is for children. I just don't buy the idea that boys can't enjoy stories with female leads. Look at Brave or The Hunger Games. My son loves those.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#46

Post by MartinCron »

fit2rule wrote: post #16

Want to know how to teach kids to use computers? Give them an 8-bit machine from the 80's, and all the books for the thing that you can find. 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 t…

I've been thinking about the doing the exact same thing but have been afraid that the kids would ignore it and go back to playing Minecraft.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#47

Post by shangxiao »

supersystem wrote: post #42
throwawaycoder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because men would never have thought of creating a programming book for kids? http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aprog... Or maybe because men can't draw as well as women? Edit: probably I'll get downvoted for this so I'll just add that I think it's good this book is being made. Can't hurt to try different things to get kids interested. Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary.

"Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary." I said nothing about gender nor did I intend to, that was your assumption.

You implied it though

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#48

Post by MartinCron »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #25
brador wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

..... Forgetful George was crying in the corner. "What's wrong?" quizzed Ivy Iterator. "It's too complicated" moaned George, he continued: "Mr Main has asked me to deliver all of these invites to the birthday party but I keep forgetting which people I've given invitations to. I gave Sam three invites and Polly hasn't got one yet, it's no use! I can't remember which invite is which!" "Don't worry" said Ivy, "lets work…

It's like, "Design Patterns Personified!"

Sign me up to buy two copies when you do your kickstarter.

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#49

Post by shangxiao »

MartinCron wrote: post #18
mratzloff wrote: post #2

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.

Did you mean that as a backhanded compliment?

Insecure troll?

Re: Linda Liukas' Programming book for Children has Huge First Day on Kickstarter

#50

Post by tawhaki »

MartinCron wrote: post #46
fit2rule wrote: post #16

Want to know how to teach kids to use computers? Give them an 8-bit machine from the 80's, and all the books for the thing that you can find. 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 t…

I've been thinking about the doing the exact same thing but have been afraid that the kids would ignore it and go back to playing Minecraft.

How about introducing them to ComputerCraft (http://www.computercraft.info/)?

If they already like Minecraft, they'll probably have a blast with it, and learn programming at the same time.

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