Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids • Hacker News Board

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#11

Post by charleshaanel » Wed, Oct 24, 2012, 7:41 PM UTC

aaronharnly wrote: post #5

Neat! I donated. This semester I've been volunteering to teach middle-school students how to "program a game!" with the very wonderful Citizen Schools program[1]. We've been developing a curriculum that takes elements from the Bootstrap curriculum[2], using the Khan Academy CS environment[3]. (Yes, we've been following the back-and-forth with Bret Victor carefully.) It's been challenging, but very rewarding, and I ho…

Mad props for your work...

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#12

Post by wetbrain » Wed, Oct 24, 2012, 8:18 PM UTC

Anything like this in SF/Bay? I feel like there should be...

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#13

Post by bjhoops1 » Wed, Oct 24, 2012, 8:30 PM UTC

gloryless wrote: post #9

I misread the title as teaching CS to "Undeserving Kids." I thought, that's a little strange, but I wanna see how these little shits are getting some CS knowledge. But, the real idea is a good one.

Haha I read the exact same thing. Damn kids... don't deserve to learn recursion.

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#14

Post by EricDeb » Wed, Oct 24, 2012, 10:14 PM UTC

One thing that does concern me about these types of programs is trying to teach kids who are too young, inadvertently causing them to conclude "programming is too hard" and give up. I consider myself of average intelligence and I struggled with programming in high school. It was only because of my obstinate nature and love of computers in general that I kept pursuing it in college.