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Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

orangethirty.blogspot.com

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Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#71

Post by orangethirty »

cygwin98 wrote: post #6

I respect the efforts the author put in to teach kids how to program. That being said, I really don't think HTML/Javascript is the right choice for kids. The web stack is even considered messy from professional web programers' perspective. My son will turn seven soon. I did some research on programming languages/kits for kids around that age. I finally settled down on Robomind, which is more or less of a modern varia…

I started, alone, with a C64. Oh, and I didn't read English. I could only read the code in the manuals and type it in to see how it worked. Trust me, HTML/JS is ten times easier than that. My take is that language is not as important as having a mentor. I did not have a mentor, and that made me waste a lot of time with the basics.

Its so great that you are involving your son with robotics. Really awesome. You should definitely keep working on that. In fact, keep me updated on how you guys progress along. My email is in my profile.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#72

Post by orangethirty »

biotech wrote: post #36

This is great. I'm working with a local elementary school teacher this fall to teach kids (9-10 year olds) programming. We plan to use Scratch as it gives immediate results and demonstrates many core programming concepts (variables, loops, conditionals, etc). If they take to it very quickly, we may try a real programming language. If anyone has experience teaching kids this age programming, or if you know of any reso…

I would absolutely love to be involved in a project like that one. Been wanting to develop one locally, and this might be the push I needed. Good luck with the project, and keep me update on how it progresses. My email is in my profile.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#74

Post by orangethirty »

_wdh wrote: post #20

That's a wonderful story. It's a real tragedy that most children don't have role models like this.

Thank you. Ever since the death of her father I've been trying to find a way to get her motivated about something. This seems to have been it.

I appreciate the kind words. Really do.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#75

Post by orangethirty »

Update

Thank all of you for the amazing response. My focus with the post was to get people motivated towards teaching children about science and technology. That has been my focus with her. We have had many fun projects, including a pressurized water bottle rocket, and a baking soda propelled boat.

She has agreed to ship her first software project. We will be working on it during the weekend. Expect an update in the coming days. Why do I want her to ship something so fast? Because I want her to design and build her own thing. This will allow her to see that she has the abilities and skills to change the world for the better. She also agreed to talk about her experiences with programming. Something that I'm sure will be of interest to all.

Thank you * infinity.

PS. Keep posted to my blog @ orangethirty.blogspot.com for our updates.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#76

Post by orangethirty »

anuraj wrote: post #47

Being an architect and developer for the last 14 years I should confess that I would not want my kids or anybody I love to choose software as a career. The job can become repetitive, alienate yourself from social circles and you may loose all zest for outdoors. It is a job that can work for people of certain temperament (which I believe I am one of), but rarely the best thing you can do in life. Having a great life i…

I want her to discover science and technology. If she becomes a programmer then thats her choice. But the focus is in expanding her horizons and showing her that she has undiscovered skills and abilities.

I personally dont find software repetitive, or even alienating. In fact, I just ran a national 5K race last Sunday. Had a lot of fun doing it.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#77

Post by Samuel_Michon »

xyzzyb wrote: post #37

"A normal person would have told her computers are for nerds, and not to waste her time with one." I doubt that would actually be the case these days.

Reading this story about a 10 year old who doesn't know what a computer is and what it can be used to do, I had to check the date of the article. To me, it doesn't seem like a plausible scenario in this day and age.

In 1986, my grade school classroom had 4 Acorn computers [0]. Each student could use the computers for one hour every day — to program in Basic, do word processing, and play educational games. It was an era when most people did not own personal computers, but even back then, they would at least know what computers were.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Electron

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#78

Post by vacri »

dkhenry wrote: post #50
arkitaip wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe we're expecting too much of the school system when it should be the responsibility of parents to teach their skills valuable skills. School isn't the solution to all our problems.

So as a parent why can't I demand a system I pay for to provide that kind of service to my children ? In the realm of computers its ok, I know computers, and can fill in , but what if my child takes an interest to chemistry ? As a society we can ( and should ) be able to provide the depth of education to our kids that they will be able to absorb.

You can: send your child to a private school. Or do it on the cheap, send to a government school, and get the mass produced education that's a poorer fit.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#79

Post by arctangent »

dkhenry wrote: post #3

I am continually amazed at the capabilities of kids. Their ability to understand whats presented to them is astounding. I really think one of the problems with the education system is we have this idea that everyone must progress in all areas at the same rate, and we stop teaching kids new things until they understand the set of things they "should" know for their age. In a structured school system she wouldn't be al…

> I am continually amazed at the capabilities of kids. Their ability to understand whats presented to them is astounding.

One thing that children have going for them when it comes to learning is that they've not done very much learning, i.e. they've yet to realise that certain kinds of things are "hard" to learn or that they "are no good" at a particular subject.

Children approach new things with a complete lack of intellectual fear, whereas older kids (and adults) have had years of experience of trying and failing to do things.

Older kids and adults also have to risk more intellectual credibility when learning something new. Once you're somewhat socially established it may not be rational to attempt to learn how to do something which may be beyond your capabilities - your friends may laugh and call you stupid.

Re: Teaching my 10 year old niece how to program.

#80

Post by malandrew »

vacri wrote: post #78
dkhenry wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So as a parent why can't I demand a system I pay for to provide that kind of service to my children ? In the realm of computers its ok, I know computers, and can fill in , but what if my child takes an interest to chemistry ? As a society we can ( and should ) be able to provide the depth of education to our kids that they will be able to absorb.

You can: send your child to a private school. Or do it on the cheap, send to a government school, and get the mass produced education that's a poorer fit.

I think that there are plenty of options that have yet to be explored in education.

I'm honestly not surprised that there have not been groups of parents with children around the same age getting together to "time-share" teaching their collective group of kids skills according to their abilities as adults. It's a very different experience to learn something from somebody with a passion for subject X than someone who is paid to teach subject X. Were I a parent, I would rather find 5-10 other talented/smart/skilled parents that each have unique passions and share in the effort of teaching my kid and theirs whatever it is that is in my ability to share.

The good teachers in school are those that are passionate enough that you as a student forget that they are being paid to be there and impart knowledge upon you.

TBH, the closest thing we have to such an arrangement today is Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. It would be great if a similar program arrangement occupied 6-8 hours of a kids day.

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