I've been enjoying my UU hobby so much, I've gone ahead and decided to try taking on another hobby: studying computer programming. (Just studying, so far, not much actual doing. My schedule doesn't seem to have any free computer time in it, but it does have moments, as I chauffeur Paikea around, when I can read a few pages of a book.) I've read half of Python for Kids (not impressed), and started Eloquent Javascript (pretty cool), and Coders at Work (way over my head, but interesting). Many thanks to the Google Blockly team (especially Ellen S.), to the Au Coquelet BiFriendly crew, to the Hour of Code campaign, and to my 9yo daughter, for the encouragement and inspiration.
Teens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet in November, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, “but that doesn’t really make you fluent.”
Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to codeFluency, Resnick proposes in today’s talk, comes not through interacting with new technologies, but through creating them. The former is like reading, while the latter is like writing. He means this figuratively — that creating new technologies, like writing a book, requires creative expression — but also literally: to make new computer programs, you actually must write the code.
Hi N & C,I don't know what the right format for a computer programming learning club is.
But, lacking a format, here are my notes to date:My first question was, what language? What skills? What context?E happened to send this link a few days later:Among other things, their curriculum looks like as good a recommendation for "what to learn" as any.E also mentioned (not as endorsement, just awareness):I've been reading _Python for Kids_ and have not found it to be excellent. I'm about half way through, and might or might not finish. I have learned some vocabulary though.
I am now starting _Coders at Work_ and _Eloquent Javascript_, both library books, although the second one is also avail free online.P made me play CargoBot on her iPad, and that one seemed closer to excellent.
Other highly-recommended entry points have been:http://code.org/learn - The famous "Hour of Code" placeBut my screen time and finances are limited, so for now any learning I do is in paper library books, read in little scraps while chaffeuring P around.That's my update...
