Tony, I think Scratch has pretty much all of the stuff you mentioned there, and doesn't require dealing with, "why do I put a semi-colon there?" questions.
Computer Science Canada A way to get kids interested in programming, perhaps |
| Author: | wtd [ Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | A way to get kids interested in programming, perhaps |
http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/llk/scratch/index.html |
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| Author: | md [ Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:14 pm ] |
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Looks cool, I can see it apealing to younger kids but after a little while I think it would get boring and they would either move to a more powerful language (good), or leave it for something else (probable). I do think it would get those who don't know about it interested though. |
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| Author: | Martin [ Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:12 pm ] |
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I think Flash is a great way to get kids into programming. Hella-expensive though, unless you get university discounts. |
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| Author: | bugzpodder [ Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:30 pm ] |
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how about logo |
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| Author: | MysticVegeta [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:46 am ] |
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bugzpodder wrote: how about logo
Thats how I started to program. I remember the teacher teaching us logo/turtle movements in grade 2&3 (not in canada) Then I was interested in programming, so my dad taught me BASIC about 4 years later lol. Then I learned Turing in grade 9 and still in process of learning Java/C++ but it all started with logo. As for flash, I wouldnt agree becasue it deals with actionscripts which is Java mostly and it could be confusing and if the subject is jsut animation, its not much of a programming. |
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| Author: | Tony [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:21 am ] |
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Martin might be on to something there... Personally I feel that kids need to see some visual result of their work as soon as possible to get hooked in. When I was first taught Turing, my teacher started off with drawline and drawbox commands... seemed kind of silly at first, but when we got to for-loops the objective was "use a loop to move your drawing across the screen" rather than "display a list of numbers". Clearly a student who's starting out would be much more interested in seeing the former. I was. With Flash you can draw detailed pictures right away. Animate them even. Introduction of the ActionScript is a tricky part, though when taught as a tool to extend the animation, it should certanly appeal to consept one would be more interested in -- seeing visual results. The basics are as simple as Movie.Play; and all of the syntax is listed on the side by categories.. one could just scroll down to find a command that makes sence. |
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| Author: | wtd [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:29 pm ] |
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MysticVegeta wrote: As for flash, I wouldnt agree becasue it deals with actionscripts which is Java mostly and it could be confusing and if the subject is jsut animation, its not much of a programming.
Actionscript is ECMAScript, which is another name for Javascript. Java != Javascript. |
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| Author: | wtd [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:34 pm ] |
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Tony, I think Scratch has pretty much all of the stuff you mentioned there, and doesn't require dealing with, "why do I put a semi-colon there?" questions. |
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| Author: | MysticVegeta [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:32 pm ] |
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wtd wrote: MysticVegeta wrote: As for flash, I wouldnt agree becasue it deals with actionscripts which is Java mostly and it could be confusing and if the subject is jsut animation, its not much of a programming.
Actionscript is ECMAScript, which is another name for Javascript. Java != Javascript. Isnt there a lot of resemblace between them though? |
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| Author: | codemage [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:45 pm ] |
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I started with logo too (and then basic). The 'visualness' makes the structures of repetition really obvious. I try to do a lot of graphics stuff when I teach. You can bait the kids to learn a lot of the drier theory and features of a language by sprinkling it with graphics - and it makes it far less boring to evaluate. |
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| Author: | wtd [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:07 pm ] |
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MysticVegeta wrote: wtd wrote: MysticVegeta wrote: As for flash, I wouldnt agree becasue it deals with actionscripts which is Java mostly and it could be confusing and if the subject is jsut animation, its not much of a programming.
Actionscript is ECMAScript, which is another name for Javascript. Java != Javascript. Isnt there a lot of resemblace between them though? Not really, no. |
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