Re:Interview by a 15 Year Old
by davidgerard on Sunday November 08, 2015 @09:40AM
(#10528578)
I think it's really important that kids learn the concept of programmability: that all of this is just instructions. This is not a widely-known thing!
In the UK, all children are now expected to learn coding in school. What this actually means is putting 7-8 year olds in front of Scratch. AND IT WORKS REALLY WELL.
There's been a zillion simplified languages intended to get kids coding, but Scratch appears to be the one that works.
She's one of the academically-bright ones, but I asked her teacher about it and he said the average ones and the academically-bad ones also like Scratch. So it's doing job number 1 right: get the kid actually interested.
In the UK, all children are now expected to learn coding in school. What this actually means is putting 7-8 year olds in front of Scratch. AND IT WORKS REALLY WELL.
Writeup of my daughter's experience: http://reddragdiva.tumblr.com/post/127964136013/it-turns-out...
There's been a zillion simplified languages intended to get kids coding, but Scratch appears to be the one that works.
She's one of the academically-bright ones, but I asked her teacher about it and he said the average ones and the academically-bad ones also like Scratch. So it's doing job number 1 right: get the kid actually interested.