|
I have a neighbor kid who is 11 years old and mildly autistic. He's smart as hell and very interested in computers and phones so I would really like to push him to get into coding. He's been asking me to buy my iPhone 5 since I've upgraded to an iPhone 6 and I want to just offer it to him but incentivize it by asking him to write some basic programs. I know there is Code Academy, and I'm sure there are some other similar beginner-coding resources out there but I was hoping to find out if there are any programs that are specifically built with kids in mind? Thanks in advance for any recommendations.
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 21:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 13:03 |
|
|
Not a resource, but read this, it's very good: http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ Edit: Scratch is for kids. It's built in Smalltalk, which is supposed to be for everyone, and the two people I know who learned Smalltalk did so as kids and love it deeply, so v0v Bit higher up: Racket's great for learning, and the Gregor Kiczales course lectures etc should be accessible through Coursera (he's a good teacher, maybe a kid could cope with that). Why's Poignant Guide is good, the Ruby beginner stuff on CodeAcademy is taken from that. RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Nov 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 16:56
|
|
|
Processing.js is a pretty accessible learning environment. Khan Academy is using it for their intro to programming stuff (also a good resource).
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 21:19
|
|
|
Before going onto a real usable language, perhaps something that would just teach the concepts of object oriented programming visually would be good. Karel++ is really good with that, at least with me. I'm not sure how popular it is these days though. You control a robot on a grid with code to complete some kind of task.   http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/karel.html#simulators e: I know those screen shots are really ancient, but I'm sure there's something out there that would run on a modern system or browser.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2014 18:20
|
|
|
I've been looking for something similar for my friend's kid. He's got a real bug up his rear end to make a video game and seemed interested even after I explained/showed him the reality of it. I've seen a Learning Java with Minecraft software package that looked interesting, but maybe I should start with something else. Karel++ does look interesting. Does anyone else have recommendations that could skew toward an interactive game or a learning program specific to the context of games?
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2015 11:43
|
|
|
I organize reviews for a publisher of IT literature. Most of our readers and reviewers are professional developers so when we start working on a book for kids and beginners, we often lack reviewers of that profile. If there's anyone like that reading the thread who would be interested in reviewing a book in the making, let me know. We are currently preparing kid/beginner books on iOS Programming, JavaScript, and Raspberry Pi with Python. PM or ozha at manning dot com
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2015 10:37
|
|
|
LP0 ON FIRE posted:Before going onto a real usable language, perhaps something that would just teach the concepts of object oriented programming visually would be good. Karel++ is really good with that, at least with me. I'm not sure how popular it is these days though. You control a robot on a grid with code to complete some kind of task. This is how my AP Computer Science teacher started us off in the first 2 weeks of class, and I think it really helped a lot. It's probably the perfect way to teach younger kids, too.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2015 21:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 13:03 |
|
|
You might look into Racket as the language and How to Design Programs to go with it. Racket is a variant of Scheme Lisp, and HtDP is written for Scheme, so it mostly works. DrRacket is a nice tool to get instant feedback on running things, and Racket has tutorials on the website as well. HtDP is written for perhaps a higher reading level (depending on how he reads), but you might look into it. I did not learn it when I was that age (I muddled through QBasic back then) but I've read good things about learning Lisp around that age from others.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2015 01:27
|
|
