Teaching Kids Code
Fred Wilson points to a piece in The Times about teaching kids computer science.
The article doesn’t necessarily point out anything we don’t know, though I found this nugget interesting: “Not enough young people are embracing computing — often because they are leery of being branded nerds.” (There is no evidence to support that fact in the article.)
As I’ve mentioned in the past, this is something I believe in wholeheartedly. I think you can start with really little kids and make it fun (as the article points out, it’s important to give them the feeling of “magic” you get when you make a computer do what you told it). What’s more, I think it’s really important that the teaching of code be approached from the creative side: Introductory courses should be part of the art department, not science. This is about letting kids build what they dream of and code should be treated no differently than paint and crayons (of course it takes a bit more time to get the hang of than those other things).
Bottom line is stop focusing instruction on the code and start focusing on the output of that code. Let kids make stuff and they’ll be hooked.
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Noah, I agree with you – I’m not sure that kids are being labeled nerds, or are even concerned with it. Giving kids access to the underlying technology and teaching them the cool stuff that they can make – right now, using APIs, whatever is enough to get the truly interested hooked. With the decreasing cost of technology start-ups, we may be doing far more than interesting them in the “middle class” opportunities that await them, and planting the seeds of the next big tech wave.
Yes!!! I wholeheartedly agree with this, Noah.
I think this statement is very powerful: “I think it’s really important that the teaching of code be approached from the creative side: Introductory courses should be part of the art department, not science.”
I think science is intimidating for most and to the article’s point, the perception is that it’s “nerdy.” This is not far off from many other facets of technology that hit the mainstream and are covered by media.
Take twitter for example – too often I hear (from people who have never tried or played with Twitter) that it’s stupid because people only talk about eating, sleeping, etc. This frustrates me but at the same time it demonstrates two things: 1. the media still influences what a lot of people think and 2. people will claim they don’t like something even though they’ve never tried it because they don’t get it, it isn’t “cool.” It wasn’t until Ashton and other celebs joined Twitter that the mainstream audience started playing.
I feel like it’s similar for programming. It seems hard (so it’s intimidating) and the perception is nerdy. Teaching code hasn’t yet become “cool” but I think your concept of instead focusing on the output of that code (making stuff) is exactly the direction we need to take…
(this really struck a chord with me so thanks!)
I think you have a link on delicious about teaching middle schoolers to program being on the right track…
Speaking as someone who learned how to program at age 12, that is completely the right idea. Almost everyone I know who is any good at all started tinkering – making stuff to show off – before high school. That may just be because we all had QBASIC or C-64 BASIC or whatever and it was accessible…
This is certainly a problem. About 20% of the students i teach at the college level learned programing in high school. And I agree that it should be approached from the creative side (that’s what i teach) but the whole thrust of that article betrays what i take to be a deeper problem in how we think about education, one that prevents the learn-to-create-with-code approach: the idea that the primary goal of education is to create workers; Not citizens, not thinkers or makers. Perhaps it is some remnants of the cult of the genius, or that we have some terribly low self-image that we don’t think education can do anything to create brilliant minds, that you gotta be born with it. So sad, and such a disservice to our kids and our future.
Also, none of my students mention being a geek when learning to code, if anything they’re jealous of their peers who can make crazy stuff because of their background.
Have to agree with Chandler re the deeper problem with eduction being a resistance to thinking/creating at a fundamental level! Unfortunately, these are the remnants of the old factory model which essentially said only 20% of students will be managers and/or decision-makers and the rest need to be prepared for working on the assembly line. As we’ve often discussed, the problem is that this self-perpetuates because old teachers teach new teachers and many, many parents essentially tell their kids, ‘I survived school and you will too.’ Not enough revolution happening, especially in the big city schools where the most help is needed!
As we’ve also discussed, it may be better to focus this on elementary schools, because elementary teachers tend to be more holistic in orientation and more receptive to the multi-disciplinary potential in teaching kids to make stuff online. Budget shortages will also mean that specialty teachers will be in short supply, whereas you always have to have elementary grade level teachers.
One of the secrets to getting this mainstreamed is to tie it to literacy, which is where all the big grant money is. And when you think about it, isn’t programming a key part of 21st C. literacy?
I completely agree. I remember the simplest program where you programmed a Turtle to follow the course you wanted on a screen and this made coding seem like a game.
Lego has been an innovator in this idea via many of the bionic products. As a classic Lego fan this would have been amazing to me as a kid. I had some very simple programmable Legos, but the brain in the new systems is incredible.
Just using the turtle program gave me a simple base and appreciation for coding and this has allowed me to pick up HTML basics a whole lot easier than if I had no clue.
Perhaps there is a larger educational market for these types of systems than companies are taking advantage of. Turtles to Legos in the early years and then games or websites in the jr high – high school years. In today’s time it has to be nearly as important as a foreign language requirement.
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