I'm really interested in your high school experience. Did you mostly work solo, or was there a lot of interaction with other kids? Informal tutoring, collaborating on hard problems, etc.
Actually testing this next week with a summer camp where we bought a bunch of cool, fun toys and the kids can play all day once they get their work done (x% mastered on Khan Academy, y pages read, z words written). I'm making all this up - no academic background.
"maybe makes math practice more palatable which would definitely improve math scores" - I have this thought experiment where you drop off ipads in inner city Detroit. They are loaded with games, but the only way to unlock the games is to solve a certain number of math problems each day. My theory is that test scores far surpass the public schools.
Great question, great comments. Consensus seems to be that computers are tools and can be helpful if the learning model is right. Specifically, computers can allow for mastery (see Sal Khan on TED) and personalization (see Silicon Valley schools). I think the follow up question is: will the current system evolve to a 21st-century model, where computers can be effectively utilized?
Ease of measurement is the best explanation, some people like John Gatto suggest a deliberate attempt to prevent mastery (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017ODVVGM). Either way, it's time for a change.
This thread is amazing. I started a company with the goal of helping kids learn to code, so I peed a little when I saw that the HN crowd was giving me ideas.
Here are the main things I have figured out (3.5 years, ~6,000 kids in 8 states):
- It has to be fun. Lots of people have said this already, but I have tried and failed starting with academic rigor. Hello world was a psychological payoff in the past, but for this generation it's more like a multiplayer video game (easy on scratch) or fake hacking a news website (people have said this above)
- It has to be social. Anyone can get online and teach themselves, but most people won't. We hold weekly meetings at public libraries where the librarians facilitate (they don't know how to code) and the kids teach themselves. Someone mentioned Sugata Mitra +1.
- It has to be inspiring. I try to help the kids feel part of a movement, like for example getting the governor to talk at a hackathon, and hand out expensive prizes. But not all kids care about that stuff, and the goal is to figure out what they care about and show them how coding can help. Art, business, sports, etc.
To the original post - I know a lot of inner city, rural and tribal libraries that would LOVE to have a shot at those donated laptops.
I run a nonprofit in Arizona where we introduce 8-13 year olds to coding at 10 libraries and other locations. We start the young ones with code.org for a "quick win" and most of them dig into scratch with relish by the second week. I agree with the original post about seeing the creativity unleashed. It's amazing.
After scratch we have seen some of the kids get excited about js mostly through the khan academy resources (have you tried it)? Also code combat has been a recent favorite.
Our older and more advanced coders are ok with codecademy.
Also we have some that really want to get their work out to the world, so after a while on scratch they teach themselves html and css.
We are very particular about not lecturing, not forcing a learning approach, just facilitating as different learning styles find their way.
Also if anyone is interested we are giving away our "code club kit" including resources for starting a code club. It has been the most rewarding part of my career. Just let me know and I'll send it in email.
That's a good point - an example of narrow thinking on my part (measuring free in terms of dollars). I'm going to do some research - maybe there are pages out there where people have done this better...
Thanks for the words - certainly helps me feel less overwhelmed by all the tools and options out there.
I guess what I am picturing (and can't figure out why it doesn't exist yet) is a cross between github and the real-time editor on sites like codecademy. Basically I want to edit my html/css/js, see what the output looks like, and then push to the server with a click so it's a live app. Is there anything out there I should know about?
Wow these are all great resources! Thank you. My club is in the Phoenix AZ suburbs, but thank goodness for webcam. I've patched in colleagues from my company (in MA) before. Of course the kids all wanted to know what video games they have made, and how much money programmers get paid :)
"So if we want to get more girls to become programmers, we should give them more examples. Ideally in person..."
I am volunteering with a local "Code Club" to teach programming to 8-14 year olds. We have just tried to be open and gender neutral, ending up with between 10-25% female depending on the week. Purely subjective opinion, but Jessica Yuen from the Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/other-featu...) tutorials has been a huge example for these children (boys and girls).
I'd love to profile more examples in our code club sessions. Does anyone know of a central source for people willing to volunteer as "examples" for young computer scientists? If not, maybe we can start a google doc or something?