On the idea of teaching programming basics in a fun way, have you looked at http://www.spacechemthegame.com/education
Also see http://zachtronicsindustries.com/Spa...0Educators.pdf for the PDF in depth education view.
It teaches some basic and also rather advanced fundamentals in a very novel way.
Regards,
Ian.
Tossed together a website for the project.
http://www.gumberoo.org
I also now own the .com and have it set up as a redirect.
yes, it's very gaudy... are the fonts too big?
The accessibility of a website from time to time must be refreshed with the blood of designers and owners. It is its natural manure
I wouldn't say so deathshadow. It immediately said 'Kiddie Fun' to me when I looked at it.Originally Posted by deathshadow
I would use the words Bright & Lively, not the word Gaudy in describing it :-)
When I've worked for an outsourced project using VB script in Lotus Notes, I promised myself never to return on that path again.
Even original Starcraft's scripts (if you ever used its Map editor) had script facilities that were based on conditions and were edited pseudo-visually.
Seriously, in these technological days when many kids have access to PC and popular tools like Microsoft Office, Open Office and LibreOffice, among many other visual-driven software, when did you see a kid hacking with low-level instruction-level code in Notepad? It is not only difficult to read and understand, but also requires significant effort to achieve anything but basic functionality.
I really applaud the effort to help with kids education, but when making a programming tool for kids, I'd suggest using more visual and high level diagram approach, perhaps something based on top of UML, instead of assembly-like instruction driven language. Something where you take visual elements, put them together to create a working module, similar to how in LEGO you can construct objects, machines and even electronic/mechanical parts. For example, this video was posted somewhere here on PGD; something analogical to this example could be made for programming too.
When I first met computers barely out of School / 2 years National Service it was a Sinclair ZX81. I played with it for 2 or 3 days learning Basic in the process. And then I had the fortune to run into an older programmer who gave me excellent advice. Stop learning any high level language and learn to program Z80 Assembler and if I did that I would, he told me, really understand how a computer worked. After that he said, I would find any computer language easy to learn, easy to understand, easy to recognise it's strengths and weaknesses, and easy to milk every ounce of performance out it.
He was right.
I have employed many programmers from all avenues, some while still studying, some from Technical Colleges, some from Universities. All able (in varying degrees naturally) in particular languages of study. But the rarity of finding that occasional programmer who understood hardware, understood memory, understood optimisation and knew and leveraged the strengths of a few computer languages. Without exception, that programmer had learned Assembler.
As a result I think yes, there is a place for the clickey visual drag and drop abstractioned educational system for budding programmers. They may well one day progress to the dizzy heights of Microsoft Access programmers. They will never become a Nicklaus Wirth, a Dennis Ritchie, a Ken Thompson, a Brian Kernighan, a Linux Torvalds or a John Carmack. You get the drift :-)
Let them get down and dirty with the assembly-like instruction driven language right at the start, and I believe you will give them a solid foundation to build on. (PS: And the interactive mode ability promotes learning iterative experimentation - a major plus in my mind)
Quote from the original post: So... good idea, crazy idea, who cares? Any ideas/suggestions welcome... well -- apart from "oh just write a book about python" or "why don't you make a UML implementation", in which case bugger off!
I'm going to agree with igmac. Learning any form of machine code before you learn any other form of programming gives you an understanding that many programmers lack. It shows you the 'why' of higher level languages with which the 'how' becomes far easier.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie - that's an extinction level impact event.
Computer science is something hard to understand without the right fundation. Indeed, you need to go from the basics. But, what are the basics? Someone can argue that you need to understand data flow, others can say you need to know about data structures, maybe some logic too.
Just having another programming language is not enough, if you ask me. We already have many, start with our beloved Pascal, it was conceived as a learning language. Then you can put Logo, Lisp, or even Basic on the list.
ASM is powerfull, but not good for someone who wants to learn the basics. Neither C is an option if you are learning.
From my experience, I can tell that younger programmers avoid anything that seems extremely complicated. They like easier things, like visual programming. Unfortunately many of them learn popular and easy languages, business oriented. At least, this is the common way here in my country. New programmers learn Visual Basic or VB.NET and some SQL.
What I found disturbing, is the lack of hacking (in the good sense of wanting to know more and experimenting new stuff). They see computers as a black boxes with an OS where you double click an icon and start a program. There's nothing under the OS hood, that motivated the need for understanding, to pursuit the never ending quest for knowledge. They are something we can call key strokers, dumb as rocks, repeating the same patterns they learn, without knowing or understanding why it works or not. They barely know about algorithms and see them as arcane formulaes, wrote by some obscure wizard, who's name is lost in the night of times.
In my opinion, if you want to start something great like teaching good foundations for new programmers, bring them that motivation in the first place, inspire them. Then teach them some "magic" about programming science, also teach them to set reachable goals and teamwork.
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