Year of code

[minestrone]

I never saw what scratch was for. You add a cat to the screen and make it go meeoww 10 times. Not exactly enthralling for a kid with an XBox360.

DirtyDog's kids don't have xbox 360s, they play draughts until 7 and then get locked in their bedrooms.

[NotAllThere]

http://www.yearofcode.org/index.html works a bit better.

[d000hg]

DirtyDog's kids don't have xbox 360s, they play draughts until 7 and then get locked in their bedrooms.

Sounds better than letting them sit fixed-eyed in front of the 360 for hours.

[NickFitz]

I never saw what scratch was for. You add a cat to the screen and make it go meeoww 10 times. Not exactly enthralling for a kid with an XBox360.

It's the fact that one's made it happen oneself, rather than passively consuming somebody else's achievement. That's why kids do their own paintings and build stuff out of Lego, rather than just cutting pictures out of magazines and buying ready-assembled models.

Anyway, cats? They're lucky to have cats on the screen. When I was a game dev, we just had grey boxes moving around most of the time, pending our overworked and underpaid artist finding time to sort out the real sprites

[administrator]

I think I disagree with admin on this one. Not that it's easy to teach coding, but that this isn't the point.

I was never taught to code, I was interested and learned on my own as a direct result of being exposed to it by my father... who was by no means a professional programmer but an electrics guy who had had to learn when computers entered his industry. He only knew BASIC but could write little programs and that got me interested.

If teachers know enough to get kids playing and interested, that would be plenty. A generation of kids who learn for fun, the same way kids used to when they had to type in games code from a magazine, or when kids used to muck about with electrical circuits, is all we need. They don't need to be taught, just inspired... nearly all our professional athletes were initially taught by fairly average PE teachers and/or parents.

Yes but your Dad obviously had an interest and his enthusiasm and knowledge was passed on to you to create that interest. A teacher who is stuffed to the gills with too much to do already is less likely to pass on that enthusiasm.

[darmstadt]

KUATB

[suityou01]

KUATB

No, that link belongs in the threads with zero replies thread

(The one that Doogie spoiled by replying to )

[DaveB]

http://www.yearofcode.org/index.html works a bit better.

Reminds me of this

What is Clocks? with Philomena Cunk.

[doodab]

How many primary schools have a woodwork space that can be used by the whole class?

6 year olds running amok with lathes, drills, chisels, planes and saws might create a few health and safety issues as well...

[administrator]

What is clocks?

What a cunk!