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I could see doing this with my kid, and I like the format (except for the LinkedIn thing, of course), but it's not nearly complete enough. It's a few basic ste

I could see doing this with my kid, and I like the format (except for the LinkedIn thing, of course), but it's not nearly complete enough. It's a few basic steps, and then I run out. But I like that it's step-by-step, and things we could actually do. It doesn't have black holes. And it's quick. It's not a 500 page devops manual. And it's rapid return. You do it, and you see something happen. All of that is nice. Now, if it did servos, got to audio, and things like that, it'd be the next big step.

searchableguy 6y ago
> But I like that it's step-by-step, and things we could actually do. It doesn't have black holes. > And it's quick. It's not a 500 page devops manual. > And it's rapid return. You do it, and you see something happen. Scrimba is exactly that. Could you elaborate more on what parents and teachers lack or need to teach their kids coding? I am curious. Might compile a guide.
- joshvm 6y ago
  In my experience it's rarely a problem with the material itself. Motivated or engaged kids will quickly outpace "kids" material anyway, and will move onto conventional resources. Right now cheap resources available to educators are ridiculously accessible. Though remember that the cost of kitting out a classroom with hardware adds up really fast. The challenge is getting kids engaged enough that they start experimenting by themselves. Also the same for older kids and adults. People will nod and smile, do all the exercises and then never touch the resources again. I've been doing outreach for a decade or so, this is totally common with students of all ages. That said, for programming you need material that promotes very quick and visual or physical feedback loops. You also need projects that are fun and achievable, but also can be extended. Also be aware of how long something will take a total beginner to do. When I'm designing projects for summer schools (16-24), I generally assume that if I can do it in a day from scratch, it'll take them a couple of weeks if they have no experience. Take that with a pinch of salt, but I've found it's pretty accurate.
  - woofie11 6y ago
    Try KA JavaScript. It's very clear, step-by-step, in-depth tutorials, around fun topics, followed by an open-ended coding environment. It seems almost ideally designed for kids.
- woofie11 6y ago
  Scrimba is $19/month, and aimed at adults. From the front page, you build boring stuff, and it's not clear where to go. Quality is mixed For general coding for kids, there's a bunch of really excellent things: * Khan Academy JavaScript is fantastic. You learn JavaScript building interesting things, learning both deep and shallow concepts. * code.org tends to be an hour long, but that hour is beautifully scripted. It doesn't go far, but is really nice for getting started. Scratch, Blockly Games, Open Processing, and a bunch of others do a nice job picking up from there. Where there is a gap is on tying code to hardware, which this starts to close. What I liked about this is you start with something physical. This isn't just coding. It's coding+electronics. It's surprisingly hard to find good stuff for RPi, Arduino, or similar. There are: * Great robotics platforms, without software support or tutorials * Decent software, where there is a game of making it work with pick-your-own-hardware. * Decent tutorials, bogged down by lousy platforms, no integrated way to get the stuff you need, etc. * Etc. There isn't anything clear, integrated, and coherent like the ones above (KA/Scratch/etc.) that I know of. If someone were to take a: * best-of-breed cheap kid-friendly robotics platform * integrate it with arduino or rpi * integrate it with JavaScript or Python And have a 5-minutes-to-get-started thing, and from there, ways to go deep, it'd be a pretty big hit. No organization seems to do all three pieces well: * Hardware * Software * Pedagogy Perhaps since they're such different skills, or perhaps because it's too big a task.
  - searchableguy 6y ago
    Thanks for the comment. > Scrimba is $19/month, and aimed at adults. From the front page, you build boring stuff, and it's not clear where to go. Quality is mixed I linked the python course in the original comment but mostly recommend scrimba for building learning material for kids because you can mess with the code and run it inside the video directly. It's free for that. Have you tried using something from the magpie, sparkfun and other kit suppliers? Any elaboration on the specific product would be helpful. I want to know what kind of kits aren't available or upto the mark. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/programming-an-fpga https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/programming-an-fpga https://learn.sparkfun.com/ https://learn.sparkfun.com/ But I totally understand the current market could be better. I have spent a good chunk of time finding parts for raspberry Pi although the projects were a bit more complex and budget constrained. I got them from various Chinese market places and had to read up a bit.
DanBC 6y ago
The BBC Micro:bit is already super kid friendly, and can do servos and audio. You can program it using their own scratch-like language "MakeCode", or you can use python. They have a web-based editor for both. And that web based thing also includes an emulated board, so you can try it even if you don't own a board. https://microbit.org/ https://microbit.org/ You can also buy kits that come with a load of sensors and nicely printed manuals, colour coded interface pcbs, and sensors with keyways so you can't get the connection wrong. They also include some extra "blocks" for the scratch-like language so you can really easily use them. Those are a bit pricey. Here's one example for £40 (which weirdly doesn't include the BBC Micro:Bit itself). https://coolcomponents.co.uk/products/smart-home-kit-for-bbc-micro-bit-micro-bit-not-included?variant=13659302068285&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb8Cz06kJZjLqGXyBLY5Ssta-5sS-u20_6cGJQaOiIUDs8Hm11VvijBoC9EQQAvD_BwE https://coolcomponents.co.uk/products/smart-home-kit-for-bbc... You don't need to spend anywhere near that much though. You can buy a micro:bit and then get a kit of transducers from Aliexpress.

searchableguy 6y ago

> But I like that it's step-by-step, and things we could actually do. It doesn't have black holes. > And it's quick. It's not a 500 page devops manual. > And it's rapid return. You do it, and you see something happen. Scrimba is exactly that. Could you elaborate more on what parents and teachers lack or need to teach their kids coding? I am curious. Might compile a guide.

joshvm 6y ago
In my experience it's rarely a problem with the material itself. Motivated or engaged kids will quickly outpace "kids" material anyway, and will move onto conventional resources. Right now cheap resources available to educators are ridiculously accessible. Though remember that the cost of kitting out a classroom with hardware adds up really fast. The challenge is getting kids engaged enough that they start experimenting by themselves. Also the same for older kids and adults. People will nod and smile, do all the exercises and then never touch the resources again. I've been doing outreach for a decade or so, this is totally common with students of all ages. That said, for programming you need material that promotes very quick and visual or physical feedback loops. You also need projects that are fun and achievable, but also can be extended. Also be aware of how long something will take a total beginner to do. When I'm designing projects for summer schools (16-24), I generally assume that if I can do it in a day from scratch, it'll take them a couple of weeks if they have no experience. Take that with a pinch of salt, but I've found it's pretty accurate.
- woofie11 6y ago
  Try KA JavaScript. It's very clear, step-by-step, in-depth tutorials, around fun topics, followed by an open-ended coding environment. It seems almost ideally designed for kids.
woofie11 6y ago
Scrimba is $19/month, and aimed at adults. From the front page, you build boring stuff, and it's not clear where to go. Quality is mixed For general coding for kids, there's a bunch of really excellent things: * Khan Academy JavaScript is fantastic. You learn JavaScript building interesting things, learning both deep and shallow concepts. * code.org tends to be an hour long, but that hour is beautifully scripted. It doesn't go far, but is really nice for getting started. Scratch, Blockly Games, Open Processing, and a bunch of others do a nice job picking up from there. Where there is a gap is on tying code to hardware, which this starts to close. What I liked about this is you start with something physical. This isn't just coding. It's coding+electronics. It's surprisingly hard to find good stuff for RPi, Arduino, or similar. There are: * Great robotics platforms, without software support or tutorials * Decent software, where there is a game of making it work with pick-your-own-hardware. * Decent tutorials, bogged down by lousy platforms, no integrated way to get the stuff you need, etc. * Etc. There isn't anything clear, integrated, and coherent like the ones above (KA/Scratch/etc.) that I know of. If someone were to take a: * best-of-breed cheap kid-friendly robotics platform * integrate it with arduino or rpi * integrate it with JavaScript or Python And have a 5-minutes-to-get-started thing, and from there, ways to go deep, it'd be a pretty big hit. No organization seems to do all three pieces well: * Hardware * Software * Pedagogy Perhaps since they're such different skills, or perhaps because it's too big a task.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Thanks for the comment. > Scrimba is $19/month, and aimed at adults. From the front page, you build boring stuff, and it's not clear where to go. Quality is mixed I linked the python course in the original comment but mostly recommend scrimba for building learning material for kids because you can mess with the code and run it inside the video directly. It's free for that. Have you tried using something from the magpie, sparkfun and other kit suppliers? Any elaboration on the specific product would be helpful. I want to know what kind of kits aren't available or upto the mark. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/programming-an-fpga https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/programming-an-fpga https://learn.sparkfun.com/ https://learn.sparkfun.com/ But I totally understand the current market could be better. I have spent a good chunk of time finding parts for raspberry Pi although the projects were a bit more complex and budget constrained. I got them from various Chinese market places and had to read up a bit.

DanBC 6y ago

The BBC Micro:bit is already super kid friendly, and can do servos and audio. You can program it using their own scratch-like language "MakeCode", or you can use python. They have a web-based editor for both. And that web based thing also includes an emulated board, so you can try it even if you don't own a board. https://microbit.org/ https://microbit.org/ You can also buy kits that come with a load of sensors and nicely printed manuals, colour coded interface pcbs, and sensors with keyways so you can't get the connection wrong. They also include some extra "blocks" for the scratch-like language so you can really easily use them. Those are a bit pricey. Here's one example for £40 (which weirdly doesn't include the BBC Micro:Bit itself). https://coolcomponents.co.uk/products/smart-home-kit-for-bbc-micro-bit-micro-bit-not-included?variant=13659302068285&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb8Cz06kJZjLqGXyBLY5Ssta-5sS-u20_6cGJQaOiIUDs8Hm11VvijBoC9EQQAvD_BwE https://coolcomponents.co.uk/products/smart-home-kit-for-bbc... You don't need to spend anywhere near that much though. You can buy a micro:bit and then get a kit of transducers from Aliexpress.