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I totally agree. Programming is a hard thing to "teach" when so many of us "learn" it in order to accomplish something. As the saying goes, some things are ta

by dpcan 15y ago

I totally agree. Programming is a hard thing to "teach" when so many of us "learn" it in order to accomplish something. As the saying goes, some things are taught, and others are learned. I don't have an iPad, so I couldn't try this app, but these are just my thoughts on kids' applications in general, not the app itself: I agree that in a learning-based program, a mission of some kind would be helpful, but too often, creators of these apps think it's good enough to put in a smiling dinosaur, or a silly animal friend and that'll do the trick. It does not. I have a 7 year old, and he is just starting to like to "create" on the computer. He loves Sploder.com for creating games right now, but programming doesn't interest him much. If I told him to move a dinosaur across the screen he'd look around for his 4 year old brother who still likes smiling dinosaurs. At 7, which I think is a good early age to start programming, they are already into monster trucks, clone wars, and big time action. No more cutesy stuff. If that dinosaur didn't devour Jedi's, I don't think he'd like it much.

smj2118 15y ago
Thanks for the insight. The reason the dinosaur is a bit cutesy is that we wanted to appeal to both genders. A dinosaur devouring jedi might get boys interested but would probably turn off girls. Unfortunately it seems difficult to appeal to both girls and boys at that age.
missrobot 15y ago
Agreed that having a mission or goal is important. What comes to mind for me is a game called the Island of Dr. Brain that I played as a kid. There was a section in the game where you would input a bunch of directional commands to send a robot through a maze. Then you would "run" the program and see if the robot made it to the end. Of course, this didn't teach me how to program, but it did teach me how to think in an input/output sense--input these instructions and this thing happens--in a way that I hadn't previously learned in school, and the idea of finishing the maze helped the game hold my attention. Game mechanics...well, they work. FWIW I'm female and I was never put off by the fact that neither Dr. Brain, nor the legos I had, etc., were geared towards girls. That said, what you have seems like a really good start and I'm very much looking forward to experimenting with the app.

by dpcan 15y ago

smj2118 15y ago

Thanks for the insight. The reason the dinosaur is a bit cutesy is that we wanted to appeal to both genders. A dinosaur devouring jedi might get boys interested but would probably turn off girls. Unfortunately it seems difficult to appeal to both girls and boys at that age.

missrobot 15y ago

Agreed that having a mission or goal is important. What comes to mind for me is a game called the Island of Dr. Brain that I played as a kid. There was a section in the game where you would input a bunch of directional commands to send a robot through a maze. Then you would "run" the program and see if the robot made it to the end. Of course, this didn't teach me how to program, but it did teach me how to think in an input/output sense--input these instructions and this thing happens--in a way that I hadn't previously learned in school, and the idea of finishing the maze helped the game hold my attention. Game mechanics...well, they work. FWIW I'm female and I was never put off by the fact that neither Dr. Brain, nor the legos I had, etc., were geared towards girls. That said, what you have seems like a really good start and I'm very much looking forward to experimenting with the app.