When I was nine, I attended a summer school course on computer programming. The class had a single computer with twenty to thirty students. The instructor controlled the computer most of the time, demonstrating a few simple concepts in a language that was similar to (or perhaps the same as) whatever folks were programming Atari games in the early and mid 1980s.
Recollecting now, I believe I did learn a few things in that class. I learned a bit about just what computer programming meant. I learned the idea that the lines of code of a computer program execute sequentially. I may have also learned the concepts of looping, and conditional execution (if statements). That's about all that I can remember.
When I was 12, I attended a class in junior highschool on computer programming. I remember playing with some Apple IIe (or maybe some other model) computers, making silly animations all semester long. I don't remember anything about the code that I wrote. I'm not sure if I really learned anything during that class. (On a side note, I was 25 before I programmed again, with the exception of one month of lightly playing with
Java when I was 21.)
Now, I'm trying to figure out what to expect when trying to teach ten to twelve year old children a few things about programming. I'm not really sure just how complicated to make things, what tools to use, and what resources are out there on this topic.
So, I appreciate any shared experiences, ideas, or resources.
[ May 25, 2004: Message edited by: Dirk Schreckmann ]