{"id":3334,"date":"2013-06-13T12:16:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:38:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T17:38:18","slug":"teaching-programming-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2013\/06\/13\/teaching-programming-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Programming Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

I came across this article recently: Tynker Launches Revolutionary New Platform for Teaching Programming Skills to Young Learners<\/a> Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) April 11, 2013<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

You know\u2026\u2026
\nI\u2019m starting to think Syntax really IS important.<\/p>\n

I recently finished teaching a 1st year programming class in Java. The last time I taught 1st year programming (I mean, really*) was in 2006.<\/p>\n

Kids have changed.<\/p>\n

* I taught a programming in Alice course in 2008 & 2009, but that\u2019s different.
\n<\/em>Read on to find out why.<\/p>\n

Now, the kids in this class were of typical intelligence and potential. It was a relatively small class so I got a chance to get to know them (at least, the ones who showed up to class on a regular basis)<\/p>\n

As i had done throughout the term, I gave them a ‘free’ work period for their lab on their last assignment. It was a great turnout – almost everyone was there (which is quite impressive because the lab starts at 8am). At one point I looked around the room and it struck me – this did not look like a bunch of people working on a programming problem. I asked them how many were having trouble, and almost everyone put up their hands. For the most part, they were just sitting there – no paper, no notes, just staring at the screen probably wondering why they didn\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

I felt like I had failed them, but at the same time I realized there was a limit to what I could do in a single course – and trust me, I had pretty much tried everything I could in the time I had.<\/p>\n

So much for digital natives. They may be whizzes at texting (I confess to some envy here as I am not) and they may spend the majority of their waking hours connected, but using is not the same as knowing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SO much of the tech world is apps written in ways that people don\u2019t need to learn anything – you don’t need to learn anything about the application, or indeed, even the task that the application is design to facilitate.<\/p>\n

In many ways this is good – computers are\u00a0supposed<\/em> to make our lives easier, ….
\nBUT (see also Are we teaching our kids to NOT learn?<\/a>)…..<\/p>\n

BUT…..\u00a0 this\u00a0 does NOT help anyone learn logic, and logic is ESSENTIAL to programming. AND, learning the picky details of programming language syntax is a integral part of programming literacy.
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"024\"Also, it turns out, fluency in logic is essential to problem solving in the general sense (an ability which has serious implications to our continued societal evolution & development).<\/p>\n