Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you

[Siegfried]

(03-07-2023 05:30 AM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  Blog: The Duplo®code Fallacy, how industry & academia make it harder today for kids to start programming

While that blog post might not really be relevant due to its age, I think it errs on several points.

"We", the teenagers who learned programming in the 80's without a computer class were but a small part of the overall teenage population. We did have the occasional club and except for a few geniuses most of us would not have got very far without our monthly magazine listings or a copy of David Ahl's books.

One could even dare to say that we programmed because it was the only thing we could do if we didn't get a game to start with or got bored with those we had before we had saved enough money to buy a new one.

Once computers became more ubiquitous there were enough teenagers (and by that time younger kids) who did not program at all but were content to play whatever (pirated) games they could lay their hands on. I assume that population moved on to consoles after the 8-bit era.

I do concur that accessibility is an issue as the first 16-bit generation usually came without a built-in programming language and it became much harder to utilise all their features (windows, etc.). I remember wanting to write the occasional program on my Atari ST (16-bit, windowed GUI) but found it much more daunting than hacking together something on its 8-bit predecessor.

Accessibility is where the "duplo" programming environments shine and clicking together a program in Scratch has a much lower entry barrier and quicker rewards than programming the same even in Python. While the mere three hours my daughter's "digital education" class dedicated to Scratch are woefully inadequate, it was enough to introduce her to basic coding stuff like loops and - as she wanted to animate more than one object - even messaging between objects. I'd venture to say that object orientation is much easier to grasp moving spaceship or animal objects in Scratch than by typing up code, yet the concept remains the same.

I don't know whether the fact that the kid who learned programming in 8-bit BASIC is the only one who continued programming and had little trouble moving on to C++ proves anything but general interest in programming. The others had the same chance but didn't find it interesting enough. The jury is out on the programming future of the Scratch animation talent.

I didn't pursue a career in IT partly because I thought programming would become obsolete as advanced computers would be programmed by users just stating their needs in near plain language. The only time I regret my poor forecast is when I see software invoices.