Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:52:30 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> To: Anh Ky Huynh <kyanh@viettug.org> Cc: michael.grunewald@laposte.net, Anton Shterenlikht <mexas@bristol.ac.uk>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd for children Message-ID: <20091226134125.A28370@sola.nimnet.asn.au> In-Reply-To: <20091226012251.79E0110656E4@hub.freebsd.org> References: <20091226012251.79E0110656E4@hub.freebsd.org>
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In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 290, Issue 11, Message: 1 On Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:53:49 +0700 "Anh Ky Huynh" <kyanh@viettug.org> wrote: > On Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:33:14 +0000 > Anton Shterenlikht <mexas@bristol.ac.uk> wrote: > > > Can somebody recommend a graphical port which could be used > > to teach kids 6-8 years programming? I know it's a very > > vague question, but what I have in mind (possibly) is > > say an interpreter linked with some graphical enviroment, > > perhaps drawing with commands, or making animations, > > or maybe music? > > > > Something that would make kids or that age curious, > > some programming environment that they can easily > > understand and enjoy. A programming game of sorts? > > > > I know the `logo` language (aport lang/ucblogo, lang/klogoturtle, > etc) which is used in our educational environment (Vietnamese), but > for the older pupils (>= 10 years old). > > Hope this helps, > > Regards, > > -- > Anh Ky Huynh Another vote for LOGO. Michael Grunewald mentions having learned it at 7, and I knew a couple of then 5-6 year olds who had good fun with it in '84 on the first 128K Macintosh, and before that on the Apple II. LOGO's simplicity is deceptive, to adults anyway, as it teaches quite advanced programming concepts straight away; the simple vector graphics lets kids make pretty geometrical drawings early on, teaching maths - especially trigonometry and dynamics - to kids before they could spell either, progressing easily to fairly sophisticated list processing, content addressible memory concepts and such if you dig into it a bit. I'd (still) recommend Seymour Papert's "Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas" (Harvester Press 1980) to anybody interested in introducing children to computer programming, especially using Logo. KDE3 includes Kturtle, not 'pure' Logo at all but a reasonable interface and some decent starter examples to see if kids find it interesting, then maybe move onto ucblogo (which I haven't played with, but looks fully-featured and well-documented on a quick scan of the pkglist) cheers, Ian
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