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Why we should teach kids to code.

Do you think kids should be taught to code? When? I don't know when Year 5 is, 9? 10? Seems a bit late to me.

Alt: First computer? Or difference engine, if you're Monty.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 12:59, 56 replies, latest was 14 years ago)

Year 5 is 9/10.
I think it should be taught in High Schools, but not Primary.

Alt: It was a Compaq, 2 hard drives, one of which was a whopping 1GB.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:03, Reply)

The sooner the better, surely
It's like learning a foreign language, best to hit them while their brains are like sponges.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:07, Reply)

based on what?

(ThunderCuntThePendejo officially less shit than NakedApe, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:24, Reply)

Maybe some kind of abstract generic coding to understand logic, etc.
I can't really see the benefit of teaching 10 year olds C++


Alt:
Scratch-built DX4-100 with 4MB RAM and a 512MB HDD.
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:05, Reply)

Actually, that is lies
It was a Commodore 64 with the tape deck
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:08, Reply)

I had a Dragon 32
fucking Welsh, I ask you.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:12, Reply)

I think C++ is unlikely
I imagine something simple like Befunge or Haskell.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:11, Reply)

Python.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:12, Reply)

Python is the only one I know.

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:14, Reply)

Can someone ask me if I can really speak python for the sake of a joke?

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:43, Reply)

Can you really speak Python?
(I made Luggage askif I was an orange yesterday, so it's only fair I pay it forward)
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:50, Reply)

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:51, Reply)

Fucking hell.
How didn't I see that coming?
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:51, Reply)

You told me that you were very witty.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:51, Reply)

Excellent comedic skills, here

( Kroney, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:52, Reply)

:D

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:52, Reply)

OMG, the classic "Ask me if I'm an orange" joke, and I missed it.
I remember the first time I heard that, back in 1985. It was hilarious then.
*misty-eyed nostalgia*
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:05, Reply)

Ahem, Ms Ceilidhband, I have the results of your eye test here
I'm afraid that is not nostalgia, it's a cataract.

Sorry to be the bearer...
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:17, Reply)

Can you really speak Python?

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:50, Reply)

I remember doing stuff with Logo as a wee nipper.

(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:15, Reply)

ZX81 with the standard 1k of ram.
Learned a lot of Basic which I haven't used since.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:06, Reply)

BBC Micro, I played frogger a lot.
No update from woman I tried to help. I might draw a mustache on her work pass.
(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:09, Reply)

As with any language the sooner the better.
This was my first computer:



Basically a cheap american rip off of a ZX81.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Aquarius
( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:13, Reply)

MY GOD
Somebody else had one??! My brother had one! We had a cartridge game where you built cities and sailed fleets to attack the other player, that was alright. The whole thing was just a giant piece of shit, though.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:20, Reply)

I still have it somewhere. I doubt it is worth anything.

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:22, Reply)

ALT: As Bartleby, unexpanded ZX81. I'd have been seven or eight I suppose.
The writer of the article makes quite an interesting point, highlighting development from literacy to numeracy and eventually to algorithm-savviness. I'd be tempted to argue that the latter is almost a consequence of being able to write clearly and use critical analysis and abstraction, isn't it?
(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:14, Reply)

Those pesky three finger commands.
I was about 17 or 18, when they came out.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:19, Reply)

Pfft
The number of otherwise literate and numerate people that seem to think that the magic box should do what they mean, not what they type...
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:22, Reply)

Only once they have mastered basic philosophy.
Alt: BBC Micro. After a while it was upgraded to use a 5.25" external disk drive

Edit: actually I'm changing my answer to "no" unless you do it very late as otherwise the language would be out of date before they got to use it.
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:20, Reply)

General principles though
iteration, recursion, variables, that sort of thing - they're going to be the same whatever you do.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:32, Reply)

As I say,
Only after they've learned basic philosophy and reasoning. I'd imagine once you strip it down that was you get either algebra or symbolic logic. I think teaching symbolic logic would be good.
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:42, Reply)

Fucking 'Wrap It Up!'
have given me a fucking Burrito when I asked for a Fajita. Again.

BAstards.

Um...I had a 48K Spectrum, then a +3. I played a lot of Splat!, Jumping Jack and Chuckie Egg.

I never learnt to code.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:26, Reply)

I think it would be a really good thing
Year 4 would be a good time to start learning basic simple stuff, especially since it's mostly logic. They'd have to find some more interesting ways to teach and learn it though.

I learnt some basic coding quite young, thanks to an IT teacher who loved the idea and made us play around with Java and Pearl (he was a Linux obsessive) and I could do basic stuff. Forgotten it all though.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:26, Reply)

I think the first classroom computer stuff I played with was Logo, as I mentioned above.
Very simple language and features instant graphical feedback. Teaches most of the basics too - repetition, selection, the idea of combining operations together into units which can be re-used.
(BrianHequator was stretching owls, on, or around, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:36, Reply)

Java is horrific when you get further into it.

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:16, Reply)

My first computer was another ZX81. Popular machines. Moved onto a C64 after that.
Kids should be taught English and Maths and then whatever subjects they have aptitudes for. Forcing children to learn history or science or art if they've got no ability in it is pointless.
( Kroney, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:47, Reply)

They should all be forced to learn MVS Assembler from birth.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:48, Reply)

I think we should only talk to them in binary or if they're lucky machine code.

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:50, Reply)

it's a good deterrent actually
if we taught kids to code, even paedophiles wouldn't want to have sex with them
(Quinton had to abandon other account as i broke it, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:59, Reply)

You'd know.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:01, Reply)

But how do we protect them from their brothers?

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:28, Reply)

No they fucking shouldn't.
They should be taught correct English and basic numeracy, to speak only when spoken to and not tell anyone about what just went on or their puppy will die.

Alt: God knows. Some kind of fucking laptop. No interest whatsover.

*yawn*
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:16, Reply)

I'm after some advice if anyone would be good enough to help
I have my hotmail account synced to Thunderbird on my computer. I also have a googlemail account synced so I can access the associated calender with the Lighting plugin. Me and the wife use the same calender so we know what we're both doing.

I use Outlook for my work e-mail and have all my contacts on that, which I periodically sync to my Blackberry.

Now, the calender on my Blackberry is associated with my hotmail account, not my work account, because I like to be able to remove my work account when I go on holiday and not have to resync my calender each time.

This causes the problem that, when I add someones birthday to my Outlook contacts, it doesn't get automatically updated to my blackberry calender, which means it doesn't get synced with my google calender, which means I probably forget about it.

So what I think I'm looking for is a way of synchronising my work contacts with my hotmail contacts. But what I want to avoid doing if possible is having my hotmail account linked to Outlook, as I want to keep my work and private e-mails separate.

Sorry, what was that? TL:DR? Okay, here is a picture of a funny man, can you deface it to make it look even funnier?

(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:16, Reply)

My advice is to kill yourself.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:17, Reply)

I was hoping for something along those lines.

(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:19, Reply)

No sweat, hombre.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:19, Reply)

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

(PsychoChomp, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:21, Reply)

Is that the sound of you thinking, or planning a really witty put down?

(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:22, Reply)

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:22, Reply)

I said make it funny
not gay.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:23, Reply)

It's more concerned than aroused, I'd say.

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:26, Reply)

If they're on facebook
then birthdays should automatically transfer from the facebook app to your Blackberry
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:28, Reply)

I don't synchronise facebook details like that with my blackberry, or it tries to add everyone in your contacts folder
which is fucking irritating.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:29, Reply)

Plus I know people who aren't on facebook.
I know, I know, it's hard to understand, but look at Monty. Now go and wipe the vomit off your chin.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:30, Reply)

It hasn't done that with me
but fair enough
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:30, Reply)

Google Calendar Sync?
Install this on the outlook PC and it should sync across to the Google calendar, not sure if you can specify just birthdays though...

www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
(bill, Fri 16 Sep 2011, 21:15, Reply)