Only a few days after I finished my articles on Programming for kids, the UK government published a plan about Computer Science for children. Maybe they are spying on my weblog :-)
Some of the topics that are proposed, fit perfectly with my articles:
I have my doubt about:
The basic principles of programming are independent of the programming language that you use. If students really understand programming, they can learn other languages when they need them. The time spend to learn Yet Another Language can better be used to study more programming topics, using the language you used so far for the lessons. Of course, there will be much debate about which language is "the best". Javascript fits the "principles" for the curriculum as explained here.
Some of the topics that are proposed, fit perfectly with my articles:
- Pupils as young as five will be taught how to create and debug simple programs, ......
- ..... and to create, organise and store digital content.
- Children aged between seven and eleven will design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals.
- These will use selection and repetition, variables and various forms of inputs and outputs.
- Pupils will also be taught about networks ...
I have my doubt about:
- ... and will be able to use two or more programming languages.
The basic principles of programming are independent of the programming language that you use. If students really understand programming, they can learn other languages when they need them. The time spend to learn Yet Another Language can better be used to study more programming topics, using the language you used so far for the lessons. Of course, there will be much debate about which language is "the best". Javascript fits the "principles" for the curriculum as explained here.
