Wondering if anyone has any experience with any of these since they've become pretty prolific. Most of the ones I've seen are part of a larger "build X item" concept. Are these things a complete waste, reasonable purchase for a kid, or would my ~$250-$300 budget be better spent on another coding concept?

11/26/2017 9:41:10 PM

I had something similar to this as a kid and I pretty much thought it was the coolest thing ever:
https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-300-in-One-Electronic-Project-Lab/dp/B00005K86O

However, I was not really a typical kid in this regard

Not sure what you could give a child that wasn't already interested in computers/tech to spark this interest though

There's a few apps on iPad/iphone that have neat graphical, kid-focused programming things that might be good to start depending on the age of the kid

If you want something more tangible maybe something like this:
https://www.banggood.com/Module-Smart-Tracking-Robot-Car-Electronic-DIY-Kit-With-Reduction-Motor-Set-p-1144904.html?gmcCountry=US¤cy=USD&createTmp=1

It's a line following robot, easy to build, conceptually simple to understand and could lead to the desire to learn more

11/27/2017 12:08:53 AM

As a software developer, I can tell you what my experience learning to code as a child was.

My mother was a programmer who started out on RPG. By the time I was curious enough to want to try it myself, she was learning Visual Basic 1.0 and shared the materials with me. Obviously, this stuff was aimed at adult professionals, so it was over my head by its nature. But there was a set of video tapes that showed creating a complete application for calculating moon phases from the first click to the finished application, and I was able to follow that a bit.

The problem is that I didn't give a shit about the phases of the moon and knew that even if I got that down pat, it wouldn't help me do anything I was actually interested in doing. Learning to code for its own sake sucks--learning to code is a necessary step in the process of solving a real problem or making something cool.

I didn't get serious about coding until I heard you could modify computer games. There were four things that really got me into it, each for slightly different reasons:

1. DOOM. You can add levels? You can change the graphics of the enemies? Fucking sweet. I had a shareware CD with the DOOM FAQ and a bunch of command line utilities. Swapping out the graphics and sounds taught me a hell of a lot about the separation of code and data, and it provided a near-instant feedback loop. I could make a change and see it reflected in the game the next time I ran it.

2. SF2IBM. This was a shitty bootleg PC version of Street Fighter II. It had a rudimentary sequencing system for animations and special move inputs that you could write in a plain ol' text editor. You could edit these to add new special moves to fighters. I made a breakdance move for Dhalsim. This helped me the learn the concepts of compile-time logic and run-time logic. It wasn't just the sights and sounds that could change--you could change the fundamental behavior of the program.

3. Quake. The first Quake featured a scripting language called QuakeC. This really opened up the floodgates. QuakeC let you do seemingly anything. I remember a mod that made the monsters playable. It was a fully fledged language with a compiler and everything--much more complex and powerful than Duke Nukem 3D's CON files or DOOM's DeHackEd patches, although those were useful and instructive tools in their own rights. QuakeC mimicked the development process more than other tools and resembled real programming much more. I learned a wealth of programming concepts from it.

4. Lego Mindstorms. I got the first Mindstorms set as a gift. It included a special programmable brick. You could write programs to control motors and sensors attached to the brick using a visual editor that let you define control flow by dragging & dropping command blocks. This helped me learn to visualize control flow and gave some tangible control of a physical object.

I think a lot of kids in the past few years have gotten into programming thanks to Minecraft, but modding Minecraft is technically challenging and waaaaaaay over the heads of most parents. Sphero's programmable robot toys and anything programmable using Scratch will be akin to that first Mindstorms set.

The most important elements of any coding tool in my opinion are that it should provide a visual editor of some sort and that the lag between a code change and feedback should be minimal. The first Mindstorms set was awful for this, because you had to beam the program over an IR connection to the brick then set the brick up and wait for it to do stuff. Testing QuakeC changes sucked, because you had to compile progs.dat then wait for the fuckin' game to load, etc.

One thing I'd recommend in particular is any toy or game that's easily programmable with Lua. Lua's a really common scripting language you find embedded in a lot of games and other applications, because it has a fast runtime engine implemented in C. It's a great general-purpose language that a kid could find loads of tutorials and books for, and it's something that could actually become a professional skill.

You really, really have to hook the kid's imagination. No kid's really interested in learning to code--they're interested in giving this monster a flaming sword, building a robot that can zipline from their bed to the wall and flip a light switch, and writing their own choose-your-own-adventure stories. The best instructional products (in my opinion) will start with a goal like that, minimize the immediate cognitive load of programming concepts, and eliminate as much friction as possible between making a change and seeing the result.

[Edited on November 27, 2017 at 9:21 AM. Reason : "I hope this helps in the slightest!"]

11/27/2017 9:15:03 AM

Well shit. ^I actually agree with you. And have a VERY similar experience with coding from a young age (Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, Call of Duty)

11/27/2017 10:51:07 AM

There are a lot of coding apps now that interface with small robots like the Sphero.

I've seen some teachers who have been doing graphical coding and have it control a drone. Here's the link.

https://www.tynker.com/learn-to-code/code-this-drone/

11/27/2017 12:43:23 PM

Thanks for these and I appreciate the mindset perspective, FroshKiller. Knowing what makes that desire tick helps a lot.

11/27/2017 7:21:39 PM

If you have an iPad, check out "Swift Playgrounds", a free app from Apple

It has some built-in child focused programming tutorials with some pre-created 3D worlds.

11/28/2017 10:27:27 PM

https://www.anki.com/en-us/cozmo/code-lab

11/28/2017 10:43:16 PM

https://www.makewonder.com/Dash

https://ozobot.com/products/ozobot-bit

http://www.sphero.com/sprk-plus

https://www.modrobotics.com/cubelets/

https://makeymakey.com/apps/

https://www.elenco.com/brand/snap-circuits/

12/8/2017 11:02:45 AM

Quote :

"3. Quake. The first Quake featured a scripting language called QuakeC. This really opened up the floodgates. QuakeC let you do seemingly anything. I remember a mod that made the monsters playable. It was a fully fledged language with a compiler and everything--much more complex and powerful than Duke Nukem 3D's CON files or DOOM's DeHackEd patches, although those were useful and instructive tools in their own rights. QuakeC mimicked the development process more than other tools and resembled real programming much more. I learned a wealth of programming concepts from it."

similar story here. btw, I love Quake. Especially Quake3 Arena.

12/10/2017 11:37:58 AM