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OT Teaching kids to code



C

crasher

New member
Jul 8, 2003
2,764
Sussex
Anyone on here with kids who can advise on how you help them learn coding and programming?

I know it's on the curriculum nowadays but junior crasher, who is 12, says the teaching they get in school is useless and basic. He's no expert but he knows he's not learning much this way.

So I was thinking of trying to find him some kind of after-school/weekend coding club if I can. I've read a bit about them in the news, but googling doesn't really help me know what exists locally or whether any of them are any good.

Any advice much appreciated.
 








G

Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,336
Uffern
Coder Dojo at the University of Brighton is the place to go. They do Scratch, Unity, Python
and HTML (and others). It's on next Saturday and then breaking for Christmas. My boy goes and loves it
 






Guinness Boy

Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
34,131
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
In general the ideas of code clubs and online coding schools are excellent because I can't imagine any decent developer becoming a school teacher. However it should be for fun. It's not going to make junior their fortune when they're older unless they manage to write something like Facebook. App programmers are ten a penny and apps are dirt cheap. The market is also flooded for enterprise developers. We got about 30 CVs from one agency for one junior job, all Indians wanting to work over here for peanuts to get a visa.
 


JCL666

JCL666

absurdism
Sep 23, 2011
2,190
Gwylan said:
Coder Dojo at the University of Brighton is the place to go. They do Scratch, Unity, Python
and HTML (and others). It's on next Saturday and then breaking for Christmas. My boy goes and loves it
Click to expand...

Sounds great!!!

http://coderdojobrighton.co.uk/


If my kids were interested in programming I would definitely send them to this.
 


JCL666

JCL666

absurdism
Sep 23, 2011
2,190
Guinness Boy said:
In general the ideas of code clubs and online coding schools are excellent because I can't imagine any decent developer becoming a school teacher. However it should be for fun. It's not going to make junior their fortune when they're older unless they manage to write something like Facebook. App programmers are ten a penny and apps are dirt cheap. The market is also flooded for enterprise developers. We got about 30 CVs from one agency for one junior job, all Indians wanting to work over here for peanuts to get a visa.
Click to expand...

App programming maybe diluted, but I know loads of people working as java developers, from junior through to lead devs and contractors.

The lead devs and contractors are getting paid very very well.
 




S

Shropshire Seagull

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2004
8,496
Telford
I was a coder for about 10 years - almost fell into it by accident when I was writing advanced macros in an accounting function. Once I moved in to IT proper about 20 years ago I took the view it would lead me on to bigger and better things.

Did PL/SQL with Oracle and then moved into a Business Analysis role - SSADM trained.
Briefly did a test manager role before moving into project management about 12 years ago.

What I would say is that coding is often seen as an art rather than a science so I would recommend some aptitude tests to see whether there is a good "personality match" for a carear as a coder. I haven't looked but there must be some thing online to help with this.

True, it pays well, but unlike many other professional careers, to keep up, its a continuous changing landscape to remain at the forefront of technology improvements. Some will see this as a positive, others as a negative. Coding is not for everyone .....
 


B

Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,363
OT - Get then to learn cooking instead, we don't need any more programmers! And although I started on RPG II (anyone else remember that?) I don't think you can beat C++ for learning. It will teach you everything from basic control structures right through to OOP. Also it's still in use today, and when you move on to Java, C# and Javascript the syntax and a lot of the concepts will be familiar.

But just to expand on what Shropshire said above, you've got to keep abreast of developments and one of the biggest skills is knowing when to change technologies. Recently I've re-invented myself as a 'JavaScript Engineer' as I've been concentrating on javascript and its associated libraries (jquery, backbone, knockout and angular with a bit of node). I don't even mention VB on my CV any more and I only mention .Net in passing.
 


Tom Hark Preston Park

Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
70,161
Trouble is offshore coders will always be cheaper and the blue chip companies all tend to favour those over homegrown coders nowadays. However... one niche market might be to train up as a COBOL programmer. There's large numbers of COBOL programmers reaching retirement age and not being replaced so far as I can see. Otherwise they'd all have been put out to grass long ago. Many are in their SIXTIES! COBOL also has the benefit of being an extremely intuitive near-English language that you could train yourself up on in a matter of months if not weeks.

Else go down the software testing route. Always easier to break other people's code than write your own, and you often need little or no knowledge of the underlying code. Plus the final stages of testing tend to take place onshore.
 




C

crasher

New member
Jul 8, 2003
2,764
Sussex
Thank you for all the advice - really useful. Will definitely check out those links and the Dojo.

I'm not trying to push my kid into a career as a programmer (or anything else). It's just that he loves games and apps and is curious about how they work under the bonnet so it seems natural to help him explore his interest.
 






G

GingerBeerMan

3-0
Dec 29, 2011
8,024
What language do they teach in schools? What language does he use and is he genuinely passionate about it?

I wouldn't want to scare him off with boring lectures but the CS50 course provided online by Havard is really good. The lecturer is engaging and passionate and I really enjoyed watching the videos. He explains things clearly and starts with the basics and works upwards to build a solid framework.

Here is the first lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlBWlhS7Vg
 


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