Re: Computer Programming for Everybody

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Ken Kahn (kenkahn@toontalk.com)
Wed, 8 Sep 1999 09:49:46 +1200 

From: Ken Kahn <kenkahn@toontalk.com>
Subject: Re: Computer Programming for Everybody
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 09:49:46 +1200

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> Regarding Participants in "The Role of Computer Programming in Education" forum might
> be interested to read Guido van Rossum's paper
> http://www.python.org/doc/essays/everybody.html. Guido is the inventor of
> the Python programming language.
>
> Chuck Shavit
> Magic Square, Inc.
>

I agree that is an interesting essay/proposal. The more up-to-date version
of it is http://www.python.org/doc/essays/cp4e.html

Another nice short essay on this topic is "Building Software Beats Using It"
by Idit Harel (see
http://www.mamamedia.com/areas/grownups/new/21_learning/building_software.html).
Towards the end of the essay she writes "At the time of my research in the
mid-1980s, we used Logo. ... With new digital tools, kids can design and build
their own software rather than just use software someone else created. They
can produce their own webpages filled with ideas and designs, develop their
own digital activities and games for other kids on the Web, create their own
animations and special effects and publish and share their own stories."

I agree with her essay but really wish she hadn't used the term "software" to
refer to both programs (e.g. "digital activities and games") and digital media
(art, animations, stories, etc.). Programming is different in many important
aspects from media creation. Programming is a fertile ground for powerful ideas
like procedural thinking, functional abstraction, debugging, representation,
thinking about thinking, etc. in ways that using a paint or animation program
isn't. Media creation is a great, worthwhile, activity - but is it so different
from painting a picture in school that is then displayed on the wall for all
to see?

Best,

-ken kahn

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