No Khan Academy resources are not going to help. Let me tell you why.
If you try hard, you can teach some one 'how to code' but no matter how hard you try its not possible to teach some one 'what to code'. Or in other words, 'what problems to solve using coding' else everyone would be a Nikola Tesla.
Its easy for us to solve problems like 'Parse this XML and do X', for kids its impossible to even understand this, or why this should be done. The other stuff like sorting, factorials etc math stuff is the least they are interested in. What else, 'make this cat go around the well 5 times' kind of problem that MIT scratch deals with is a little interesting to small kids, beyond this age- teenagers or kids around who are trying to prove to the world they are not kids find it intellectually insulting to even look at it.
But there are problems kids like to solve. Consider things like Lego, or Origami. Or building an amateur radio by assembling stuff. Or learning to repair a device X. Kids see adventure in such things and a very visible physical product they are working with or towards. There they see a problem, and method follows thereby. In coding you focus on the method and not the problem itself.
As programmers we think our profession is the greatest(Just like every one else). The fact is you could say the same about nearly every job out there.
I don't think the issue is either explaining to kids "how" to code, or "what" to code, but rather "why" to code. We all know why, because it's super awesome and rewarding. The problem is that it's also extremely frustrating, and maybe not everyone is a natural born programmer, that's ok.
I think the reason I always loved programming is because I love computers, a lot. I think kids these days are growing up with technology at their finger tips, computers are second nature to them, and they like technology because it's cool, and yea you can play games on computers. I wonder, how many people in this thread got into programming because they wanted to make a computer game?
When I was a kid I hated math, it felt like nothing more than an exercise in taking orders and doing something for no reason. Every year I would ask my math teacher, "why are we learning this" and no one had a good answer. I really wish someone had been there when I was younger to show me how amazing math can be if you have the right attitude about it; and when I was teaching I always tried to be that person for my students. I know I was able to get through to a few of them at least.
Computer science classes literally make people hate computers, and that makes me sad. I mean why on earth do they make you learn java in school, are you kidding me!!? It's like not enough to ruin math for generation after generation, now they are ruining computers too. What a shame.
When I was teaching physics I used to tell my students "look, you like south park right, well imagine if 200 years from now you had to study south park in school, but instead of watching the episodes and laughing your ass off, you had to memorize a list of every characters name and random facts about them, and then you had to take a test that quized you on how well you had memorized those random facts, and if you didn't do well you got punished by your parents. Well that is exactly what has happened with math and physics."
We don't need kids who know "what to code", we need kids to want to because they think it's interesting and fun. Lots of kids these days already love computers and technology, it's up to us not to let the way programming is taught ruin that for them.
Khan academy for sure can help, if the video's are done right.
I really agree with what you are saying. Not every person will have inclinations to do programming for a career or have it be their passion.
I would say that the goal of any of these initiatives should be to expose the kids at a young age and let them see that it is out there.
I fully starting engaging in software development in University. I know that if I had been exposed to learning programming in a more fun way earlier, it would have been something that I would have really enjoyed and continued.
If a young child has the inclination for it, it would be such a privilege to have them start their journey of learning at a younger age. These are the kids that I want these initiatives to catch. For others, it would be great to have them exposed to it right away too and realize its not for them. There is tremendous benefit in knowing what you don't want to do so you can quit and try something else.
I think your misconstruing the purpose of these initiatives.
The purpose is not to turn the kids into programmers at a young age. The purpose is to EXPOSE them to the world of programming.
You're not going to make coders out of them in elementary or middle school. But you might make them more INTERESTED in pursuing further programming education in say high school. Mission accomplished.
Agreed. The fact that I could be a programmer clicked for me only because I made pretty complex TI-89 calculator programs and games in HS. I thought I was just dicking around, but later I was like "wait, this is programming? I've done this before!"
Kids don't need to learn C or parsing XML. In fact nobody needs to learn to parse XML because either put that data in JSON or GTFO.
But seriously, no it's not concepts like that that matter. That's syntax and strategy. It's "here's how to talk to computers, and here's some aspect of problem solving".
Teaching kids to solve problems and how to think is part of every single subject in school. 100% of them. Coding should have this as a part, history should, english REALLY should, etc. But the primary function is to introduce how to talk to computers to kids, the secondary is how to talk to computers to solve problems.
If you try hard, you can teach some one 'how to code' but no matter how hard you try its not possible to teach some one 'what to code'. Or in other words, 'what problems to solve using coding' else everyone would be a Nikola Tesla.
Its easy for us to solve problems like 'Parse this XML and do X', for kids its impossible to even understand this, or why this should be done. The other stuff like sorting, factorials etc math stuff is the least they are interested in. What else, 'make this cat go around the well 5 times' kind of problem that MIT scratch deals with is a little interesting to small kids, beyond this age- teenagers or kids around who are trying to prove to the world they are not kids find it intellectually insulting to even look at it.
But there are problems kids like to solve. Consider things like Lego, or Origami. Or building an amateur radio by assembling stuff. Or learning to repair a device X. Kids see adventure in such things and a very visible physical product they are working with or towards. There they see a problem, and method follows thereby. In coding you focus on the method and not the problem itself.
As programmers we think our profession is the greatest(Just like every one else). The fact is you could say the same about nearly every job out there.