I like the idea, but I don't think the place for this device is in schools.
In fact, I hope computer science never gets into high school curriculum, it will only make students hate programming. Just look at math. Programming is even harder; and chances are if you're a programmer you're not really likely to become a high school teacher. Conversely most high school teachers will not know how to program.
> Just look at math.
> Programming is even harder;
> ... chances are if you're a programmer you're
> not really likely to become a high school teacher.
> Conversely most high school teachers will not
> know how to program.
You just can't "fake" it. You either get it, or you don't.
Most high school teachers won't "get" it.
> Ditto mathematician. Most high school teachers I know of who are teaching math have no idea what math is really a
I know, but they can fake it, because the curriculum is designed as a set of rules that must be learned.
> So, no different from math, then.
The difference is that programming cannot be taught as a set of rules that must be learned and then applied without much understanding.
I'm a bit of touch at 41, but are you sure that it isn't already available as an elective for students? Perhaps you meant making it mandatory, which I agree would probably not be very productive.
I took programming in High School, but back then it was all using BASIC. We learned the concepts of variables, memory, loops, and even simple algorithms. And if we finished our homework ahead of the rest of the class, we got to play games. Quite the motivating factor for me at the time.
There's room for improvement, but the classes are widely successful. I have a number of friends who learned to program from high school alone, without a serious effort to learn additional material by themselves.