JavaScript: A
Gateway Language
or, Why You Should Teach Your Kids
JavaScript
Liz Abinante
@feministy
Tuesday, March 18, 14
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What we’ll cover
Defining JavaScript
Why teach kids programming?
Why JavaScript is great for wee ones
How to prepare children for SkyNet
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Defining
JavaScript
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JavaScript has many flavors!
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All of this variation is what
makes JavaScript so great.
You pick your flavors.
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function sum(array) {
return array.reduce(function(a, b) {
return a + b;
});
}
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Why teach kids
programming?
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Technology is constantly
changing.
Learning to program gives kids
skills for now and maybe the future.
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The earlier you learn, the
more you can learn in a
lifetime.
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Adults are terrible
programmers.
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As adults, we are inhibited by our own fears.
We're afraid of failure, being mocked, being
wrong, breaking the entire app, taking too long
to ship, or just plain not being smart enough.
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Adults lack the pure
imagination of
childhood.
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Imagination
“Imagination is more important
than knowledge. For knowledge is
limited to all we know and
understand, while imagination
embraces the entire world, and all
there ever will be to know and
understand.”
Albert Einstein, as quoted in
Transformation: Arts, Communication,
Environment (1950) by Harry Holtzman
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Why teach kids
JavaScript?
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Ruby and Python require:
complex system set up
more expensive hardware
Why not Ruby? Or
Python?
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Ruby and Python require:
complex system set up
more expensive hardware
not as visual as JavaScript
Why not Ruby? Or
Python?
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Ruby and Python require:
complex system set up
more expensive hardware
not as visual as JavaScript
a little syntax is good for the soul
Why not Ruby? Or
Python?
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JavaScript introduces kids to the web
and core programming concepts at the
same time
Why JavaScript?
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JavaScript introduces kids to the web
and core programming concepts at the
same time
without getting too complicated too
quickly.
Why JavaScript?
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You start with a small scope and
minimal tools
Why JavaScript?
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You start with a small scope and
minimal tools
increasing in complexity as each child
learns.
Why JavaScript?
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Preparing for SkyNet:
How to teach kids
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Bring programming
principles into daily life.
Conditionals, arrays, data
structures, loops.
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Start small.
Just vanilla JavaScript.
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Age Factors
Ability to type (accurately-ish).
Patience!
Spatial and logical reasoning.
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Plan, plan, plan!
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Set goals for your plans
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Keep lessons short
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Resources for teaching kids
feministy.github.io/kids-js
Liz Abinante
@feministy
eabinante@gmail.com
Tuesday, March 18, 14