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Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent
After-school code clubs
Here is my package on after-school code clubs, where computer professionals are helping children develop programming skills at an early age.
ICT - the main computer studies subject on the curriculum - has long had a poor reputation for teaching nothing more than office skills.
But if the country's future lies in being a knowledge-based economy, how should this problem be tackled?
Schools are now being encouraged to teach children how to programme computers, but teachers fear they may not have the necessary knowledge to do so.
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Comment number 6.
jonbanjo26th September 2012 - 11:17
There was no computers in my school and I was in my 20s when I bought a Vic20. At the time, I imagined that soon all people in younger generations would be able to code and I'd be left out if I didn't learn.
My forecast for the future has, so far,been wrong, but maybe one day?
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Comment number 5.
jonbanjo26th September 2012 - 10:59
I've not used BBC BASIC but I never really got on with the BASIC on C64, etc. I never got into assembler either.
Maybe "user friendliness" varies from person to person but Turbo Pascal was the one that really (OK l I'm only a hobbyist) got me going.
Again, its still available (free from Borland) and there are free "clones" like Free Pascal around.
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Comment number 4.
LandOfTheMushroomPeople26th September 2012 - 0:46
The packages themselves can teach you the basics if they are user friendly
BBC BASIC for Windows is still going strong
For the intricacies of machine code the Ketman Interpreter is virtually unique (assembly is still quite hard for most people though)
The main thing is to point kids at user friendly programming packages and they will gravitate themselves to whatever area fascinates them
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Comment number 3.
sgk25th September 2012 - 19:32
Great article. Club seems to give an opportunity for kids to learn some programming and encourage creativity instead of learning how to change font size in a Word document. Coding after 30 years here and still loving it.
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Comment number 2.
steved25th September 2012 - 18:56
Sadly this is doomed to fail. why? Simply because there is no recognition ore respect for the role that Engineers/Geeks can play in a modern society unlike Germany. Get good at programming and pretty well the only career progression is into management thus stopping using the very thing you are good at. I'm still coding after 40 years but I'm in the minority.
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Comments 5 of 6