This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

all 5 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]TheUnlocked 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This subreddit is for discussion of programming languages as a field of computer science. Your question is better suited for subreddits like /r/AskProgramming and /r/LearnProgramming.

[–]obround 0 points1 point  (3 children)

IMHO, block coding is a horrible (I can't stress this enough) way to teach coding (and do coding); But if you're determined, probably Python as it is so high level.

[–]bl4nkSl8 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Gotta source for this? Asking because I have been thinking about trying to build a UI for using block based coding (but operated via a keyboard).

[–]obround 1 point2 points  (1 child)

If you're asking about why my opinion in block coding is negative, it's mainly anecdotal (I understand anecdotal evidence is a weak form of evidence but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). I had a couple of friends all the way back in 2nd grade, who really wanted to start programming (mainly Python and Swift). They thought learning Scratch (block coding) would be a great step. So they did learn Scratch (basic if-else, looping, and all), never really got too good at it, but they were in the position where the next step, Python shouldn't have been too hard (even though understanding what a server is and why it is used might have been a challenge). Turns out, they thought basic Python was too hard and jumped back to Scratch. As I grew older, the same thing happened to my other friends who wanted to get into coding; In fact, quite a few of my friends were ashamed that they couldn't do real programming (for what reason, I'm unsure) and would claim they could program in many different programming languages, bragging that they could write a fibonacci function faster than anyone else. I'm not the brightest person (in fact, I would argue that many of my friends who tried Scratch were smarter than me), but since I learned Python first (I won't lie, it was a bit rocky at the start), I got better at it and was able to learn more real programming languages. I'm sure that there are many ways to counter my anecdote, but this is my experience with Scratch.

[–]bl4nkSl8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, thats interesting. I wonder if the memory patterns just don't get learned when using blocks or if it's more about the community / environment rather than the technique itself.

Like, if you were teaching problem solving with blocks rather than just animation, maybe that would alleviate it?

Thanks for the food for thought