Tkc0100: preface  (Page 5/7)

Are you too old for scratch ??

If you are an "older" beginner, don't be put off by the fact that the Scratch forums are primarily attended by younger students. Scratch incorporates a wealthof information that is equally beneficial to both younger and older beginners. The main difference is that the older beginners are more likely to graduate fromScratch into a programming environment that is more commercially viable sooner than the younger students.

Additional drag-and-drop programming resources

If you would like to study some more advanced drag-and-drop material after you finish studying the Scratch modules, you might want to take a look at thefollowing:

• Snap! (Build Your Own Blocks)
• Blockly
• MIT App Inventor

Snap! is an extended re-implementation of Scratch with many advanced features. It is used in computer science coursework at the University of California atBerkeley.

Blockly and the MIT App Inventor are products that attempt to bridge the gap between the use of drag-and-drop programming for education and the use ofdrag-and-drop programming for the development of commercial applications.

In addition, there are a number of other educational products available on the web that appear to be based on Scratch.

Text based learning resources

When you are ready for some text-based programming instruction, I have several recommendations for you in my order of preference:

1. Codecademy JavaScript
2. Codecademy Ruby
3. Codecademy Web Fundamentals
4. Udacity - Introduction to Computer Science
5. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) with Java

These are all free online courses.

It isn't necessary for you to establish an account to take the Codecademy courses, but there are some benefits toestablishing an account. For example, with the Codecademy courses, if you establish an account and log in before working on a course, the system will keeptrack of where you are, what you have completed, etc. and will make it possible for you to resume where you left off the next time you log in.

Codecademy JavaScript

The first two items in the above list are almost tied in terms of my order of preference. However, the JavaScript course edges outthe Ruby course for several reasons.

First, JavaScript is a ubiquitous programming language that is used for almost all interactive web pages. As such, it is a mainstay of the coding world.

Next, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language in the rapid advance of HTML 5. Some of the features of HTML 5 are expected to eventuallyreplace the need for the Adobe Flash player mentioned earlier with regard to Scratch 2.0.

Although JavaScript syntax is a little more complicated than Ruby syntax, JavaScript syntax is much closer to the syntax of majorprogramming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, and possibly others as well. The syntax began with C many years ago and has propagated forward into the newer and morepowerful programming languages. Once a student understands this syntax, that student will be well equipped todeal with the syntax of other languages such as Ruby.