There's a reviewed and expanded version of this talk. Check my profile. Talk given at Pixels Camp 2016 LX Factory, Lisbon, Portugal October 7th, 2016

1. Why teach your young padawans
how to code
And keep an eye out for the eventual Kyle Katarn
extra geek points
if you got that reference

2. $ whoami
Marco Amado
Lead Developer
/mjamado
mjamado@dreamsincode.com
www.dreamsincode.com

3. Previously...
Codebits VII – Lightning Talk
Why teach your young
padawans how to code
● Logical thinking
● Problem solving
● Spatial perception
● Awareness
But times have changed...

4. Joke time!
A programmer’s wife sends him to the
grocery store:
– Get a loaf of bread; if they have eggs,
bring a dozen.
The poor guy buys twelve loafs of bread.
The whys: 1. Logical thinking
It’s a guy, of course. A female programmer
would never be this absent minded
(dodged a bullet right here, haven’t I?)

5. The whys: 1. Logical thinking
But seriously…
From the portuguese Rules of the Road law (translated):
Children under 12 years old transported in automobiles equipped with
seat belts, as long as their height is below 135 cm, must be secured
with a retention system ratified and adapted to their height and
weight.
Article 55, number 1
In other words: children are exempt of a proper retention system,
if ((age > 12) || (height > 135))

6. The whys: 2. Problem solving
There’s no problem too big
We were taught the tools to cope with
seemingly impossible tasks:
● Entity-relationship diagrams;
● Data flow diagrams;
● Pseudo-code;
● Flowcharts;
● And many more…
By John Azzolini - Introduction to Systems Engineering Practices
Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4849299

7. The whys: 3. Spatial perception
Story time!
During the summer, I had the company of
my neighbor's grandson and granddaughter
to play with.
One day, a ball was lost on my backyard. I’d
seen where it went, but the granddaughter
was as beautiful as 7 year old girl could be...
Being the imaginative 7 year old that I was, I
convinced them I had a radar connected to
my ZX Spectrum… By Bill Bertram
Creative Commons BY-SA 2.5
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZXSpectrum48k.jpg

8. The whys: 3. Spatial perception
Made with Fuse Spectrum Emulator, Original 48K ROM © Amstrad

9. The whys: 3. Spatial perception
Mentally map the space
Command line input and output grows old
fast.
Graphical user interfaces are way better
and nothing compares to your first side
scrolling game.
It’s amazing how long the coordinate
system sticks in your head.

10. The whys: 4. Awareness
Not every kid will keep on programming
And that’s perfectly fine. As long as they remember to:
● Apply logical thinking and boolean algebra when the need arises;
● Break down the big problem to a few of smaller, more manageable ones;
● Be wary of the surroundings and use spatial perception to describe it as
accurately as possible when needed;

11. The whys: 4. Awareness
But mostly…
Including, but not limited to, the use of this font
Understand and respect the idiosyncrasies
of programmers they’ll meet in the future
Understand how programs are made, and
make better use of them because of that

12. The whys: 5. The battle for better AI
In the future, we’ll be
talking to the wall
And to the ceiling, the lights in it, the
kitchen appliances, the car, the bed, the
mirror on the bathroom…
We already are!
That’s an Amazon Echo, by the way
(I’m in no way affliated with Amazon) By Amazon – All rights reserved

13. The whys: 5. The battle for better AI
Do those things will ever
“get” us?
By spiros mourelatos @ Flickr
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0
https://flic.kr/p/7bL9x4
Meet Joe & Jane
● The “not smart enough” scenario;
● The “insensitive big brother” scenario;

14. The whys: 5. The battle for better AI
Self-driving cars
● Safe, convenient and economic;
● Road accidents: 9th cause of
death worldwide, 1.3M deaths –
1st in the 15-29 interval1;
● Removing the human factor
seems like the rational thing to
do, right? Right?
● But will it respect our priorities?
By CGP Grey - The Simple Solution to Traffic
Youtube Standard License
https://youtu.be/iHzzSao6ypE
Watch it! It’s really good!
1
World Health Organization, data from 2012 - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index4.html

15. The whys: 5. The battle for better AI
Future generations can only contribute to a better
AI – at least by keeping a cheks and balances – if
they understand how programs work.
It can be the very difference between whether we,
as a species, have a future or not.
P.S.: I love you, Skynet!

16. The whys: 5. The battle for better AI
Y’all think I’m bat crap crazy?
Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super
careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.
19: 33 - 2 ago 2014
2.710 3.040
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Hope we're not just the biological boot loader for digital
superintelligence. Unfortunately, that is increasingly probable
12: 18 - 3 ago 2014
5.102 4.019
Elon Musk
@elonmusk

17. The whys: 6. Employability
A tale of two horses
Two horses were talking in the early
1900’s:
– So, d’ya think those new mechanical
horse, the so called car, will eventually
replace us?
– Look, even if it does…
By Mr G's Travels @ Flickr
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0
https://flic.kr/p/2k2PepThat went well…

18. The whys: 6. Employability
We’ve been there, too!
● Late 18th century – Industrial Revolution!
● Cottagers » factory workers;
● Early capitalism sucked for lower classes
(some say it still does);
● A century later, industrialism and capitalism
rose the standards of living of every social
classes by unprecedented numbers;
By Unknown (uploader was Chris Sunde) – Frame Breaking, 1812
Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4150391cThat… actually went well!

19. The whys: 6. Employability
The robotic revolution
● We’ve had specialized robots for quite
some time now;
● We’re starting to see more and more
self checkouts, from fast-food
restaurants to large grocery stores;
● Enter the general purpose robot.
By KUKA Systems GmbH
CC BY-SA 3.0
http://tinyurl.com/jy2gxar
By Huffington Post
All rights reserved
http://tinyurl.com/gln7s66

20. The whys: 6. Employability
Meet Baxter
It can do virtually any manual labor, although slower
than a human, but it doesn’t:
By Salammbo31
CC BY-SA 4.0
http://tinyurl.com/jrp4nts
● Sleep;
● Take coffee breaks;
● Even have a salary…
● Get tired or bored;
● Take vacations;
● Take sick days (sort of);
● Go on strike;

21. The whys: 6. Employability
What about intellectual
jobs? They’re safe, right?
● Doctors?
● Lawyers?
● Teachers?
● Professional Go players?
● Programmers?
By Clockready
CC BY-SA 3.0
http://tinyurl.com/jno7rrc
By Khan Academy
Public domain
http://tinyurl.com/hs5oxu3

22. The whys: 6. Employability
By CGP Grey – Humans Need Not Apply
Youtube Standard License
https://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU
Again, watch it! It’s well worth it!

23. The whys: 6. Employability
One final thought on employability...
If you're alive in 30 years, chances are good you may also be
alive in 1000 yearsbuff.ly/1p5FxdG
14: 02 - 8 mar 2016
4 4
Celso Martinho
@celso
Seguir
@celsoThat's actually scary as hell...
14: 10 - 8 mar 2016
Marco Amado
@mjamado
Seguir
By Håkon Skaarud Karlsen

24. The whys: 6. Employability
So… no jobs? For anyone?
Well, not in the foreseeable future, at least. But it’s certainly a trend.
However…
Like we saw before about the awareness:
Understand how programs are made, and make
better use of them because of that, ensuring
employability in the long run.

25. What about Kyle Katarn?
LittleFoxStudio @ DeviantArt
All Rights Reserved
http://fav.me/d8lsuah
● Former Imperial stormtrooper;
● Cover operative for the Rebel Alliance and
later the New Republic;
● Discovered his force-sensitivity later in life;
● Had a brush with the dark side;
● Eventually became a Jedi Master.
Where are we going with this?

26. Our own Kyle Katarns
Pedro Silva
● Former biology teacher;
● Sudden unemployment – because
teacher allocation is weird in Portugal;
● Discovered his programming skills
later in life;
● Eventually became a professional
developer.
Sounds familiar?

27. Part Deux
What’s being done about it?

28. Books
Python for Kids
A Playful Introduction to Programming
By Jason R. Briggs
No portuguese version… :(

29. Self guided
Today’s children are online from
an early age
There’s really no point in making them learn outside
of where they already feel comfortable.
And let me get this out of the way right now:
Be wary of YouTube!

30. Self guided
Khan Academy
● Tutorials can be text-only, video or just audio;
● Several tutorials are hands-on (mostly with
guiding audio);
● For ages from early teens to adults
(depending on topic);
● Many contents in portuguese.
https://pt.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

31. Self guided
Code.org
● MIT’s Scratch based;
● Interactive tutorials;
● Star Wars!!
● Minecraft!!
● Very children friendly;
● Contents in many languages, including
portuguese (well… brazilian portuguese);

32. Self guided
Codecademy
● For older teens and adults;
● Multi-step guided tutorials;
● Several programming languages and a
few libraries;
● Few contents in portuguese;
https://www.codecademy.com

33. Presential
Picademy
● From the Raspberry Pi Foundation to
educators;
● Two-day courses or two hour events;
● UK and USA only;
● Not only programming but physical
computing too;
https://www.raspberrypi.org/picademy/

34. Presential
FIRST LEGO League
● It’s LEGO!
● Many countries involved, including Portugal;
● Training for educators;
● Annual competition;
● Set of important values for children;
● You can find them in many tech events –
like this one!

35. Presential
Public schools
● Many countries have programming in middle and high-school levels;
● A few have it on elementary school (UK is one);
● Portugal has had, for many years, a secondary (high school) technological
course of informatics;
● And now has an elementary school pilot program for 3rd and 4th graders.

36. Portugal’s pilot project
Questions I’ve sent to the Ministry of Education
● What’s the balance of the first year?
● Which teachers (titular or IT) taught and will teach it?
● Teacher received online and presential training – are there plans to extend that
training to parents?
● What was the motivation to include Kodu, alongside Scratch, in the curriculum,
given that Kodu only works on Windows systems?
● In which hardware did and will the students work? Did the ministry supplied
schools with extra hardware when not available?

37. Portugal’s pilot project
Although I’ve sent it twice, a month apart,
nobody answered.
That was unexpected! #not
So, I went directly to a school that was part of
the pilot and found a teacher…

38. One teacher experience
IT teacher Nuno Cunha
School grouping Morgado de Mateus, Vila Real
● Low income families, low tech
literacy;
● Children were and are eager for it;
● No gender or upbringing distinction;
● School had to scrape for hardware;
● Proposed curricula is good, although
impossible to fulfill;
● Not mandatory, but all students
attended;
● Used MIT’s Scratch;
● Lack of Wi-Fi: assignments had to be
passed around on an USB stick;
● Lack of Internet connectivity: wanted
to use Code.org, couldn’t;

39. Part Deux ½
What can we teach our younglings?
Not “we”, as a society, but “we”, developers and tinkerers, as parents,
siblings or uncles and aunts of little children

40. Ages 6 to 10
MIT’s Scratch or Code.org
https://scratch.mit.edu/
https://code.org
● Interconnected block methodology;
● Event-driven;
● Pretty much a full-fledged programming
language – it’s even Turing complete;
● Portuguese is available! Wesley Fryer @ Flickr
Creative Commons BY 2.0
https://flic.kr/p/fq436X

41. Ages 10 and beyond
Python
● Multi-paradigm;
● Easy (dinamyc typing, managed
memory);
● Cross-platform;
● Extensive library;
● Focus on discipline;
Look, it’s that book again!

42. Q&A

43. Thank you
Marco Amado
Lead Developer
/mjamado
mjamado@dreamsincode.com
www.dreamsincode.com