Last Friday I was chatting with a woman (not in tech) who had a great idea for an app. “It’s too bad you need to have a talent for that sort of thing,” she sighed.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I shrieked. Poor lady couldn’t know what a sore spot she’d hit
We do not want code savants running things. We want people with big, interesting ideas learning to code.
Enter Code-cademy. Go ahead, try it:
And now you’re coding! Yay!
To understand why I’m so excited about Codecademy, try reading this description of Javascript (the same language you typed above). I’ll wait. Have you run screaming yet? Unfortunately, it’s how most coding lessons start. It’s like me telling you “Well, if you want to learn Latin, it’s an Indo-European language with Italic roots, dependent on an object-subject-verb order and a robust subjunctive system…”
Codecademy wisely uses gamification-type pedagogy, avoiding the scary technical terms at first and getting straight to the business. This, for the record, is a method favored when teaching real, human languages as well.
The idea of “talent” always bothers me, at least when natural aptitude is used as the sole determining factor for greatness. In both my current life (tech) and my former (Classics), the “it” crowd are usually language savants (or code savants) whose abilities in Latin or Greek or Javascript are innate. It’s not surprising, then, that their pedagogy goes off the rails; as I’ve noted before, people with natural talent are rarely good teachers. And promoting any skill — be it PHP or Latin or teaching itself – as a vocation, and bequeathing a subject only to those who are already good at it, is contrary to the tenets of teaching, not to mention the that it’s the single best way to keep interesting, innovative people* out of your field.
Until tech fully embraces that coding need not be an innate gift, that it is a learnable skill like any other, it will not reach its full potential. (Much like, say, Classics is doing, except with a lot more money and power.) And to get that message across, we’re going to need more tools like this one.
*Especially interesting, innovative women and minorities, historically speaking.
Love this. Must design the next great app so I can retire…
Worth a try, anyway. Only challenge is finding the time.
“Robust subjunctive” is nearly onomotopaeic for the sound my brain makes first exploding within the confines of my skull, then melting out my ears, whenever I try to wrap my head around that mood. It’s the problem with being native in a grammatically stripped-down language like English: all those rich layers are nearly beyond our ability to comprehend. I found myself yesterday trying to explain the genitive case to a student, and even to my own ears it sounded very weird.
Right, but as long you embrace the brain explosion, you’re doing fine and remaining confused enough to teach well. That’s exactly how coding felt to me, anyway.
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You have noted something important that also applies to businesses. Lots of leaders have ‘natural talent.” We can debate whether its nature or nurture at some other point. Mickey Mantle was a natural home run hitter – if by natural you mean he spent thousands of hours practicing – and developed the habit of hitting naturally. This is why in my leadership classes I tell students that no one is a born leader. Leaders are built, not born.
Anyway, back tot eh point….by the time leaders become leaders, it seems to them and those around them that they are natural. This is why so many companies fail after an excellent leader leaves. They have not taught the next person how to do the job. Everyone suffers.
I agree, leadership skills can — and should — be taught. But then I wonder why some people never quite get to the point of being really effective leaders, despite instruction and practice….maybe this is because a B-grade leader is more obvious than say, a B-grade programmer? I don’t know, and I certainly don’t think it’s either/or.
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Hi Amanda,
I thought it was cool that you got props from Prof. Hacker re: Codecademy. I like the new-look blog too. Glad you got a life in Austin!
Cheers,
Gerald
Hey Gerald, thanks for stopping by and glad to hear from you. If you and the fam are ever in Austin, let me know!
Codecademy is great — I use it as a supplement and complement to the (actually pretty great) Java programming course I’m sitting on in this semester.
Now, isn’t it your task to design an equivalent site/service for the teaching of Latin and Greek??
(I know that JavaScript and Java are different languages, by the way!)
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