Programming for Kids

We got our first computer at my house when I was about 14 years old. It was a TI 99/4a computer and it only cost around $99. I think we even got the speech modulator for free. The capabilities of the computer were pretty limited from a programming perspective. I could write BASIC programs and my dad got me the extended BASIC module which allowed me to do some more advanced things like sprites. I also subscribed to the TI99 magazine which came every month with printed out programs, mostly games, that we typed in to the computer. Some of the programs were probably hundreds of lines long and we typed it in line by line and debugged it as we went along.

This was my first exposure to computers and programming, which was new for all kids and particularly exciting for me and my friends.

What is it like for today’s kids? Well, I guess I am about to find out with my 10 year old son. He uses a computer a lot to play games and type documents for school. I have tried to get him interested in programming, but it does not seem to be something he is naturally drawn to. There are so many cool applications on the computer already that he really doesn’t want for anything. If we wanted to play a new game, we had to program it ourselves.

Matt introduced my to Brandon Watts shortly before last year’s Gnomedex. Brandon is a great guy who actually wrote his own programming language called Leopard at the age of 14. We had just come out with our API and I was looking for ways for our participating WeatherBug schools to have a cool programming language that included easy access to WeatherBug data. So, late last year, Brandon and I worked together to produce the first integration of Leopard and WeatherBug so that it is easy for children or any beginning programmer to quickly build their own weather application. We continue to expand on that relationship throughout 2007.

I was also introduced to another programming language meant for children and beginners called Phrogram in late 2006. Phrogram is a C#-like programming language that is really a very full featured, yet simple programming language. I am happy to say that WeatherBug has also forged an agreement with Phrogram so that programmers using the Phrogram language can easily access weather information to build into the programs they write. Right now you can easily access temperature, wind and rain information. We hope to expand those capabilities througouth 2007 as we launch our integrated products to schools and beginning programmers.

If anyone else shares the same passion I do in making sure that our children have a passion for programming, please support us by downloading these languages and giving us your feedback on new features we can add or in developing more sample applications that can be built upon…or better yet, put it in front of your own kids and let us know how they like it.