khanacademy.org launches computer science tutorials

The website khanacademy.org is a non-profit organization whose goal is to provide a free video-based education for anyone in the world. There are video tutorials on everything from math (basic addition through calculus) to accounting and economics. Their newest addition is a video series on computer science topics, specifically, computer programming.

There are many sites and programs out there that focus on teaching the basics of computer programming. Some of them approach it the traditional way, by introducing a language and then exploring basic programming constructs (top-down design, conditionals, loops, recursion, etc) in that language. Some, like Alice, try to focus more on the output, and then encouraging users to go ?behind the scenes? and see exactly how the output was created.

The new khanacademy.org approach is closer to the latter: by using a ?responsive programming environment?, students are able to write code and see the effects of their code changes in real time, in their web browser. This, coupled with an intuitive programming interface with a nice built-in help system, gives the immediate feedback that a lot of early programmers struggle with (especially younger ones). Instead of the ?edit->save->compile->run->cross your fingers and hope it works->debug? routine that many of us learned programming with, students are able to visualize how their code changes are affecting their end product, and adjust accordingly.

The initial examples and tutorials center on graphics and animation, a good choice knowing who the target audience is. The language of choice is javascript, which although not my favorite language in the world, does lend itself well to the web environment and the easy debugging and script execution.

Does this take the place of a formal computer science education? Not yet. But take it for what it is: a good introduction to basic programming concepts for someone who has never seen code of any kind before, and an intuitive interface that gives prospective students a low barrier to entry. Kudos to the khanacademy for their continuing efforts in providing quality video education free to anyone with internet access. I?m excited to show it to my kids .

See the curriculum itself at?www.khanacademy.org/cs, read the announcement blog post at?ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/ and watch the demonstration video at?youtu.be/tygZ2A8rytQ.

Source: http://aiminstitute.org/blog/2012/08/khanacademy-org-launches-computer-science-tutorials/

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