Nepal4me Posted June 17, 2018 Posted June 17, 2018 My son would like to start programming but I don't know where to start to get him going. I know there are tons of Youtube videos and I've browsed them but to get going, I think it would be easier to have an actual person to teach him at least at the beginning. Ideally I would like a Thai person to do the teaching as generally they cost a lot less and there are tons of tech savvy kids here. We live in the Bangna area and could either go to a teachers place or have a teacher come to my home. Also is there a computer Thai language forum? If so, please link to me and I can have my wife pose a similar question there. Obviously there will be much greater access to more computer geeks there.
Crossy Posted June 17, 2018 Posted June 17, 2018 36 minutes ago, Nepal4me said: My son would like to start programming but I don't know where to start to get him going. How old is he? What would he like to do? (they all want to "hack" of course) "Programming" is such a broad definition covering everything from data processing, signal processing, real-time applications and (a la K-Tel) many, many more. Kids like to see things happen. I would be looking at something quick and easy to start, maybe one of the Arduino based robot kits, line following and other more complex stuff (call it with a flashlight and it comes like a dog). Easy to program in C with loads of examples with the kit for him to expand upon and make it do "clever" stuff. Almost anything learnt with these simple machines applies to the bigger beasties. Long, long ago when I was at uni, "computing" involved coding in Fortan, hand punching it onto cards, submitting to the computer lab to be "run", and, a week later, receiving a single piece of green music-ruled tractor paper with the result printed on it, invariably it said :- "syntax error"? 2
Nepal4me Posted June 17, 2018 Author Posted June 17, 2018 He is 12. Yeah haha, he wants to hack but he just wants to find stuff to start and just get better. I dont think there is anything that he specifically wants. He is an easy kid, scores really highly in MAP testing without doing academic stuff outside of school so for sure he will pick it up quickly. Problem is Im not a geek and cant easily guide him. I would really like to find a hands on teacher to just get the ball rolling.
OneMoreFarang Posted June 18, 2018 Posted June 18, 2018 Arduino programming is a good start. It has a proper language (C) and allows lots of things starting with the blinking of an LED. Personally I learned programming a little from a "teacher" and a lot from books. I like books because often they are written by professionals who know what they are doing. Some videos on YouTube are good. But there is lots of crap out there and learning something wrong won't help your son. I don't know about Thai programming schools but I had very bad experience with Thai computer schools. There might be exceptions but many are just bad. I recommend a personal teacher together with books. If he is really interested he will find lots of good information in the books. The teacher should be the backup so that he can ask questions from time to time.
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