The Wrong Way to Teach Introduction to Programming

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I've been asked to teach introduction to programming twice, once using Microsoft Visual Studio and once using Alice.

It is hard for me to imagine a worse approach to introducing students to programming. These are both massively complex environments, and in order to get anywhere with either, the student is going to spend 95% of his or her time coping with the environment, and 5% learning computer programming. It is as though, in teaching children to use vehicles, instead of starting with a tricycle, we put them behind the control panel of an aircraft carrier, because "it has so many built-in capabilities" that a tricycle lacks.

Put the students in a simple interactive interpreter, and actually teach them to program a step at a time:


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