The desire to learn and understand can be a powerful accelerant for students and it's something that is completely missing from almost all Computer Science education. Once they start to explore and figure out things for themselves then they can begin to dig into all the explanatory tutorials and documentation that are provided to clarify how things work. Rather than starting Computer Science education off by explicitly teaching how a computer works or fundamental programming concepts (like variables, logic, control structures, etc.) you put the student into code of graduated complexity and encourage them to manipulate, explore, and write their own programs. In his blog post, Redefining the Introduction to Computer Science, John Resig explains the approach that he adopted was heavily influenced by Brett Victor who gave a talk on the benefits of a responsive programming environment earlier this year, see A Better Way to Program. Instant gratification is a principle that you will notice in the introductory video for the new computer science curriculum which demonstrates how, in the platform John Resig designed, the code and its output are presented side by side and how, as you alter the code you immediately experience the effect: ![]() Resig is best known as the creator of the jQuery JavaScript library and he is also the person who began the development of Processing.js, the JavaScript port of Processing, the open source programming language which aims to get non-programmers started with programming, through the instant gratification of visual feedback. The new curriculum has been put together by a team led by Khan Academy's resident JavaScript expert John Resig. Based on a combination of JavaScript and Processing, and intended to be a fun environment to learn in, it is highly interactive. ![]() Online education site Khan Academy has a brand new approach to introducing programming. Khan Academy Launches New Introductory Computer Science Curriculum
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