Ask HN: How would you teach programming skills to underprivileged kids?
I am associated with an NGO that organizes after-school activities for children in a slum in Mumbai, India. I'm trying to create a course to teach them some programming skills that will enable them to get freelancing careers or be able to get jobs once they graduate school. The target group is kids in grades 9 to 12 with limited exposure to computers and programming (some of them have some knowledge of HTML from a campaign done by another NGO but most are unfamiliar with any form of computer languages).
I'm trying to come up with a course of about 10 hours (spread out over 2 weekends) that would introduce them to programming. It would be great if the kids could have something working by the end of the course so that its engaging for them (drop out rates have been very high in the past).
My inclination is to start with the basics of Python and then move on to something like Django where they can create a working website for themselves. Is this feasible to teach in 10 hours? Is there any other language or program I should start with instead?
The longer term goal here is to take the kids that show the most interest and teach them algorithms and data structures allowing them to get good jobs in software companies.
I'm trying to come up with a course of about 10 hours (spread out over 2 weekends) that would introduce them to programming. It would be great if the kids could have something working by the end of the course so that its engaging for them (drop out rates have been very high in the past).
My inclination is to start with the basics of Python and then move on to something like Django where they can create a working website for themselves. Is this feasible to teach in 10 hours? Is there any other language or program I should start with instead?
The longer term goal here is to take the kids that show the most interest and teach them algorithms and data structures allowing them to get good jobs in software companies.