tes (nov 2011)

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Complex programming languages have turned pupils offcomputing studies, but a user-friendly option could breathenew life into this vital area for creativity. Douglas Blane reports

LiveCode averts'game over' forprogrammers

As more people use computers,'fewer have the faintest ideahow they work. So there is acomputer skills crisis in thiscountry. The problem starts

in our schools, say employers and univer-sities - and there are two aspects to it.For a start, the nature of computer

programming is not well understood. Soschool and education authority managersoften assume that ICT and computingskills are synonymous. But the differenceis fundamental.In !CT, the pupils learn to use pro-

grams such as Word, Excel and Power-Point, lan Livingstone, life president ofcomputer games giant Eidos - famous forgames such as Tomb Raider - recentlytold the BBC. "But they don't have theskills to make them. It's the differencebetween reading and writing. We'reteaching them how to read. We're notteaching them how to write."The second problem is that genuine

computing studies courses fossilise fast."Youngsters, who are living with thistechnology and are excited by it, goon these courses and think it's somekind of archaeology," says Professor

Ian Livingstone: skills shortage concern.

Andrew McGertrick of StrathclydeUniversity's computer and informationsciences department.Languages used to teach programming

in schools are often old and unfriendly,says Steven Whyte, computing studiesteacher at Gracemount High in Edin-burgh. "Often it's Cornal, which wasdevised way back in the 1970s. It's ahorrendous language for the classroom."Visual Basic, another one often used

in schools, is not much easier. Theselanguages are hard to learn, difficult tounderstand and stressful forthe kids - andthe teacher trying to teach them. It's all'I don't understand what this forwardslash does, sir' or 'Why do I need doublequotation marks here?"What young learners need is a pro--

gramming language that lets them devise,test and use their own programs quicklyand as painlessly as possible, withoutgetting bogged down in error-pronesymbols and syntax. A high-level lan-guage called LiveCode is the answer,Mr Whyte believes, and the results ofhis teaching with it bear this out.'They really enjoy working with it,"he

says. 'They're going away and changingthe programs they work on in class, tryingto do other things with them. That's a suresign they're learning."Many of them used to drop computing

studies after Standard grade, even ifthey did well in it, because they hatedthe programming, they told me. Nowlots of them go on to do Higher."All three LiveCode courses Mr Whyte

devised for his own pupils - Standardgrade, Intermediate 2 and Higher - arenow available online, he says. "I enjoycreating resources and I'm happy toshare them."The company that developed LiveCode

is based in Edinburgh, but they've beenworking mainly in the United States so far,with organisations such as NASA. They'rejust getting into education. I think theyshould have done it ages ago."The big advantage of LiveCode in the

classroom is that learners get creativeright away, without swimming through asea of syntax. Programming words and

etLiveCodeisthe answer,MrWhytebelieves, andthe results ofhis teachingwith it bearthis out

syntax look appealingly like English,and there is a nicely intuitive interfacefor developing code."It's simple and appealing. There's

no jargon and it's highly portable:' saysMr Whyte. "If pupils are using a Mac inschool, they can email their work to a PCat home and continue working there."A rea) bonus for the future is that Live-

Code prograr,ns developed on desktop orlaptop can readiJy be deployed on a smart-phone, says Mr Whyte. "All the kids havesmartphones these days, right from firstyear, and designing and programminggames and apps for those will give thema real buzz."Best of all in these tough times, LiveCode

is cheap, says Mr Whyte. "POSSibly evenfree. If you email the company and sayyou're a school interested in using Live-Code, and you've just downloaded Stevensnotes, there is a good chance they'll giveyou a scholarship licence."

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