April 27, 2007, by Brian DeLacey

Learn, Lead, and Follow

On March 1st, everyone in the beta group got acquainted and the first software appeared. I downloaded Hackety Hack and was immersed immediately. _why was there from the beginning helping, guiding, and updating everyone. Little did we know then how much each of us would learn.

"I hope it will be at a casual pace so that no one feels left behind" were some of _why's opening words. And he set the pace: "Take it slow: one lesson at a time." Looking back, it's amazing how quickly these lessons flew by.

Miraculously, _why managed to get this online group to gel very quickly. After downloading the first batch of software, it didn't take long to see that the software and lessons were well done and full of promise.

I had my first Hackety Hack program running that same day. It was easy - indeed, splendid. Here we were already working and writing programs on the web using new libraries created by _why. From scratch. Probably the most important thing I learned in the first 48 hours with Hackety Hack was to get my kids involved. I had tried different ways in the past to get them interested in the insides of computers - we tore a few apart and looked at the hardware inside - but it's a little tougher to get a feeling for what is really happening on all that silicon. They can't see logic like a mother board but need to think it. Then along came HH.

Here was a real chance to give that logic wired in all our brains a web-savvy digital workout..

So, on a bit of a self-dare, I decided to lead my kids through these lessons. I handled software downloads and installations, but the rest was up to them: they were the ones with their hands on the keyboard and mouse. Each child went through the lessons to start. We finished the first one by March 3rd - and I already could see we were experiencing a revolutionary new instructional tool.

And it was fun. The shortest lesson might have been 20 minutes - the longest one still less than an hour. It was all time well spent.

In the first few lessons, I participated in their learning. There were typos they made and I fixed - it was a battle of discovery over when a space mattered and when it didn't. And when does a capital letter really make a difference? (No txtng hre.) We worked through those debugging steps together. It's a better than even money bet they would have just quit if left to do this on their own. But the other side of the learning coin is teaching. Over time it all became less onerous. There were moments that required encouragement. There were challenges. But isn't this the learning process? And isn't it better to engage this at a younger age?

We had plenty of logistical conflicts - sports, homework, friends, and the normal niceities of kid-life. But they kept coming back to Hackety Hack. They anticipated the next lesson. They elected HH rather than video games in one very engaging lesson.

The organized lessons and schedule guided us. The vibrant online learning group of the friendly fifty sure helped enormously. And the quick and responsive feedback online, in the form of new software builds and lessons, just made this process purrrrrrrr . There were suprisingly few technological showstoppers - in fact, we experienced precisely none. Sure, there were some early bugs but there were workarounds and that was part of the learning fun. It was the most straightforward "beta" I've seen .... and I've seen many. If anything, my kids have been spoiled by this - there were saved the joy of computer calamaties!

Around about the 4th lesson, my kids were unexpectedly doing most of the lessons by themselves. I was astounded. They were suddenly working differently in very visible ways - like catching errors they had typed in before even running the program. They started exploring bits around the edges of functionality. In those first few lessons, they had developed "debugging" skills and "code review" skills which are helpful skills in many areas of quality sensitive activity. They all learned differently. But they all learned.

They also began making small edits of their own to programs. We jointly identified shortcuts to ease the sometimes painful process of programming. (e.g. We were working from lessons which I had printed out. We decided to stop typing in the comments which saved just enough time to make it more enjoyable. No comments: they earned the badge of coding cowboys and cowgals ... hitting the trail young. Lessons are now fully integrated with HH, so they can be read online and even copy/pasted all but eliminating typos our #1 nemisis of introductory programming.)

In a couple of the middle lessons, my kids worked together. One who had more experience helped one with less. This arrangement required some encouragement at first, but it became natural in a very short period of time. Aha! Kids can mentor other kids using Hackety Hack! That's a pretty exciting thought. In the 6th and 7th lessons my kids were on their own, I responded to questions (and even once from a remote location via a chat message.) Those penultimate lessons were all their own.

Yes, it was fun. Learning to ride a bicycle takes a bit of planning, patience, a certain amount of encouragement and support, and some dedicated practice.So does this, but no helmets are required and _why has given us the training wheels for free.

The completion of Lesson 7 came with a feeling a little bit like seeing a kid ride off into the horizon, having learned to ride a bike. Finally, free of training wheels, and moving fast under their own pedal power the world is a new place to explore. I recall standing there, hoping they could keep their hands on the handlebars and not forget the brakes. I'm left in utter amazement knowing before long they will be teaching me about what they find I can follow them.