dereksurfs Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Hi All, I found a great series of tutorials which ds11 started going through recently. Within 2 days he has written two of his first Java programs. This included installing the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which is Netbeans in this case, all free of course. Although I am a software engineer I sometimes find it best to let others teach him and this has definately worked well with these instructional videos. Once a student goes through the basics they are ready to start creating their first games in Java. So that's next and he is really excited.:D Anyway here is the link to the tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJavaHub When you are ready to give it a go start here with Java for the Absolute Beginner: Its very well put together and a bit hard to believe its all free. I hope you enjoy them as we did. Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thank you!!! My DS is currently doing a Python course with Coursera, but I've bookmarked these Java resources for later. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thanks! If there is a Coder Dojo programming club near you, I highly recommend giving it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 His accent makes me want to learn JAVA. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 His accent makes me want to learn JAVA. ;) :lol: Haha, Yeah, I thought the same thing for my son. And he really has does enjoy following the lessons. I do think that the voice matters with some of these tutorials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiMomNP Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Thank you! My son has been learning Python and plans to add learning Java shortly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Thanks. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Thank you! My son has been learning Python and plans to add learning Java shortly! :iagree:Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 My son has now finished all 17 lessons in the Java for Absolute Beginners tutorials. They were short, to the point and very hands on which appeals to his learning style. He is really excited to start the next series: . In researching this a bit more I found a fantastic free Java based Game Making IDE called Greenfoot. It’s a powerful tool for both teaching programming fundamentals and making some cool games. It's used by quite a few college and university CS departments in teaching programming. I plan on using this next: http://www.greenfoot.org/overview http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/mik/category/joy-of-code/page/2/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Very cool, thanks. DS has pretty much mastered Scratch, and now he's doing a Kid Coder Visual Basic course. DH promised him Java down the road, so I'll make a note of this one. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) For reading Introduction to programming in Java (Pearson Education) PDF - chapter one only, 191 pages Edited October 5, 2012 by Arcadia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsintheGarden Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Wow! Thanks so much for these resources! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) Very cool, thanks. DS has pretty much mastered Scratch, and now he's doing a Kid Coder Visual Basic course. DH promised him Java down the road, so I'll make a note of this one. :) After using Scratch and his VB course this should be a pretty natural progression toward learning Java. My son started with Game Maker Studio which is similar to Scratch and Alice, just offering a bit more features. But its similar in the way it presents logical choices and building blocks for programming games. My younger daughter also used Scratch which was a bit easier for her to pick up right away. Although there are many Beginning Java books already out there, this approach is unique in that it presents topics in very pratical, visual, hands-on, fun ways which kids can understand much quicker IMO. Of course there is a place for theory and a good Java reference book is handy to have around when needed. But so much is available for free online now that most questions and topics which come up can easily be googled at this stage. I have quite a few expensive Java books collecting dust on the shelf. Even at work most SW engineers I work with use the internet much more now than books from a bookstore. One PhD I worked with called it 'asking Dr. Google.' :tongue_smilie: Edited October 5, 2012 by dereksurfs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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