Codecombat創始人：程式設計教學平臺需要解決的三個問題

11月14日，CodeCombat創始人兼CEO Nick Winter在GET2018教育科技大會分論壇上，為大家帶來了一場名為《程式設計，一門與電腦和未來溝通的語言》的演講。Nick覺得，要搭建優秀的程式設計教學平臺，需要著重解決三大難題，分別是學習興趣、學習內容和優良師資。

以下為Nick Winter演講實錄精選：

The number of schools offering programming classes in the United States is growing exponentially every year。 By 2019， there are about 40 million students studying programming in the United States， and about 800 million students around the world are learning to program。

每年為學生提供程式設計課的學校在美國一直成倍增長，按此趨勢至2019年，美國將大概有4000萬學生學習程式設計，全球則有將近8億學生學習程式設計。

The language of communication between humans and computers is programming。 How do you teach this new language？ Codecombat is the second company I owned。 The first company I started was an app that taught foreigners to write Chinese characters。 Through high-interaction， students were able to understand and practice writing Chinese characters。 This product uses artificial intelligence to record the student‘s progress， allowing students to review the Chinese characters they have learned in the appropriate time。 This app has always been the number one learning platform for foreigners to learn Chinese。

程式設計是人類跟計算機溝通的語言，那麼我們應該怎麼教授這門語言呢？Codecombat是我成立的第二家公司，我成立的第一家公司開發了一款APP專門教外國人如何書寫漢字，透過高頻的互動讓學生迅速認識和掌握漢字的正確寫法。這款產品利用人工智慧記錄了學生的學習進度，並敦促學生在適當的時候溫習之前學過的漢字。這款APP一直是外國人學習漢字的首選。

Nick Winter開發的漢字學習應用Skritter

I created this app and thought about it。 Since I can teach foreigners to learn the hardest language in the world， how should I teach you to learn programming， so Codecombat was born。 So how do you teach and learn programming education most effectively？ This is a topic that many people care about。 First， let’s take a look at the main challenges facing the programming discipline。

我開發了這個APP之後就在考慮，既然我可以教外國人學習世界上最複雜的語言，我一定也可以教會大家如何學習程式設計，所以Codecombat的概念的誕生了。什麼才是最有效地教授或學習程式設計的方法呢？這是很多人關心的話題，首先，我們要從程式設計學科所面臨的的主要挑戰開始說起。

First， I was thinking about programming useful and important a few years ago， but it was too boring for beginners and it was too difficult to get started。 For students of younger grades， code learning is very difficult。 They don‘t even have the opportunity to use the medium， so there is no way to start programming。

第一，幾年前我就意識到了學習程式設計的重要性，但是對於初學者尤其是青少年來說，它的入門門檻比較高，學習編寫程式碼的過程比較枯燥，這樣對於初學者很難培養起興趣。

Second， recruiting a good teacher is a big problem for the school and the teacher。 If the teacher will program， it is very likely that he will not be a teacher， because the programmer’s salary is much higher than the teacher。

第二，找到優秀的程式設計教師對於學校來說不是一件容易的事。如果會程式設計，他們可能不會選擇當老師，因為程式設計師的薪水要比教師要高得多。

Third， professors have in-depth knowledge of computer science and the programming language that students can really apply to life and work。 Future code reading， writing， big data， and writing need to learn the real code。 I think a really good programming teaching platform should solve the above three problems。

第三，要講授有一定深度的計算機科學知識，以及學生可以真正運用到生活和工作中的程式語言。未來的程式碼閱讀與編寫，大資料的讀寫都需要掌握真正的程式碼。我認為一個真正優秀的程式設計教學平臺應該從根本上解決上面的三大難題。

Codecombat有一眾各具特色的英雄可供學生選擇

When students use Codecombat to learn， they seem to be playing a real computer game。 They choose heroes and levels。 In the process， they will feel that they are not just learning abstract programming knowledge， but playing a very fun game。

當學生們使用Codecombat學習的時候，就像在玩電腦遊戲一樣，有英雄選擇介面，能夠過關斬將。在這個過程中，他們會覺得自己不單在學習抽象的程式設計知識，還在玩一個非常有意思的遊戲。

As with any language， the more immersive the environment， the faster you master the language。 So in Codecombat， I didn‘t start listening to the teacher about what is a function， what is a method， but to use these concepts to control their heroes and complete the level。 So after the students play Codecombat for a while， it will be natural to write the code slowly。

跟學習任何一門語言一樣，越沉浸其中，就能越快掌握這門語言。所以Codecombat從開始就沒有老師出來告訴你要應用到什麼函式、什麼邏輯，而是把這些概念都融入到關卡當中，控制英雄闖關就是在應用這些知識。這樣學生在遊玩一段時間後，寫程式碼就會變成一個很自然的行為。

Codecombat專門為教師開發了學生管理平臺，方便教師們在課堂上使用

At Codecombat， we spent three years researching the code engine and making each learning feedback hint more specific based on the learning data of millions of students。 In this way， students can get effective guidance when they are wrong， so they don’t have to wait for the teacher to tell them what is wrong。

在Codecombat中，我們團隊用了3年的時間來研究程式碼引擎，還根據數百萬學生的學習資料，來讓每一條的學習提示反饋變得更加具體、清晰。這樣一來，學生寫錯的時候可以及時得到有效指導，不需要老師來引導並告訴他們哪裡出錯。

教師端可以利用平臺輕鬆檢視教學進度

Combined with programming knowledge， Codecombat has designed a series of student interaction activities that teachers can add directly to their classrooms。 In our classroom， teachers are more like a mentor。 They can teach programming without a little computer background。 We provide student learning data， so teachers can provide key knowledge guidance based on each student‘s learning situation。

結合程式設計知識，Codecombat為學生設計了一系列的互動內容，老師可以將這些互動內容直接應用到課堂當眾。在我們設計的課堂裡，老師更像是飾演導師的角色，他們不需要任何程式設計背景，也可以指導程式設計課。我們為教師們提供學生學習資料，這樣老師們就可以根據每位學生的實際情況來進行重點指導。