Codecombat创始人：编程教学平台需要解决的三个问题

11月14日，CodeCombat创始人兼CEO Nick Winter在GET2018教育科技大会分论坛上，为大家带来了一场名为《编程，一门与电脑和未来沟通的语言》的演讲。Nick觉得，要搭建优秀的编程教学平台，需要着重解决三大难题，分别是学习兴趣、学习内容和优良师资。

以下为Nick Winter演讲实录精选：

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.

每年为学生提供编程课的学校在美国一直成倍增长，按此趋势至2019年，美国将大概有4000万学生学习编程，全球则有将近8亿学生学习编程。

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.

编程是人类跟计算机沟通的语言，那么我们应该怎么教授这门语言呢？Codecombat是我成立的第二家公司，我成立的第一家公司开发了一款APP专门教外国人如何书写汉字，通过高频的互动让学生迅速认识和掌握汉字的正确写法。这款产品利用人工智能记录了学生的学习进度，并敦促学生在适当的时候温习之前学过的汉字。这款APP一直是外国人学习汉字的首选。

Nick Winter开发的汉字学习应用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.

我开发了这个APP之后就在考虑，既然我可以教外国人学习世界上最复杂的语言，我一定也可以教会大家如何学习编程，所以Codecombat的概念的诞生了。什么才是最有效地教授或学习编程的方法呢？这是很多人关心的话题，首先，我们要从编程学科所面临的的主要挑战开始说起。

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，几年前我就意识到了学习编程的重要性，但是对于初学者尤其是青少年来说，它的入门门槛比较高，学习编写代码的过程比较枯燥，这样对于初学者很难培养起兴趣。

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，找到优秀的编程教师对于学校来说不是一件容易的事。如果会编程，他们可能不会选择当老师，因为程序员的薪水要比教师要高得多。

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，要讲授有一定深度的计算机科学知识，以及学生可以真正运用到生活和工作中的编程语言。未来的代码阅读与编写，大数据的读写都需要掌握真正的代码。我认为一个真正优秀的编程教学平台应该从根本上解决上面的三大难题。

Codecombat有一众各具特色的英雄可供学生选择

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.

当学生们使用Codecombat学习的时候，就像在玩电脑游戏一样，有英雄选择界面，能够过关斩将。在这个过程中，他们会觉得自己不单在学习抽象的编程知识，还在玩一个非常有意思的游戏。

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.

跟学习任何一门语言一样，越沉浸其中，就能越快掌握这门语言。所以Codecombat从开始就没有老师出来告诉你要应用到什么函数、什么逻辑，而是把这些概念都融入到关卡当中，控制英雄闯关就是在应用这些知识。这样学生在游玩一段时间后，写代码就会变成一个很自然的行为。

Codecombat专门为教师开发了学生管理平台，方便教师们在课堂上使用

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，我们团队用了3年的时间来研究代码引擎，还根据数百万学生的学习数据，来让每一条的学习提示反馈变得更加具体、清晰。这样一来，学生写错的时候可以及时得到有效指导，不需要老师来引导并告诉他们哪里出错。

教师端可以利用平台轻松查看教学进度

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.

结合编程知识，Codecombat为学生设计了一系列的互动内容，老师可以将这些互动内容直接应用到课堂当众。在我们设计的课堂里，老师更像是饰演导师的角色，他们不需要任何编程背景，也可以指导编程课。我们为教师们提供学生学习数据，这样老师们就可以根据每位学生的实际情况来进行重点指导。