Ideas worth spreading

A delightful way to teach kids about computers

2,159,702 views | Linda Liukas • TEDxCERN

Computer code is the next universal language, and its syntax will be limited only by the imaginations of the next generation of programmers. Linda Liukas is helping to educate problem-solving kids, encouraging them to see computers not as mechanical, boring and complicated but as colorful, expressive machines meant to be tinkered with. In this talk, she invites us to imagine a world where the Ada Lovelaces of tomorrow grow up to be optimistic and brave about technology and use it to create a new world that is wonderful, whimsical and a tiny bit weird.

Computer code is the next universal language, and its syntax will be limited only by the imaginations of the next generation of programmers. Linda Liukas is helping to educate problem-solving kids, encouraging them to see computers not as mechanical, boring and complicated but as colorful, expressive machines meant to be tinkered with. In this talk, she invites us to imagine a world where the Ada Lovelaces of tomorrow grow up to be optimistic and brave about technology and use it to create a new world that is wonderful, whimsical and a tiny bit weird.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCERN, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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Build your own paper computer and learn about the machine that powers our world.

Learn how to teach computational thinking in classroom with only pens and paper.

About the speaker

Linda Liukas

Programmer, storyteller and illustrator

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Linda Liukas wants to create a more diverse and colorful world of technology, starting with the poetry of code.

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Code.org

A fun, free way to learn basics of programming through guided exercises.

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Scratch

Pair Code.org's resources with this excellent curriculum guide.

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CS Unplugged

CS Unplugged has activities you can do without a computer to teach programming fundamentals.

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A Computer Glossary

One of the best videos on what computers and code are comes from Ray & Charles Eames and goes back to the seventies. Maybe it was because the machines were simpler, but somehow computers seem much more understandable back then.

Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon | MIT A.I. Laboratory, 1971 | Article

Twenty Things To Do With A Computer

Cynthia Solomon and Seymour Papert wrote this wonderful paper in 1971, but it couldn’t be more timely today.

Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken | MIT Press, 2005 | Book

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles

George Dyson | Pantheon, 2012 | Book

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

A wonderful and wise book about the early days of computing.

Peter Seibel | Apress, 2009 | Book

Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming

ln-depth interviews with the people who crafted the software we use every day.

Seymour A. Papert | Basic Books, 2003 | Book

Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas

This book that influenced my thinking on early age computing a lot.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCERN, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Build your own paper computer and learn about the machine that powers our world.

Learn how to teach computational thinking in classroom with only pens and paper.