The Programmers Of The Future.

Martin MC Brown, from computerworld.com is worried about the lack of intrest in programming in the younger generation

How do we get kids interested in programming computers, as opposed to just using them?

Sadly we are creating a generation of computer-savvy kids. They know how to search the internet, write up reports and play their games. Many of them even know how to do things it took me years of playing to discover, but somehow we are not instilling the same level of joy or interest in actually creating the applications used to run the computers.

 Bill Thompson at the BBC asks a similar question and believes the solution is in accessibility to the tools and in education.

Mr Brown also says

But I think it goes deeper than this - we just don’t provide any encouragement or reason to learn programming. Let’s face it, programmers are not exactly the trendiest part of the gene pool. I’m not saying we need role models, but perhaps we should be pointing out how much fun programming can be? Or how rewarding it can be?

Perhaps, too, we should be more open about how programming works, and how easy it can be to produce fun stuff. Tools like Ruby on Rails, for example, make it very quick and easy to produce some fun and exciting stuff. Promoting tools like this for development would potentially start people people down the development slippery slope that leads to the bigger and more extensive projects.

I think the excitement of discovering and being part of a "brave new world" is no longer a factor in attracting people to the profession - unlike us - these kids were born into a world of computers - nothing new and exciting about them…

I know of a lot of projects- even international ones to encourage kids interests in science and research, development and business by the way of competition - putting the kids through the "real" steps that it would take to research and develop any kind of project from finding necessity to evaluating production costs to making prototype.

I would say that this would be the way to encompass both access intrest and education.