讀《FT·金融時報》學(xué)英語：編程玩具：程序員培養(yǎng)從娃娃抓起

我們要對一個高深的世界去神秘化，幫孩子消除恐懼心理：電腦這東西并非專屬于極客和怪才，也屬于每個人。

Sunday morning saw me up early to try out an interesting new tech toy.It is called Cubetto, comes from a London start-up and is a beautifully made kit to introduce children from the age of three to computer coding.

一個周日早上，我起了個大早，要試試一個有趣的高科技新玩具。這個玩具名為Cubetto，來自倫敦一家初創(chuàng)公司，是一個制作精美的玩具套裝，目的是向三歲以上孩子介紹電腦編程。

“Teach your child to code before they can read,” Cubetto's publicity proclaim Ms.One of the key investors is Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark.Made mostly of wood, Cubetto has already won a top British toy award and follows Montessori's early learning principles.

Cubetto的廣告宣傳稱：“教孩子未學(xué)認(rèn)字先學(xué)編程。”該公司的關(guān)鍵投資人之一是馬克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)的姐姐蘭迪·扎克伯格(Randi Zuckerberg)。主要是木質(zhì)的Cubetto，遵循蒙臺梭利(Montessori)的早教原理，已獲得了英國一個玩具最高獎項。

I was intrigued to see if Cubetto could, as promised, teach me “a host of programming concepts, including algorithms, the queue, debugging and recursions”.

我饒有興趣地想看看Cubetto能否像承諾的那樣，教會我“包括算法、隊列、調(diào)試和遞歸在內(nèi)的多種編程概念”。

I gave up after 30 minutes.It was instruction number seven, on “subroutines”, that did for me.Perhaps I am stupid but, as far as I could tell, it made no sense at all.

30分鐘后，我放棄了。問題是出在說明書的第七條“子程序”上。也許是我太蠢了，但在我看來，這一條讓人不知所云。

That said, I made Cubetto work and I could see the principle behind it.Using coloured blocks, you input a string of commands to send a 10cm by 7cm wheeled cuboid — with a face — trundling ahead, left and right.

‍盡管如此，我確實把Cubetto玩起來了，我也可以認(rèn)識到它背后的原理。通過帶顏色的積木，可以向一個長10厘米，寬7厘米、正面畫著一張臉、下面有輪子的長方體輸入一系列指令，使它向前、向左和向右運動。‍

‍‍I am sure it will stimulate some brilliant three-year-olds but it was one of the dullest toys I have seen.‍‍

我確信它會刺激一部分聰明的三歲孩子，但它是我見過的最無趣的玩具之一。

Worthy, tasteful wooden educational toys rarely impress children and Cubetto is as heart-sinkingly disappointing as any.It is not gaudy enough, not plasticky enough and not loud enough.

值得、有品味的木制益智玩具很少會讓孩子們印象深刻。Cubetto和其他同類玩具一樣，令人失望到悲哀的地步。它不夠花哨、不是塑料的、也不夠鬧騰。

Toys involving coding are hot this Christmas, as my colleague Emma Jacobs pointed out last week.The better type of toy store or website has a variety of well-presented and exciting offerings from Kano, Sam Labs and Technology Will Save Us in the UK; Little Bits, Tynker and Osmo in the US; Meccano in France; UBTech Robotics in China, and BQin Spain.

正如我的同事艾瑪·雅各布斯(Emma Jacobs)最近指出的，編程玩具在剛剛過去的圣誕節(jié)銷售火爆。好一點的玩具商店或網(wǎng)站都有各式各樣外觀精美、令人興奮的產(chǎn)品——從英國的Kano、Sam Labs和Technology Will Save Us;美國的Little Bits、Tynker和Osmo;法國的Meccano;中國的優(yōu)必選機器人(UBTech Robotics)到西班牙的BQ。

I have my own research to back up Emma's argument that ambitious parents should not rely on a coding set to give their child a head start in the career scramble.

我自己所做的調(diào)查可以支持艾瑪?shù)挠^點，即望子成龍的家長們不應(yīng)指望一款編程玩具讓自己的孩子在職場起跑線上獲得領(lǐng)先優(yōu)勢。

Last Christmas, I gave Kano's build-your-own-computer outfits — which I love — to two children.I asked last week, as tactfully as I could, how the recipients were getting on with them.

上一個圣誕節(jié)，我將自己喜歡的Kano的一款電腦組裝套件送給兩個小孩。最近，我盡可能委婉地問了一下兩個孩子玩得怎么樣。

“It's on Ellie's shelf,” reported Alice, a Whitehall ministerial adviser.“She loves the packaging, she loves the idea that one day she'll get it out, but for now it remains an exhibition piece.”

“放在艾莉(Ellie)的書架上，”在白廳擔(dān)任部長顧問的愛麗絲(Alice)告訴我，“她喜歡那個包裝設(shè)計，她喜歡這個想法，總有一天她會拿出來玩，但現(xiàn)在仍是一件展品。”

“We enjoyed building the computer,” said Neil, a tech entrepreneur.“We built a great 32-bit game, which Alfie played with for about 15 minutes, and then went back to Fifa.I'm afraid the Kano hasn't emerged since.”

“我們享受了組裝電腦的樂趣，”科技企業(yè)家尼爾(Neil)說，“我們構(gòu)建了一個很棒的32位游戲，阿爾菲(Alfie)玩了大概15分鐘，然后就去玩Fifa足球游戲了?？峙潞髞碓僖矝]玩過Kano。”

I discussed this seemingly inconvenient truth with Alex Klein, the founder and CEO of Kano, at his HQ behind a coffee shop in east London.

在Kano位于東倫敦一家咖啡館后面的總部，我與公司創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官亞歷克斯·克萊恩(Alex Klein)討論了這個貌似令人難堪的真相。

Mr.Klein, a 26-year-old Londoner brought up in Seattle, was surprisingly open about the niche appeal of coding kits.“I know it can be like getting kids interested in broccoli and Brussels sprouts,” he says.

26歲的克萊恩是倫敦人，但在西雅圖長大，對于編程玩具的細分市場吸引力，他坦誠得令人驚訝。“我知道，這就像讓孩子們對花椰菜和球芽甘藍產(chǎn)生興趣，”他說。

A quarter of children are still using their self-made computers after six months, “but even if they use it just for a day, the moment they make a real, powerful computer in as little as an hour is a big thing for them.

四分之一的孩子在6個月后仍在使用他們自己組裝的電腦，“但即使他們只用一天，當(dāng)他們在短短一個小時內(nèi)組裝起一臺真正的、功能強大的電腦的那一刻，對他們而言也意義重大。”

“We are about the demystification and democratisation of an otherwise impenetrable world.The simple putting-together of the computer starts to break the cultural fear that this stuff is for geeks, hackers, techie boffins, not for them.”

“我們要為一個本來高深莫測的世界去神秘化和大眾化。只是將一臺電腦組裝起來，就有助于打破一種文化恐懼，也就是以為電腦這類東西是極客、黑客、科技怪才的，而非他們這樣的正常人的。”

Mr.Klein says that even if children are not interested in technology as a job, “Kano is about capturing what is culturally relevant to kids, like knowing how an app like WhatsApp works and replicating one.”

克萊恩說，即便孩子們對于投身科技類職業(yè)不感興趣，“Kano的意義在于在文化層面捕捉到與孩子們相關(guān)的東西，比如了解WhatsApp之類的應(yīng)用如何工作，并進行復(fù)制。”

He adds: “You have to have exposure to these things as a kid to feel at least conversant with the subject, so you have the ability to talk to others about it.”

他接著說:“你必須像孩子一樣去感受這些東西，至少達到熟悉的程度，這樣你才能跟別人討論它。”

Indeed, coding lessons for children as young as five are part of the British national curriculum.Introducing the initiative in 2014, Michael Gove, then education minister, said learning how computers work made old-style technology education as obsolete “as teaching children to send a telex or travel in a Zeppelin”.

的確，面向5歲兒童的編程課程是英國全國教學(xué)大綱的一部分。2014年宣布該倡議時，時任教育大臣邁克爾·戈夫(Michael Gove)說，學(xué)習(xí)電腦如何工作使得舊式的技術(shù)教育“像教孩子們發(fā)電傳或搭乘齊柏林飛艇旅行”一樣過時。

What nails the case for these toys for me is the desire of education authorities for children to be conversant with coding, even if they do not master it.

最終而言，說服我認(rèn)為這些玩具值得肯定的關(guān)鍵因素是，教育部門渴望讓孩子們熟悉編程，即便他們不能完全掌握。

I had a Philips Electronic Engineer set as a kid.For a couple of years, when school holidays were dragging on, I would build gadgets — radios, intercoMs., crummy electronic organs.

我小時候玩過一套“飛利浦電子工程師”(Philips Electronic Engineer)。在兩年時間里，當(dāng)假期讓我覺得沒完沒了時，我就會自己做些小玩意兒——收音機、對講機、粗糙的電子琴。

I never read the swotty section of the manual that explained what was happening — how the transistors, diodes, resistors and capacitors worked — but exposure to that granular level of electronics has served me well.

我從不讀操作手冊上那些晦澀的說明——晶體管、二極管、電阻及電容元件如何工作——但親手?jǐn)[弄這些電子器件讓我受益匪淺。

I am often shocked to find that my contemporaries — who are accomplished in their own field — are illiterate when it comes to technology.

我經(jīng)常發(fā)現(xiàn)一些在本職領(lǐng)域頗有成就的同齡人居然對技術(shù)一竅不通，這令我震驚。

I am still unsure about coding for three-year-olds but, mostly, the children playing with 21st century versions of my Philips kit over this Christmas will gain at least an acquaintance with code, computing, directory trees, subroutines and the rest.I suspect it will serve them well, too.

我仍然不能確定編程對三歲兒童的影響，但多數(shù)情況下，在如今的圣誕節(jié)玩著21世紀(jì)版本Philips Electronic Engineer玩具的孩子們至少可以了解代碼、運算、目錄樹、子程序之類是怎么回事。我覺得他們也會受益良多。