Microsoft have just released a nice introduction for kids (of all ages) who want to learn C# (or VB - but why would you do that to a child? :-)It is based around their insanely generous Visual Studio 2005 Express freeware development package.
It reads quite well and seems to be a good introduction to the difficult, but rewarding pastime that is programming. It is great to see this sort of thing. However, we need much, much more. We need to lower the barriers to entry for programming - this text is great, but you need to be 10+ to have a realistic chance of understanding it and gaining from it. It is important to add more "discoverability" to these things; kids should be programming without realising that is what they are doing. More drag-and-drop, more colour, more fun.
A great start, but there is lots to do.
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