A visit to a high school
Not long ago, college students started their own software companies and become billionaires and millionaires. Now it looks like history is repeating but this time with high school students instead. Last week, I was invited to talk to a high school computer club where I learned about this trend that happened in the past few years in the U.S but now is also popular in Europe, Japan, and S. Korea too.
Since computer programming was taught in high school, the number of games and programs developed by high school students has been increasing significantly. Although many did not have the commercial quality to be sold in store yet but thousands of them were exchanged among students and it is gaining popularity. Mr. Skipper, a teacher who organized the Computer Club in local high school told me: “These students grow up with technology; they have Laptop, iPhone, iPad so when computer programming such as Java and Ruby are taught, and they catch up very quickly. Since mobile application is easy to learn, many start to build mobile apps. We have competition every month for the best mobile app and the numbers of students submit their app has been increasing steadily.”
Like many young entrepreneurs, Simon Densmore a 15 years old student understand that success does not come easy. Few months ago, he developed a mobile app to teach elementary students basic algebra and sold 64 copies. His second app to allow kinder-garden children to play with number and learn arithmetic did better with 536 downloads. He said: “I am optimistic; if I can have something like “Angry Bird” I can make million dollars. I still have many years ahead of me so someday it will happen.”
Because the number of high school computer clubs is increasing in every state in the U.S, number of high school students learning to program is also increasing fast. Many want to become “The next Bill Gates” or “Future Steve Jobs” and they create start-ups. If you attend computer club meeting, you will be surprised to see 16 years old discuss ideas of business strategies and explore market opportunities. A student told me: “Mobile app is easy, the syntax is simple. It only took me about two weeks to learn Objective C in the iOS framework. I develop mobile app in about ten days, mostly after school.” Another student explain: “It is better to start now when you are young. If you succeed, you make a lot of money. If you fail, you are still living with your parent so it has no risk.”
Jenifer Ma, another student told me: “Everybody thinks computer is for boy. They are wrong; there are many girls in the computer club now. We develop mobile apps but our approach is different. The boys are mostly interested in games; we are interested more on social apps that connect girls with friends to share stories and things that we created. We sold more practical apps than those boys and we did well since we won more awards than those boys.
One of the mobile apps that Jenifer showed me was an app for elementary students: When students come to school they push a button on their mobile phone and a signal is sent to their parents that they are in class. When the school is over, they push another button to ask parents to pick them up. Each time they do that, they earn point and each 100 points can get them an award in their phone such as a music download or a message sent to their parent to remind them to get the student a gift. She said: “Parents love it, it is way to assure them that their children are safe and in school. Since most parents are working, many worry about their children so with this app, they are very happy.” She said that she has sold over five thousand of that app at $1 each.
Many large software companies are paying attention to these students. Some of them get offer jobs at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook in the summer where they are learning more about mobile operating systems. Some companies develop social network to help these teenagers organize programming study groups in their high schools.
Mr. Skipper told me: “The goal here is about inspirational and learning. You will be surprised of how many great ideas can come from these young people. The important is these students are learning math since they know without it, they cannot develop better algorithms. As a math teacher, I am very happy.”
Mr. Wilson, the principal who is the club's adviser, said that in recent years he had noticed a shift in student behavior. Many are studying more and number of student get into trouble has dropped significantly. The thing that excites them now is to learn programming to build mobile apps. Few years ago, students are more into dancing and partying and did not pay attention to study. Technology changed that and things have exploded because of iPhone and iPad.
He concluded: “We will start the robotic club next year that will get more students involved. As long as they are exciting about learning, we are very happy.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
