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Cyber advice from a fifth grader: an interview with a self-taught wiz kid
By Melissa Burgos Brown SCR*TEC Technology has grown a lot, and what I think is, the more technology grows, the more you can use technology to learn from. And now I can make a math program which will take you step by step on how to do fractions and stuff like that and I think the more technology that we get then the more learning we can do off the computers and stuff. --Dustin |
 ast summer,
Dustin became interested in computer programming, so he went to the public
library and took out some books on BASIC. Now, he has founded a club which
meets Wednesday mornings at school, and he has taught his peers BASIC programming.
Now Dustin believes that everyone should learn about technology, and that those who are already in the know should share their knowledge with someone else, just like he is with his computer club. According to the technology coordinator at his school, this young leader's enthusiam for technology continues to grow as his knowledge does. "He is quickly moving past my level of programming! He is enthusiastic and self motivated, and he is able to communicate what he is learning to others." Whether he knows it or not, Dustin is setting an example for others, both young and old, of how to bring technology into schools. |
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First, can you tell me a little bit about yourself--what grade you're in, some
of your favorite activities, that kind of stuff . . . I'm in fifth grade and, as you probably know, my name is Dustin. I love computers, but the only thing is, I don't have one. What are some of your favorite things to do, your favorite activities? Play on the computer. Where do you play on the computer--do you play on it in school? Sometimes my dad will let me use his computer, and other than that, that's the only time I can play on a computer. So does your dad have a computer at work? No, he has a laptop at his house. Sometimes I do get to use it. He's got America Online and a couple games on it. |
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So how did you get interested in computers if you don't have one? I had an old Amiga, which is a ten-year-old computer, and it had a BASIC programming program on it, so I just took from the print command. I got one book and I taught myself from that one book. You started your own programming club at school. Can you talk a little bit about that? What it is is I have a group of kids that come and I teach them how to program in BASIC. We use the program Q-BASIC. So far I've taught them half of what I know, and we're just going to keep on building on that, and, as a final project, I'm going to make them do a really cool computer program before they can graduate. |
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So tell me about your club, how often do you guys meet and how
many people are in your club, that kind of stuff. Well, how I got started is, I just had an idea of making my own BASIC programming club, so I went to the technology coordinator and I asked if I could have one and she said, "Sure, come to me later with all the rules and how many kids you want in it." From there it just went on. So how many kids are in your club? Right now, only like four. And that's enough since you're teaching . . . Yeah, and it's really hard to teach them. |
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You learned BASIC programming from a book and then did you go and practice it at school? No, I used the Amiga until it broke, and then I kept on experimenting. I'd type in like "print" and see what that would do and it had a little help screen and it would only give me hints about like quotation marks and stuff like that. So pretty much I taught myself. What made you want to start a club at school? Well, I knew a lot about it and there are barely any kids in my class who know a lot about computers. So I thought it would be cool if I started my own computer club, teaching them how to make games. How do you think the things you and your club are learning now are going to help you later on in school? Well what they can do is, if they learn this, than they can grow in computers, and if they wanted to then they could be a major computer programmer and have a really good career with that. |
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What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a computer programmer, myself. What kinds of programs do you want to make? I want to join Microsoft and help them make Microsoft programs and I can make games and stuff. |
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So are the kids in your class learning pretty quickly? How often do you
meet and do you give them assignments? We meet once a week. Every day I teach them a little bit more and then every now and then I'll have a day where I'll just say, "Hey, have fun, make your own programs." Is it fun? Yeah, it actually is. So what advice do you have for kids at other schools who don't know a lot about computers? Go to your media specialist or your computer person, the head of computers, and really what you have to do is ask them to teach you a little bit. Just a little bit, a little bit at a time, otherwise, if you do a lot then it gets really confusing. |
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"Dont be afraid to get on computers," says Dustin. "They're there for the using so use them while you can." |
What do you think about the Internet--have you played around with that any? Yeah, I have. I have a couple of my own homepages. They're not big, they're not small, they're kind of in-between. What I do is I search around, I get games off the Internet, I chat on the Internet, I have a lot of fun. Do you also take a computer class at school? No I don't take it, I teach it. See the funny thing is I'm better than my teacher. Whenever the teacher's computer locks up in the classroom, she calls for me to unlock it and stuff like that. So you're really comfortable around computers? Yeah, the only thing is that I don't have a computer and I really wish that I did. |
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Some kids are scared to use computers and get on the Internet because
they don't know how. What do you want to say to those kids? Don't be afraid to get on computers. They're there for the using so use them while you can. Some computers are fast and then they go out of business. Get the use out of them before they go out of business, get the use out of them before the computer gets obsolete. What do you think kids can learn from the Internet? I think what kids can learn out of the Internet is, they can learn how to deal with business through business homepages. Some homepages will teach them how to do stuff, some homepages are just for fun, it just depends on what you're looking for. |
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