Overview

Resources

• RubyLearning All of their courses are online and most of them are free. Topics include: Core Ruby, Git & GitHub, FXRuby, Twitter & Ruby, Shoes, JRuby, Sinatra and Merb

The following environments and languages have been suggested as good for teaching kids

Ruby

• Shoes (Desktop apps for Mac, Win, Linux. Easy to create graphics and get started quickly.)
• Sinatra (for easy web apps)
• Online IRB One teacher said this wasn’t “fun & easy” enough for middle- and high-school kids, but might be a good tool to offer at some point.

Other languages

• Processing (wicked cool graphics/animation programming environment, based on Java language without the normal Java overhead)
• Karel (taught at stanford intro CS classes with a Robot!)
• Alice (3D drag-and-drop programming environment for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web.
• YoYoGames (drag-and-drop game-making tool)
• Scratch (snap together blocks to make stories, games, & animations)