Want to find out how to write a computer game? Interested in learning programming? Curious about object-oriented programming and Java? Heard about Greenfoot, but don’t really know what it is? Teaching programming to others?

If any of these is you — read on!

We will soon start here, in this blog, a programming course. It will be done mostly in video format (often screencasts of actual programming sessions). We will start at the very beginning — assuming you know nothing about programming at all — and then progress through a sequence of many important topics. We will, assuming things go well, eventually arrive at quite sophisticated concepts and hopefully write some really cool programs along the way.

There will be two “streams” to this course: The main stream, aimed at novice (or intermediate) programmers, and — occasionally weaved in — an “educators’ stream” with commentary for teachers. The teacher commentary will talk about how to teach programming (rather than learning it).

So, I hope to hit three possible audiences with this:

• Folk who want to learn about programming. Maybe you don’t know any programming at all, or you know some already but want to learn more.
• People who know about programming, but want to learn about Greenfoot.
• Teachers of introductory programming classes who want to see and discuss ideas about teaching programming.

For this blog, we will use Java and Greenfoot. If you dont know what that is — don’t worry. The first couple of posts will show you.

Above, I said “we” will soon start. It’s “we” because I hope I won’t be alone here. I would like as many of you as possible to get involved. The course has not been developed yet, and I will make it up as I go along. While I do that, I’d like you (yes: you!) to give me feedback in comments. Ask questions, tell me what’s unclear, tell me what I should explain again or in more detail, tell me what else you’d like me to talk about.

If things go well, this can become interactive, and paced and guided by viewers — that’s you.

I hope that over the first few weeks I’ll manage to get a handful of readers/viewers who join in and help me move this along.

The course will start in a few days. So: Bookmark this page, subscribe to the RSS feed, tie a knot in your handkerchief, set a calendar reminder, or whatever it is that will remind you, and come back soon!

Copyright, license and redistribution

It’s necessary to add some license info here – these questions always come up eventually. So: I will publish these videos here on my blog and on Youtube. Additionally, I will make the videos available for download.

All videos are Copyright © Michael Kölling.

You are explicitly permitted to download, use, show and distribute these videos for the following purposes:

• For any personal use.
• For the purpose of teaching a class of students, where you are the instructor.

You are not permitted the following (unless with explicit written permission):

• Re-publication to the general public, via websites or on other media (CDs, etc.).
• Redistribution for profit.

That is: You cannot do two things: Sell my videos for money, and duplicate them on your own web site.

The reason for the second is that I’d like people to come to one place here, because I hope to have some discussion with viewers on the site here in the comments. I do not want to split up out viewer community.