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Giving the kids a programming environment of any sort, whether it's a tool like Squeak or Scratch or Logo to write programs in a childish way - and I mean that in the most generous sense of the word, that is, playing with and building things - is one of the best ways to learn.

I'm encouraging kids to use computers at their own pace to build aspirations.

There is a lack of talent in technology, and we need to be encouraging kids in school to learn how to code. We need to encourage computer science as a major. We need to encourage entrepreneurism.

In high school, one of the things I loved doing was this after-school program where you would teach computer skills to some of the maintenance folks at school.

I'm a contract computer scientist by trade, but I'm the founder of something called the Tinkering School. It's a summer program which aims to help kids to learn how to build the things that they think of.

Courses can, and should, incorporate the excitement and fun of programming games, apps or even real digital devices.

The real excitement is collaborating with computer scientists and neuroscientists and starting to understand in detail how children learn so much so quickly.

Technology tools such as laptops are the kind of help that we need. A program that provides laptops for all youngsters would close a gap that most of us are not aware of, or will not admit to, which is a tremendous gap in the poor communities.

Children want the challenge of difficult tasks - just look how much better they are than their parents on a computer.

Taking part in these types of programs is crucial to our youth and crucial to the future of this game.