Along the lines of Dude's suggestion, I would suggest your son look for an Open Source project that catches his passion and learn new technologies in that context and tap other developers for insight and help. It's skill building, application building (both kinds), and potentially career building as well as possible community service creds if his school tracks that.
Another great idea - I am so glad I asked about this.
But a dumb question - can you advise on how he might go about finding Open Source projects that align with his interests?
Here's a good place to start:
http://sourceforge.net/I'm somewhat of a technological dilettante (name the operating system, and I've probably supported it in some capacity or other), which has brought me into contact with a number of IT communities, and in my experience the open source community provides the best peer-to-peer support, bar none. If he gets stuck on something and needs help, there are forums out there that can be a great resource. So that's another benefit of going Zen's route.
