[Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 22, Issue 26

[adDoc's networker Phil]

On 6/27/05, Guido van Rossum <gvanrossum at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have second thoughts about Alice too (and not just because Pausch
> apparently rewrote it in Java :-).
> 
> See for yourself about Pausch's IMO cocky, self-serving attitude:
> 
> http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v6i20_pausch.html
> 



Carnegie Mellon University\ Entertainment Technology Center \
Design Director Randy Pausch:
"( 
. The essence of a being a researcher is 
knowing the answer to a question that nobody else has even asked yet
. It's really a kind of illusion, 
and I love the creation of illusion, which is why as a kid 
I was fascinated by theme parks, 
particularly the stuff that Imagineering has built, 
because they they're so much better at creating an illusion than almost 
anybody else
...
I don't focus as much on entertainment as you might think
. So, for example, ...
. The longest-running research project I have is called Alice, ...
 that is able to provide a better, first exposure to computer programming 
...
. But this is much more advanced than Logo was, 
to the point where it can be used for a full semester course at the college 
level.
... 
We've demonstrated that with at-risk students 
we can both improve retention and grade point average
. And so, when people say, 
well, how do you feel having a career doing all this frivolity, 
I hasten to point out that 
the number of computer science majors in America last year 
declined by 23 percent
. { educators call Alice frivolous if students can't
type Java by the end of the 14 weeks }
But what I find fascinating 
is that, 
{ if a business's profits were down 23 percent, 
that be all they could think about, 
wouldn't it ? }
[ Alice is not so trivial ]

)-Paush


. it is obvious from that interview, 
that Paush is not telling us 
what he is really feeling critical toward; 

his concern about low enrollments in CS
just doesnt make sense:

. a field like computer science is not something 
one goes into for it's value as a liberal arts education:
you get a technical skill for a particular vocation;
thus, 
CS enrollment is naturally going to be 
a function of the market's perceived need for 
programmers and system analysts

. indeed, 
it is a tribute to the RAD technologies such as Pausch's own Alice system
-- serving the same cp4e spirit as van Rossum's Python language --
that 
programming is seen as 

something that all employees are expected to do;
because, machines are getting intelligent enough 
to be treated like fellow employees !

. I imagine that part of Pausch's frustration 
has to do with the hurt feelings that were generated 
when he moved Alice's scripting language from Python to Java;
ironically,
this is just the niche that Alice needs 
to prove it's [/]unique value:

while Python is the Basic language of the new age,
and is so easy to write 
that Alice's enforced menu interface would only slow a student down

Java, on the other hand,

is that most-favored assembly language of the new age,
having such a quarrelsome syntax,
that Alice's menu interface can provide most of us with a 
much-needed relief from semicolon-itis !

. when I read that Pausch had trouble with Python's case-sensitivity;
[@] http://www.alice.org/advancedtutorial/ConwayDissertation.PDF
I wondered why he did not see this as a hint to

complete his system:

. the obvious goal of a menu system is to 
help you find the syntax 
by building the command string as you compose by pointing
. after that,
Alice should be inserting command strings into a normal text window
thereby allowing us 
to 
use both keyboard-typing and menu-pointing 
at either the command line
or the current project window

. it could further assist us
by throwing in the usual RAD perks:
structuring our code with an outliner mode,
and running a syntax checker in the background


Pausch:
"(
. we had to wrap a textbook around it, 
because one of the things I learned painfully is that you can have 
the best software in the world, 
but if there isn't the educational infrastructure called the textbook, 
no one will start using the software
. Once the textbook was in beta we were in 25 schools.

)-Pausch

. if Pausch wants respect for a system without a textbook,
he should should put more effort into a robotic tutor
that actually shows you how it would use the system 
to solve an example problem
. a robotic system could have a cartoon's message bubble 
giving the robot's rationale for each activity,
along with an overview window of the robot's plans

. most importantly, 
the robot's tutorial should give me the same power as
that provided by a book:

the tutor's pace is controlled by a page-turning button;
and I can stop a tutorial at any time,
(use bookmarks to come back to it),
and ask the robot with a table of contents
[/][whatever questions I have, at the time I have them]

. now, [/]that would be creating the illusion of zero gravity!
on the hand, 
being dragged around by programmed intructing, 
is far worse than frivolous
-- it.s a penmanship lesson in Sanskrit !

. it is my hope that the Alice system as I envision it,
can teach all normal preschoolers to program in Python .

-- 
American Dream Documents
"(real opportunity starts with real documentation)
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