[Edu-sig] The end is near :)

Arthur ajsiegel at optonline.net
Mon Apr 10 17:07:15 CEST 2006


kirby urner wrote:

>For example, I don't buy that it's an either/or situation.  You seem
>to think a Klein-reading Euclid-drawing subgenius, properly suspicious
>of Bucky (maybe armed with a few Bucky jokes) can't suddenly jump up
>and run over to an Alice workstation, there to play with cute skiing
>bunnies and other programmable (scriptable) cartoon figures.  Just
>because you seem to buy into the impossibility of such kids, why
>should I?  I say there's plenty of room for both PyGeo and Alice, that
>it has *never* been an either/or equation (hence a tremendous waste of
>time in the archives -- feel free to never read it folks).
>  
>
Did you read the press release?

"""

Carnegie Mellon Collaborates with EA to Revolutionize And Reinvigorate
Computer Science Education in the US**

"""

Did you see the context of Tutis's post?

CS and hard science and Alice being mentioned as an alternative.

It is the pretense and the attendant lack of integrity connected to 
Alice that is the basis of my horror/objections.

If the project had the level of pretense one normally associates with 
dressing up in a Bunny Suite, it would be quite silly to raise the kind 
of fuss I do.

But that just isn't so.

Art

>I do understand that you don't want a vapid flouncy curriculum that
>trades away all command line hardness for fuzzy wuzzy bunny wunny
>cartoons.  Sure, fine.  I'm with ya.  But I'm not ready to pull out my
>big guns at the drop of a hat and celebrate my ascendency over all
>GUI-based animation APIs, including the ones with Python bindings I'm
>hoping for (Blender is already one of them).  I'll sooner go after
>neocons or nazis than cute bunny wunny APIs.  You seem to have a
>misplaced sense of priorities.
>
>So then I have to wonder if it's just jealously.  You've accomplished
>something with PyGeo and now, in order to attract attention, indulge
>in Voodoo with little bunny dolls, making a spectacle of yourself in
>the process.  I think that's a misappropriation of the fame PyGeo
>could win you.  You should write that book about Klein, as applied in
>this modern world, show how PyGeo could work its way into various
>curricula, brainstorm various ways forward.  Throwing stones at your
>glass-housed neighbors is just not a way to attract new friends and
>influence people.
>
>And so your influence wanes.
>
>I say turn that around.  Be the big friendly Arthur who will show us
>the hard stuff and make it seem easy.  But don't be afraid to dress up
>in a bunny suit over the weekends, if it helps pay the bills.  You
>don't need to see this as a war.  We're both manifestations of What
>Python Is Doing (lots more than you or I will ever live to appreciate,
>no? -- that's how I feel about it).
>
>Kirby
>
>
>  
>




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