[Edu-sig] Python in Secondary Schools

[Nicolas Pettiaux]

2007/7/17, Kevin Driscoll <driscollkevin at gmail.com>:
> My favorite book recently is Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby:
> http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
>
> It is a superb tool for self-motivated learners and while the code
> examples are in Ruby, you will find it easy to translate into Python.

As the book is under a free licence ( Attribution-ShareAlike ) it
could make sens to adapt it indeed to python (with the consent of the
author and probably his support)

> While this text is a great tool (for English speakers), it isn't a
> great reference.  For that, I often used "How to Think Like a Computer
> Scientist". ( http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ )

In Belgium too, I do use the "French"   (adapted) version by Gerard Swinnen :
http://www.cifen.ulg.ac.be/inforef/swi/python.htm that is freely
available on the web for printing or also as a published book from
O'Reilly (or myself as I printed come copies)

> I agree! For this reason, I suggest that you think of some projects
> you would like students to be able to complete.  (You have already
> listed a few great ones).  Next, make a list of the skills / knowledge
> a student would need to complete each project.  This will make the
> process of planning your course much easier.
>
> I have had great fun using PyGame and teaching programming through
> basic game design.  http://pygame.org

another way to go is add activities to gcompris (see gcompris.net) the
well know activity program (with about 80 activities today) for youngs
from 3 till 12, translated in many languages, that is also no wbeing
adapted to go on the OLPC laptop.

This could be a good motivation to write complements.

I put the main author of gcompris (Bruno Coudoin) in cc. as he may be
interested to help with suggestions.

There are special examples in gcompris for the ones who want to start
with a few simple and easy contributions.

Regards,

Nicolas
-- 
Nicolas Pettiaux - email: nicolas.pettiaux at ael.be
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