From jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com Wed Oct 5 18:45:14 2011 From: jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com (Jurgis Pralgauskis) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 19:45:14 +0300 Subject: [Edu-sig] Improved PythonTurtleDemo environment (beta) Message-ID: Hi, I kept on the idea for probably at least 3 years, just didn't have time. and finally it's working (beta) :) http://popmokslas.projektas.lt/failai/python/TurtleDemo-NG/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-XyEoQRZeI&t=1m30s I noticed similar initiative (few days ago) http://code.google.com/p/pynguin/ Probably it could also implement tracing in fashion of http://code.google.com/p/rur-ple/source/browse/trunk/rur_py/cpu.py (mine might be too confusing right now..) -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://kompiuterija.pasimokom.lt From alan at odonohoe.org.uk Thu Oct 6 01:03:12 2011 From: alan at odonohoe.org.uk (Alan O'Donohoe) Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 00:03:12 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Interested in a BBC Micro in schools project? Message-ID: <41601BAA-B7CF-4996-9508-2881723F3028@odonohoe.org.uk> Ok - I know I upset a lot of Pythonistas with my "BBC CodeLab" stunt at PyconUK. I do sincerely regret any upset I caused anyone, the talk was meant to stimulate talk and discussion about whether it was a good idea and how feasible it could be. I accept I was wholly misguided in using such a rouse when there was already so much good work taking place. I did have honourable intentions, but used nefarious means to achieve my goal of raising the profile of computing in schools. If you dare watch the talk, you will find it here http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/bbc-b-to-python-gcse/ Suffice to say, I will be eating 'Humble Pi' or HumblePy for some time to come. ;-) So - imagine how surprised I was to discover in the last few days that the real BBC (not the one in my head) are actually seriously considering a BBC Micro in schools project! I thought my Christmas had come early! I don't wish to claim any credit for this, I am sure it was something that was already on the table before I came and opened my big gob. If you don't believe me - that's ok with me. The fable of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' springs to mind. So you don't need to take my word for it, Professor Keri Facer of Manchester Metropolitan Uni has been asked by the BBC to gather a network of teachers, programmers/developers and university lecturers/professors to gauge te level of interest in a 'BBC Micro Project' She requests that anyone with an interest email her directly at k.facer at mmu.ac.uk Can I please urge anyone who values the principle of allowing children in the UK to experience a little (or a lot) of what programming is to contact her and express your interest. If we want the BBC to sit up and take an interest - we need to show our level of interest and commitment to this cause. Alan O'Donohoe @teknoteacher 07791 126056 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Oct 6 02:34:13 2011 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 17:34:13 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Interested in a BBC Micro in schools project? In-Reply-To: <41601BAA-B7CF-4996-9508-2881723F3028@odonohoe.org.uk> References: <41601BAA-B7CF-4996-9508-2881723F3028@odonohoe.org.uk> Message-ID: Greetings Alan, thanks for filing your thinking on edu-sig, where I'm a lurker from the beginning or close to it (CP4E predates my involvement). I think readers outside the UK might benefit from a more frequent decoding of BBC into British Broadcasting Corporation here and there in your writings. To many USAers, it might seem a little surreal to imagine Fox News muscling in on the No Child Left Behind program, ostensibly run by the government, in order to make sure it included lots of Python programming. On the other hand, Fox has mall outlet stores now, like in airports, so maybe TV companies are indeed the right entities to be offering us (their consumers) their leadership. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/5497825739/ Apparently in the UK that might be OK, to have the TV people decide that programming is a good idea. Makes sense. TV is all about programming. If a New York based TV company were to get more into Python, I'd like it to be CBS as I'm a fan of many on that team. Most USAers would say PBS is the logical choice, because it's more tightly regulated / run / controlled by the government and so has the right Big Brother overtones I suppose. Or what do Americans think? Anyone here wanna admit to being one? Didn't PBS have storefronts too? Lots of eCommerce goes on: http://www.shoppbs.org/home/index.jsp (reminds me of the Post Office, from which I bough neck ties). I haven't looked at the BBC's on-line gift shop yet. Does it sell computers? TVs? Kirby PS: I'm wondering if you know Dr. Ian Benson as your thinking seems rather similar to his in some way. He was based at Stanford last I knew. He talked about the BBC quite a bit. On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Alan O'Donohoe wrote: > Ok - I know I upset a lot of Pythonistas with my "BBC CodeLab" stunt at > PyconUK. I do sincerely regret any upset I caused anyone, the talk was meant > to stimulate talk and discussion about whether it was a good idea and how > feasible it could be. I accept I was wholly misguided in using such a rouse > when there was already so much good work taking place. I did have honourable > intentions, but used nefarious means to achieve my goal of raising the > profile of computing in schools. > If you dare watch the talk, you will find it > here?http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/bbc-b-to-python-gcse/ > > Suffice to say, I will be eating 'Humble Pi' or HumblePy for some time to > come. ;-) > > So - imagine how surprised I was to discover in the last few days that the > real BBC (not the one in my head) are actually seriously considering a BBC > Micro in schools project! I thought my Christmas had come early! I don't > wish to claim any credit for this, I am sure it was something that was > already on the table before I came and opened my big gob. > > If you don't believe me - that's ok with me. The fable of 'The Boy Who Cried > Wolf' springs to mind. > > So you don't need to take my word for it, Professor Keri Facer of Manchester > Metropolitan Uni has been asked by the BBC to gather a network of teachers, > programmers/developers and university lecturers/professors to gauge te level > of interest in a 'BBC Micro Project' > > She requests that anyone with an interest email her directly > at?k.facer at mmu.ac.uk > > Can I please urge anyone who values the principle of allowing children in > the UK to experience a little (or a lot) of what programming is to contact > her and express your interest. > > If we want the BBC to sit up and take an interest - we need to show our > level of interest and commitment to this cause. > > Alan O'Donohoe > @teknoteacher > 07791 126056 > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > From calcpage at aol.com Mon Oct 10 03:17:16 2011 From: calcpage at aol.com (A. Jorge Garcia) Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 21:17:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Edu-sig] NEW: Blogs, Videos and SmartNotes and Code! In-Reply-To: <8CE3ED8A55D9536-A78-24C24@webmail-m132.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CE3ED8A55D9536-A78-24C24@webmail-m132.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <8CE55017BD2C4A3-2688-82571@webmail-d177.sysops.aol.com> NEW: Blogs, Videos and SmartNotes and Code! Please enjoy my latest blogs about Learning and Teaching Math and Computing with technology! http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/09/school-week-2-screencasts-ap-computer.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-3-screencasts-ap-computer-science.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/09/school-week-4-screencasts-smartnotes.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/10/school-week-5-screencasts-smartnotes.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/08/summer-school-projects-become-school.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-filk-you-say-write-it-in-c-omg.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/09/cistheta-2011-2012-kiss-natty-64.html http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-celebrate-ada-lovelace-day-even-if.html Thanx, A. Jorge Garcia Applied Math and CompSci http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009 From pg at cs.stanford.edu Tue Oct 11 16:22:10 2011 From: pg at cs.stanford.edu (Philip Guo) Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:22:10 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Online Python Tutor --- open-source web-based execution visualization and problem sets UI Message-ID: www.onlinepythontutor.com This is an open-source project that I've been developing on-and-off over the past few years in grad school. It puts an innovative visual twist on traditional web-based programming tutorials and problem sets. Any feedback, questions, and collaboration opportunities are greatly appreciated! Philip -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com Sun Oct 16 12:35:30 2011 From: jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com (Jurgis Pralgauskis) Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 13:35:30 +0300 Subject: [Edu-sig] Online Python Tutor --- open-source web-based execution visualization and problem sets UI In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi, this tool is wonderfull - I (and students) use it every week - esp. in beginning to code :) *** it sitll has problems with utf-8 (if it is not in comments) # coding = utf-8 x = [1, 2, 3] # ??? - OK y = x y = u"asd??" # problem *** would be nice to be able to apply stepping ability to (online)turtle via javascript like in http://www.learnpython.org/ I think it could be achieved quite straitforward like in http://code.google.com/p/crunchy/source/browse/trunk/crunchy/src/imports/c_turtle.py (python just generates js code (in addition to variables snapshots)) ;) On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 5:22 PM, Philip Guo wrote: > www.onlinepythontutor.com > This is an open-source project that I've been developing on-and-off over the > past few years in grad school. ?It puts an innovative visual twist on > traditional web-based programming tutorials and problem sets. > Any feedback, questions, and collaboration opportunities are greatly > appreciated! > Philip > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://kompiuterija.pasimokom.lt From pg at cs.stanford.edu Tue Oct 18 01:57:40 2011 From: pg at cs.stanford.edu (Philip Guo) Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:57:40 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Online Python Tutor --- open-source web-based execution visualization and problem sets UI In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Jurgis, Thanks for your interest and compliments! I just made a note of your utf-8 bug in my todos list; unfortunately I don't have much time to hack on it at the moment, though. Philip On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 3:35 AM, Jurgis Pralgauskis < jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, this tool is wonderfull - I (and students) use it every week - > esp. in beginning to code :) > > > *** > it sitll has problems with utf-8 (if it is not in comments) > # coding = utf-8 > x = [1, 2, 3] # ??? - OK > y = x > y = u"asd??" # problem > > > *** > would be nice to be able to apply stepping ability to (online)turtle > via javascript > like in http://www.learnpython.org/ > I think it could be achieved quite straitforward like in > > http://code.google.com/p/crunchy/source/browse/trunk/crunchy/src/imports/c_turtle.py > (python just generates js code (in addition to variables snapshots)) ;) > > > > On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 5:22 PM, Philip Guo wrote: > > www.onlinepythontutor.com > > This is an open-source project that I've been developing on-and-off over > the > > past few years in grad school. It puts an innovative visual twist on > > traditional web-based programming tutorials and problem sets. > > Any feedback, questions, and collaboration opportunities are greatly > > appreciated! > > Philip > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Edu-sig mailing list > > Edu-sig at python.org > > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > > > > > > > -- > Jurgis Pralgauskis > tel: 8-616 77613; > Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) > http://kompiuterija.pasimokom.lt > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Thu Oct 27 00:36:35 2011 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:36:35 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] negative connotation of "object orientation" Message-ID: Appended: from a Physics teaching list I frequent. Note the negative connotations associated with "object orientation" (= asocial = lack of social affect). I take up this ethnographic thread in my blogs and this discussion list from time to time, as I think it's apropos to many subtopics (Diversity in particular). Here's my take on it from awhile back: http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/02/regarding-objectifying.html Kirby PS: on a related topic, there's also a negative connotation associated with "imperative programming". The word "imperative" gets translated to mean "bullying". The functional programmers exploit that connotation, and imply that functional programming is kinder to children. === Well, it is at least reminiscent of Sheila Tobias. On a possibly related note, Simon Baron-Cohen studied personalities of scientists and engineers across many subfields. Among his results was (sorry to bring bad news) that the closer one comes to physics, mathematics, or similar engineering disciplines, the more closely the median practitioner resembles high functioning autism (which, of course, affects males over females by a ratio of 4.2 to 1). That in turns brings with it all manner of asocial phenomena -- object orientation, lack of social affect and the like. - Show quoted text - -- Dr. Paul J. Camp Physics Department Spelman College Atlanta, GA 30314 404-270-5864 "The beauty of the cosmos derives not only from unity in variety but also from variety in unity" -- Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose in response to: Inside Higher Ed Why Female Engineering Students Are Discouraged October 26, 2011 - 3:00am Women perform as well as men in engineering courses, but are less likely to stay in the field because of a confidence gap, according to research published in the new issue of American Sociological Review. Women are less likely to feel "professional role confidence," the study found, which has to do both with their view of their own talent and also of their sense that they are in the correct field. "Often, competence in engineering is associated in people's minds with men and masculinity more than it is with women and femininity. So, there are these micro-biases that happen, and when they add up, they result in women being less confident in their expertise and their career fit," said the lead author of the study, Erin Cech, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Clayman Institute for Gender Research. http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2011/10/26/why-female-engineering-students-are-discouraged#ixzz1btymrPZs From mpaul213 at gmail.com Thu Oct 27 05:25:11 2011 From: mpaul213 at gmail.com (michel paul) Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:25:11 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] negative connotation of "object orientation" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:36 PM, kirby urner wrote: > > PS: on a related topic, there's also a negative connotation > associated with "imperative programming". The word "imperative" gets > translated to mean "bullying". The functional programmers exploit > that connotation, and imply that functional programming is kinder to > children. > OK, this is very interesting, especially in light of the Math 2.0 thread. So 'imperative' and 'procedural' are pretty much the same thing, right? But 'procedural' doesn't tend to imply 'bullying'. It can simply mean 'orderly', spelling out a sequence of steps. I just found this procedural/functional comparison useful. So I started my computational class off purely functionally this year, and I really liked the results. Some kids really got it, and it shows. Others, well ... not so much. Although, it seemed to have a positive effect on all of them as to how they organize ideas. Functional thinking really is a great discipline. Simultaneously, being able to quickly set up a loop to study something is sometimes just the right tool. And then, if you can take that loop and switch it into a list comprehension, you're heading back towards functional thinking. Now that I've opened things up to pure Pythonic expression, it's interesting to see how some kids totally get both styles of thinking but others definitely gravitate towards one or the other. Being able to express things in different paradigms as you can in Python I think is a big plus. Different kids really do latch on to computational thinking in different ways. It struck me the other day how if you open up any typical algebra text, one of the very early chapters will have a section on the 'properties' of 'equality'. Well, how is it that 'equality' has 'properties'? Objects have properties. It struck me that if we think it's important in math education to make kids learn and apply the names of the 'properties of equality', then our math curriculum is already object oriented! Using Sage (Python with super powers) we can construct equation objects and demonstrate the 'properties of equality': sage: linear_eq(a,b,c,d,x) = (a*x+b == c*x+d) sage: prob1 = linear_eq(2,3,5,8) sage: prob1 2*x + 3 == 5*x + 8 sage: _ - 3 2*x == 5*x + 5 sage: _ - 5*x -3*x == 5 sage: _ / -3 x == (-5/3) sage: prob2 = linear_eq() sage: prob2 a*x + b == c*x + d sage: _-b a*x == c*x - b + d sage: _-c*x a*x - c*x == -b + d sage: _.lhs().factor() == _.rhs() (a - c)*x == -b + d sage: _/(a-c) x == -(b - d)/(a - c) Of course, you could also use Sage to just solve these outright: sage: prob1.solve(x) [x == (-5/3)] sage: sage: prob2.solve(x) [x == -(b - d)/(a - c)] but the previous let's us 'show our work'. - Michel -- ================================== "What I cannot create, I do not understand." - Richard Feynman ================================== "Computer science is the new mathematics." - Dr. Christos Papadimitriou ================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From asweigart at gmail.com Thu Oct 27 22:18:53 2011 From: asweigart at gmail.com (Al Sweigart) Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:18:53 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] "Invent with Python" discount code Message-ID: Hi. I'm the author of "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python", a programming book aimed at young adults and complete beginners. The book is freely available under a Creative Commons license and you can download it in full from http://inventwithpython.com. I've priced the book at $25, but would like to share a discount code that brings it down to $8.32 that I'd like you to share with any educators or people who want to buy multiple copies. The book doesn't have problem sets and might not be completely appropriate for the classroom, but some people have told me they've used it as a textbook. There's no minimum quantity needed for this code, but I'd like you to just distribute it to teachers/instructors (it basically cuts out my royalty and sells it at cost.) The code only works on this estore site, not on Amazon: https://www.createspace.com/3430836 KBZTK2XU Of course, you can always download the book from inventwithpython.com for free and print it out. -Al From kurner at oreillyschool.com Sun Oct 30 04:25:37 2011 From: kurner at oreillyschool.com (Kirby Urner) Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:25:37 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] negative connotation of "object orientation" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 8:25 PM, michel paul wrote: > On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:36 PM, kirby urner wrote: > >> >> PS: on a related topic, there's also a negative connotation >> associated with "imperative programming". The word "imperative" gets >> translated to mean "bullying". The functional programmers exploit >> that connotation, and imply that functional programming is kinder to >> children. >> > > OK, this is very interesting, especially in light of the Math 2.0 thread. > So 'imperative' and 'procedural' are pretty much the same thing, right? > But 'procedural' doesn't tend to imply 'bullying'. It can simply mean > 'orderly', spelling out a sequence of steps. I just found this > procedural/functional comparison > useful. > Thanks for that reference. Here's the opening paragraph: *Procedural programming* can sometimes be used as a synonym for imperative > programming (specifying the steps the program must take to reach the desired state), > but can also refer (as in this article) to a programming paradigm, > derived from structured programming, > based upon the concept of the *procedure call*. Procedures, also known as > routines, subroutines , methods, > or functions (not to be confused with mathematical functions, but similar > to those used in functional programming) > simply contain a series of computational steps to be carried out. Any given > procedure might be called at any point during a program's execution, > including by other procedures or itself. > What intrigues me is the prospect not *confusing* these functions with "the mathematical functions" but being somewhat precise about the relationship, as they're not on wholly different planets, either, or shouldn't be, unless we're reading *The Little Prince* or something (everyone gets their own planet in that book -- which has a snake, a constrictor, but it's not a python). I hosted a long thread at the Math Forum recently, on math-teach, where I trucked out the "Dolciani" meaning of function, what we learn in "schoolish math", especially since the New Math era, when much was done to formalize the teaching of functions in pre-college courses. http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2303870&tstart=60 (quite length, a silly argument about which of the two meanings of function is "more general") Predictably, there's a skeptical backlash and the thought of using Python functions to help unlock the secrets of their mathematical counterparts is generally dismissed as trying to get computer science treated as mathematics. I regard that broken record more as brokenness in the English language than a real debate. The categories into which "knowledge and skills" have been subdivided are too arbitrary to matter much, their half-life will be short (flash in the pan, obsolete as we speak). Fortunately, I'm teaching Python to adults and getting to field test my more activist mathematics concepts, so I am personally not that frustrated. The other thing is I work with the Diversity people and am alert to these anti-engineer stereotypes. The "object oriented" moniker attracts flak from more than one angle then: - we have some functional programmers who think OOP is symptomatic of everything wrong with programmers and programming, and - we have some physicists who think "object oriented" means lacking in personal depth, warmth = a domineering pain in the ass, or a shy person with no social skills (many subspecies) OOPers are basically somewhere between Lex Luthor in Smallville (calculating) and Spongebob Squarepants (a dork). How can we ever be cool, with that kind of PR dogging us around, feeding the behind-our-backs gossip? Kirby -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From missive at hotmail.com Mon Oct 31 02:08:04 2011 From: missive at hotmail.com (Lee Harr) Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:38:04 +0430 Subject: [Edu-sig] [ANNC] vBot-0.2 programming game Message-ID: vBot is a visual programming game. Use a small set of command tiles to build a program. The program must control the vBot and make it activate every target using the limited command set. https://bitbucket.org/leeharr/vbot/ For more information, see the README file: https://bitbucket.org/leeharr/vbot/raw/a66e83b0647a/README vBot is modeled after a flash game called Light Bot. The advantages of vBot are that you can add your own levels, and players can easily skip past levels they have already completed. You must have Python and PyQt installed to run the program. I have been using vBot to introduce programming to beginners. The word-free interface allows students to start building their own simple programs right away. In the future, I may try to add loops or conditionals at later levels.