From andre.roberge at gmail.com Mon Nov 3 23:53:02 2014 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2014 18:53:02 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update Message-ID: Hi everyone, For those that use Karel the robot / Guido van Robot / RUR-PLE to teach Python, you may be interested in the latest developments in Reeborg's World which I had already mentioned on this list. Beginner's Python tutorial: http://reeborg.ca/docs/begin_py_en/ Actual world where program can be run: http://reeborg.ca/world.html Reeborg's world has many capabilities that I have not seen in any existing similar programs. It has a built-in "task driven" learning environment. I've just finished writing a summary of some new features that some of you may find of interest: http://reeborg.ca/teaching_tricks.html Cheers, Andr? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kurner at oreillyschool.com Tue Nov 4 15:15:06 2014 From: kurner at oreillyschool.com (Kirby Urner) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 06:15:06 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Looking really professional and user friendly as usual. Kirby On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 2:53 PM, Andre Roberge wrote: > Hi everyone, > > For those that use Karel the robot / Guido van Robot / RUR-PLE to teach > Python, you may be interested in the latest developments in Reeborg's World > which I had already mentioned on this list. > > Beginner's Python tutorial: http://reeborg.ca/docs/begin_py_en/ > Actual world where program can be run: http://reeborg.ca/world.html > > Reeborg's world has many capabilities that I have not seen in any existing > similar programs. It has a built-in "task driven" learning environment. > > I've just finished writing a summary of some new features that some of you > may find of interest: > > http://reeborg.ca/teaching_tricks.html > > > Cheers, > > Andr? > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From roberto03 at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 10:53:02 2014 From: roberto03 at gmail.com (roberto) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 10:53:02 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: I'm going to suggest it to my students. Thanks again! On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 3:15 PM, Kirby Urner wrote: > > Looking really professional and user friendly as usual. > > Kirby > > > On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 2:53 PM, Andre Roberge > wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> For those that use Karel the robot / Guido van Robot / RUR-PLE to teach >> Python, you may be interested in the latest developments in Reeborg's World >> which I had already mentioned on this list. >> >> Beginner's Python tutorial: http://reeborg.ca/docs/begin_py_en/ >> Actual world where program can be run: http://reeborg.ca/world.html >> >> Reeborg's world has many capabilities that I have not seen in any >> existing similar programs. It has a built-in "task driven" learning >> environment. >> >> I've just finished writing a summary of some new features that some of >> you may find of interest: >> >> http://reeborg.ca/teaching_tricks.html >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> Andr? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> Edu-sig at python.org >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -- Roberto -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 00:22:27 2014 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:22:27 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] alluding to earlier thread re "pythonic" versus "obtuse" Message-ID: Here's a comment I just posted to some student work, reminiscing about a thread we had earlier. At some point I should go back and find the link. Laura, hope you don't mind that I propagate your reputation in a positive manner: === Yes, proficient and easy to read. I would have been OK with no argument at all, no parameter, as the project does say "current directory". However, you added one quite correctly, using os.path.join versus string concatenation, so extra points off the record. You'll often see Pythonistas replacing this pattern: for fn in files: ext = os.path.splitext(fn)[1][1:] if ext in extensions: extensions[ext] += 1 else: extensions[ext] = 1 with the idiom below, which on edu-sig, Laura Creighton, one of the best devs, criticized for being too obtuse, i.e. Python coders are somewhat the opposite of (early?) Perl coders, in not liking "cleverness". A fine line, as they do like "pithy". for fn in files: ext = os.path.splitext(fn)[1][1:] extensions[ext] = extensions.get(ext, 0) + 1 -Kirby [X] passes project -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andre.roberge at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 20:54:17 2014 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:54:17 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Making games inside a browser using Python/Brython Message-ID: Hello all, Many months ago, I had started working on a tutorial about making games( http://reeborg.ca/docs/breakout_py_en/) using Python (Brython) in the browser using an environment very similar to that of Reeborg's world: http://reeborg.ca/game.html ( It is in a rough shape and far from being completed ... but it does not look like I will have any time to spend on it for the foreseable future. However, perhaps some of you are looking to do this and you are more than welcome to use it as a starting point. Cheers, Andr? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Nov 21 16:49:36 2014 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 07:49:36 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] the Barbie Blowup Message-ID: Geekdom is having a field day over this apparent stumble by Mattel as it contrives to boost Barbie in the brains department without being too disruptive to cultural norms (she's a mainstream doll after all, meant for middle-of-the-road middle-classers, e.g. nuclear families with power nesters in the suburbs [1]). She was well on her way to geek status until this new "Barbie book"... ...thread continues on the Math Forum @ Drexel: http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=9647539 Kirby [1] 'Over the Hedge' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327084/ (Barbie grows up to become president of homeowners association) Random comment on student quiz (me to student on a question about set type): playing with the set type for awhile, poking and prodding, is great review of the whole concept of set, a mathematical concept often used to introduce mathematical concepts in their most generic and therefore definitive form. As a former high school calculus teacher, I always wonder why more schools don't take advantage of the Python prompt over the calculator, as calculators are poor at set operations. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From missive at hotmail.com Sun Nov 23 20:34:01 2014 From: missive at hotmail.com (Lee Harr) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:04:01 +0430 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update Message-ID: > Actual world where program can be run: http://reeborg.ca/world.html It looks very interesting. One thing -- not sure how important this is with most people using larger screens these days -- I went there in a recent chrome on a laptop with a fairly small screen and there are some rendering issues that make some of the controls unusable. Once I switched over to my desktop, the issues were not apparent. I am definitely going to have some students give your tutorials a try. Thanks! From missive at hotmail.com Sun Nov 23 20:43:18 2014 From: missive at hotmail.com (Lee Harr) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:13:18 +0430 Subject: [Edu-sig] alluding to earlier thread re "pythonic" versus "obtuse" Message-ID: >???????? ext = os.path.splitext(fn)[1][1:] I find this line a bit ... wider than I prefer. With these functions that return two things, I will often do... root, ext = os.path.splitext(fn) ext = ext[1:] Two lines instead of one, true, but especially when working with students it illustrates one of python's cooler features (unpacking). If I will not be using the root portion, I might do... _, ext = os.path.splitext(fn) ext = ext[1:] I sat and thought about using a different name for the first ext -- maybe dotext or dot_ext, but I don't think it is necessary. From christian.mascher at gmx.de Mon Nov 24 16:41:03 2014 From: christian.mascher at gmx.de (Christian Mascher) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 16:41:03 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> Hi, > I went there in a recent chrome on a laptop with a fairly small screen and > there are some rendering issues that make some of the controls unusable. > I noticed the same with Nexus 7 (android) and firefox. On the desktop Ctrl + - usually makes things smaller and thus fit onto the screen (esp. editor right next to the world, so the controls below the world are visible), but on the android tablet that didn't help. These tablets are just to small for all the information and even firefox is different compared to its desktop version. Christian From andre.roberge at gmail.com Mon Nov 24 16:48:45 2014 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:48:45 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> Message-ID: On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Christian Mascher < christian.mascher at gmx.de> wrote: > Hi, > > I went there in a recent chrome on a laptop with a fairly small screen and >> there are some rendering issues that make some of the controls unusable. >> >> > I noticed the same with Nexus 7 (android) and firefox. On the desktop Ctrl > + - usually makes things smaller and thus fit onto the screen (esp. editor > right next to the world, so the controls below the world are visible), but > on the android tablet that didn't help. > > These tablets are just to small for all the information and even firefox > is different compared to its desktop version. >From the beginning, my thinking was that anyone interested in doing some programming was going to use either a deskop or laptop with proper keyboard, etc., and thus a reasonably sized screen. Should I review this basic hypothesis? If so, does anyone have an idea as to what minimum screen size I should be aiming to support? I'm not ever planning to target tiny screens for smartphones and the like ... but if only relatively small adjustements are needed to support "typical" tablets, I could look into it. Andr? > > > Christian > > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lac at openend.se Mon Nov 24 19:56:15 2014 From: lac at openend.se (Laura Creighton) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:56:15 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: Message from Andre Roberge of "Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:48:45 -0400." References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> Message-ID: <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> In a message of Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:48:45 -0400, Andre Roberge writes: >On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Christian Mascher < >christian.mascher at gmx.de> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I went there in a recent chrome on a laptop with a fairly small screen and >>> there are some rendering issues that make some of the controls unusable. >>> >>> >> I noticed the same with Nexus 7 (android) and firefox. On the desktop Ctrl >> + - usually makes things smaller and thus fit onto the screen (esp. editor >> right next to the world, so the controls below the world are visible), but >> on the android tablet that didn't help. >> >> These tablets are just to small for all the information and even firefox >> is different compared to its desktop version. > > >>From the beginning, my thinking was that anyone interested in doing some >programming was going to use either a deskop or laptop with proper >keyboard, etc., and thus a reasonably sized screen. > >Should I review this basic hypothesis? If so, does anyone have an idea as >to what minimum screen size I should be aiming to support? I'm not ever >planning to target tiny screens for smartphones and the like ... but if >only relatively small adjustements are needed to support "typical" tablets, >I could look into it. > >Andr? Children all over Sweden are getting ipads, ruggardized from the school districts. They are 240 x 170 mm, and apple has done a very good job of convincing education officials that this is where the 'computer literacy' money should be spent. Some schools are bucking the trend and using Android tablets instead. They are typically '10 inch' screen but some '7 inch screens' as well are being used. The android market is fragmented, so what a 10-inch screen really is, width and height-wise varies, as long as 10 inches is on the diagonal, that is what they will call it. And the current trend in cellphones is to grow them like crazy, so the flagship models of a great many popular brands now support 6.5 inch screens. (Indeed, it is a bit of a chore to find a very fast phone with a smaller screen. Since I already own a 7-inch android tablet, I would like things much better if my phone could just stay a phone, and go back to the battery length times we had before we had smartphones ....) But I disgress. At any rate, for use around here ipad support would be required, and if you got things to work with a 7-inch screen a whole lot of other people would be happy. But that's just here ... Laura From andre.roberge at gmail.com Mon Nov 24 20:05:00 2014 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 15:05:00 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> Message-ID: On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 2:56 PM, Laura Creighton wrote: > In a message of Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:48:45 -0400, Andre Roberge writes: > >On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Christian Mascher < > >christian.mascher at gmx.de> wrote: > > > >> Hi, > >> > >> I went there in a recent chrome on a laptop with a fairly small screen > and > >>> there are some rendering issues that make some of the controls > unusable. > >>> > >>> > >> I noticed the same with Nexus 7 (android) and firefox. On the desktop > Ctrl > >> + - usually makes things smaller and thus fit onto the screen (esp. > editor > >> right next to the world, so the controls below the world are visible), > but > >> on the android tablet that didn't help. > >> > >> These tablets are just to small for all the information and even firefox > >> is different compared to its desktop version. > > > > > >>From the beginning, my thinking was that anyone interested in doing some > >programming was going to use either a deskop or laptop with proper > >keyboard, etc., and thus a reasonably sized screen. > > > >Should I review this basic hypothesis? If so, does anyone have an idea as > >to what minimum screen size I should be aiming to support? I'm not ever > >planning to target tiny screens for smartphones and the like ... but if > >only relatively small adjustements are needed to support "typical" > tablets, > >I could look into it. > > > >Andr? > > Children all over Sweden are getting ipads, ruggardized from the school > districts. They are 240 x 170 mm, and apple has done a very good job of > convincing education officials that this is where the 'computer literacy' > money should be spent. Some schools are bucking the trend and using > Android > tablets instead. They are typically '10 inch' screen but some '7 inch > screens' as well are being used. The android market is fragmented, so what > a 10-inch screen really is, width and height-wise varies, as long as 10 > inches > is on the diagonal, that is what they will call it. > > And the current trend in cellphones is to grow them like crazy, so the > flagship models of a great many popular brands now support 6.5 inch > screens. > (Indeed, it is a bit of a chore to find a very fast phone with a smaller > screen. Since I already own a 7-inch android tablet, I would like things > much better if my phone could just stay a phone, and go back to the battery > length times we had before we had smartphones ....) But I disgress. > > At any rate, for use around here ipad support would be required, and if you > got things to work with a 7-inch screen a whole lot of other people would > be happy. > > But that's just here ... > > Laura > Thanks for the feedback Laura. I guess I should have been a bit more explicit: what matters really is the screen resolution in order to determine how much space I have ... but, unless there is an explicit request, I probably will not tinker (much) with the design. (I just removed a bit of extra vertical space but more could be done - except that, with different browsers rendering css differently, it's a bit pointless for me to try to squeeze things more tightly together on the hope that it would work for some target device which I can't test.) Andr? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lac at openend.se Mon Nov 24 20:23:11 2014 From: lac at openend.se (Laura Creighton) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 20:23:11 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: Message from Andre Roberge of "Mon, 24 Nov 2014 15:05:00 -0400." References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> Message-ID: <201411241923.sAOJNBms014616@fido.openend.se> Well, getting the specs for an Ipad air is easy, any apple site has that. And should Apple be as anxious to get ipads into Canadian schools as it was to get them in Swedish schools, getting a ipad for you to test on would just be a matter of calling your local apple rep and saying 'hey, I want to test my educational software and get it to work on an ipad'. If things work over there the way you do here, you would get an ipad or 2 in the mail over the next few days. Laura From lac at openend.se Mon Nov 24 20:34:14 2014 From: lac at openend.se (Laura Creighton) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 20:34:14 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Reeborg update In-Reply-To: Message from Andre Roberge of "Mon, 24 Nov 2014 15:05:00 -0400." References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> Message-ID: <201411241934.sAOJYE2Y014894@fido.openend.se> By the way, around here I get to read a whole lot of stuff the import of which is that just as writing and penmanship are no longer things that teachers need to focus on (because everybody types things, these days), typing is about to get the axe as voice recognition is getting up to speed. So people will not have to learn how to type, they will just talk their essays, etc. into their tablets. I think that this may work fine for dictation, but right now I shudder at the thought of modifying code that way. But this is what the future is supposed to be, or so we are being told ... Laura From litvin at skylit.com Mon Nov 24 17:59:30 2014 From: litvin at skylit.com (Litvin) Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:59:30 -0500 Subject: [Edu-sig] CS contest for grades 3-5 Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20141124114855.040f5840@skylit.com> This winter the Continental Mathematics League will, for the first time, offer a computer science contest for elementary school kids, grades 3-5. The contest consists of three "meets," 6 questions for 30 minutes in each meet. All the questions are "unplugged" -- no computers are needed. Please spread the word to elementary school teachers you know. More info and the registration form at http://www.continentalmathematicsleague.com/applications/computer.pdf or http://www.skylit.com/cml35.html. Gary Litvin From christian.mascher at gmx.de Wed Nov 26 16:23:28 2014 From: christian.mascher at gmx.de (Christian Mascher) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 16:23:28 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] gimme more computers (rant) In-Reply-To: <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> Message-ID: <5475F070.30607@gmx.de> Hi Laura, > > Children all over Sweden are getting ipads, ruggardized from the school > districts. They are 240 x 170 mm, and apple has done a very good job of > convincing education officials that this is where the 'computer literacy' > money should be spent. I think the public attitude to computers and education (all over the world) is crazy. You don't _need_ computers for education. Computers are extremely overrated concerning school education in my personal view. It is useful to have some "computer literacy", but compared with literacy itself: many orders of magnitude difference in usefulness, so actually the word 'computer literacy' is an exaggeration in itself. In Germany they just published a study, showing that we are "far behind" Canada and many other OECD-states regarding computer-use in schools. No journalist even questioned the general assumption that this is necessarily a bad thing the public should get hysterical about. I also haven't heard about German engineers being lo-tech because they weren't allowed to look up everything in wikipedia when they went to school. But the marketing of the Big Money Firms in IT-industry will pay off some time. Hey, lets burn lots of money for more computers in school - sounds GREAT. Crazy... Christian From kirby.urner at gmail.com Wed Nov 26 20:17:11 2014 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 11:17:11 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] gimme more computers (rant) In-Reply-To: <5475F070.30607@gmx.de> References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> <5475F070.30607@gmx.de> Message-ID: << SNIP >> But the marketing of the Big Money Firms in IT-industry will pay off some > time. Hey, lets burn lots of money for more computers in school - sounds > GREAT. > > Crazy... > > Christian > > > I think many students would be better served if the emphasis were on creating for them a safe personal workspace, with plenty of bandwidth to the outside world, with opportunities for 2-way interactions (so not just receiving broadcast television, as in the "mindless consumer couch potato" model of the late 1900s). In a comfortable middle class household, Johnny already has a heated bedroom with a desk, books, and computer, but has to leave this workspace to rub shoulders with peers in a daycare setting we call "school". Said school may censor Youtube and/or otherwise block access to information, so for many school-goers the experience of school is of burning an expensive fuel to frequent a less information-rich environment than their own comfortable bedrooms. However many children are doubled up with siblings, and have cold, cramped accommodations with little space for reflection, study, and private contemplation. Having the state funnel all the money to these daycare centers i.e. state-run "schools" (often similar to state-run prisons in their administrative structures and food) versus addressing these low living standards that inhibit scholarship, would seem a poor policy, one based on misguided priorities. In Alaska, where students may be too spread out to make "school" a practicality, the state reimburses home expenses for computer and musical instrument rental. Johnny in effect becomes an income-earner for the family in terms of making the household eligible for these services. Getting an education means directly investing in the quality of life at home. A teacher-mentor may visit once every week or two. I think we should tease apart "spending on connectivity devices" (such a mobile phones, tablets, laptops) from "building up an inventory of such devices in school buildings" (as in stockpiling schools with computer equipment). These are not the same thing, even if both approaches involve investing in connectivity and computation devices (a smartphone is also a scientific calculator, and a compass). Another use case: here in Portland, Free Geek tutors both minors and adults in how to disassemble and reassemble computers from donated hardware. Build five and the sixth is yours to keep (or maybe it's build four and the fifth is yours). Kids get a "Freek Box" to take home, with support classes in Ubuntu. "Schools" are not involved yet here we have an incubator for Portland's IT-minded subcultures of tomorrow (and today -- Free Geek has been around for a generation already). Also, again in Portland, although schools may have computers, chances are they don't teach mathematics and programming as a combined subject. We have another institution called Saturday Academy that pilots courses of that genre. Sure, in some of the better schools you'll find the math + programming mix, but it's still esoteric, even in 2014 with all the needed software free, and hardware quite inexpensive. So that's another reason to not throw a lot of money at putting computers in schools: the adults who staff them generally don't have enough skills to make good use of them. Better that Sally should stay home and watch instructional Youtubes about a math + programming approach to STEM. She just won't find that at her local day care center. Why waste Sally's time? Kirby -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com Thu Nov 27 14:54:58 2014 From: jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com (Jurgis Pralgauskis) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 15:54:58 +0200 Subject: [Edu-sig] CodeCombat online coding learning platform for Python and more languages (opensource) Message-ID: Hi, I tried it via my students (found on http://code.org/learn) http://codecombat.com/?hour_of_code=true . Neat pedagogical approach: - attractive graphics (for boys esp.) , - default coding language "python" :) - slow learning curve, - line highlighting, - some "simplified" syntax for python loops (instead of "while True", just write "loop") - didn't notice conditional statments so far ps.: Made with coffescript https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://galvosukykla.lt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andre.roberge at gmail.com Thu Nov 27 15:13:16 2014 From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 10:13:16 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] CodeCombat online coding learning platform for Python and more languages (opensource) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 9:54 AM, Jurgis Pralgauskis < jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I tried it via my students (found on http://code.org/learn) > http://codecombat.com/?hour_of_code=true . > It looks really nice. After having a quick look, I am fairly impressed. My criticisms below are essentially nitpicking.... > > Neat pedagogical approach: > > - attractive graphics (for boys esp.) , > > Yes > > - > - default coding language "python" :) > > but uses camelCases instead of following the normal Python convention. > > - > - slow learning curve, > > True ... but it starts with methods as opposed with functions, with no explanation as to why "self." is needed . > > - > - line highlighting, > - some "simplified" syntax for python loops (instead of "while True", > just write "loop") > > I have not reached that point (and likely won't) but this is something that really annoys me when claiming to teach Python. > > - didn't notice conditional statments so far > > What about defining new methods/classes ? Andr? > > - > > ps.: Made with coffescript https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat > > > -- > Jurgis Pralgauskis > tel: 8-616 77613; > Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) > http://galvosukykla.lt > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Sun Nov 30 04:02:31 2014 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 19:02:31 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] gimme more computers (rant) In-Reply-To: References: <5473518F.3050805@gmx.de> <201411241856.sAOIuFWs013807@fido.openend.se> <5475F070.30607@gmx.de> Message-ID: On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 11:17 AM, kirby urner wrote: > > << SNIP >> > > But the marketing of the Big Money Firms in IT-industry will pay off some >> time. Hey, lets burn lots of money for more computers in school - sounds >> GREAT. >> >> Crazy... >> >> Christian >> >> >> > I think many students would be better served if the emphasis were on > creating for them a safe personal workspace, with plenty of bandwidth to > the outside world, with opportunities for 2-way interactions (so not just > receiving broadcast television, as in the "mindless consumer couch potato" > model of the late 1900s). > > This seemed an interesting thread so I continued it here: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2661482 (math-teach is another old haunt of mine) Kirby > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From christian.mascher at gmx.de Sun Nov 30 22:29:22 2014 From: christian.mascher at gmx.de (Christian Mascher) Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 22:29:22 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] computers and schools Message-ID: <547B8C32.2010404@gmx.de> Hi Kirby, > I think many students would be better served if the emphasis were on > creating for them a safe personal workspace, with plenty of bandwidth > to the outside world, with opportunities for 2-way interactions (so > not just receiving broadcast television, as in the "mindless consumer > couch potato" model of the late 1900s). > I know that many if not most of our students have exactly this environment at their home. But they don't use it much for learning. The average 14-year-old won't do much education-wise outside of some fields of special interest, if there isn't any pressure in form of exams and tests etc. Just talking about real students... > In a comfortable middle class household, Johnny already has a heated > bedroom with a desk, books, and computer, but has to leave this > workspace to rub shoulders with peers in a daycare setting we call > "school". I know quite a lot would rather stay at home and play the same computer games all day. Still waiting to see the masses who want to learn two foreign languages plus maths and sciences all on their own... (I know there always are some exceptions. I always wanted to learn more than what I learned at school, but even I did go to school nevertheless and probably would never have learnt Maths or French all on my own.) > > Said school may censor Youtube and/or otherwise block access to > information, so for many school-goers the experience of school is of > burning an expensive fuel to frequent a less information-rich > environment than their own comfortable bedrooms. > Well I get to see lots of real students, but when they open youtube in a computer lab at school, they never look at those wonderful educational videos. I encourage them to do so at home (maths is explained pretty much like at school, but with a pause and rewind button!), but many prefer to use their own time otherwise. > > Better that Sally should stay home and watch instructional Youtubes > about > math + programming approach to STEM. She just won't find that > at her local day care center. Why waste Sally's time? I haven't met many of Sally' s kind. Also: In many countries in Europe (in Germany for instance) homeschooling is actually forbidden for a variety of reasons. But apart from that: I do question the main assumption that not using a computer for a couple of hours each day is in any way damaging to the education. On the contrary I think it is higly unlikely that a large proportion of the youth in Germany would still learn English, Maths, some bits about Science and History at the same levels as today when they would be left to their own (computer) devices. Already in the present system the advantaged students are those who have educated parents, not those with the biggest computer racks at home. That problem would be amplified to the extreme, when education would be privatized in this way. My guess is: Only the very best 1-3% students would learn more or less about as much as now, because some kind of coach would be around. To paraprase Churchhill: Schools are lousy ecosystems for learning but we haven't found any practical better systems yet. How successful has the OLPC-project actually been? Any evidence beyond quotes and ideas from SciFi "The diamond age" ;-) ? Cheers Christian From kirby.urner at gmail.com Sun Nov 30 23:14:38 2014 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 14:14:38 -0800 Subject: [Edu-sig] computers and schools In-Reply-To: <547B8C32.2010404@gmx.de> References: <547B8C32.2010404@gmx.de> Message-ID: > To paraprase Churchhill: Schools are lousy ecosystems for learning but > we haven't found any practical better systems yet. > > How successful has the OLPC-project actually been? Any evidence beyond > quotes and ideas from SciFi "The diamond age" ;-) ? > > Cheers > > Christian > > > You bring up a good point: home schooling is actually verboten in some countries. Including in Germany? Really? I didn't know that. The late Arthur Siegel used to post eloquently on this list about how 14 year olds stand to benefit much more from activities *not* involving a computer. Riding a bicycle for example. But then having a smartphone talking in your helmet about which way to turn, especially in a strange city... But then who's in a strange city at 14 one may ask. Well, many 14 year olds don't know their own city. Learning local geography is a worthy goal, with an eye to mastery and getting around autonomously. If computers (including smartphones) might help with that, so much the better. OLPC: I'm not expert. I think many children have been grateful for these electronics but not many were reached compared to the number who might have enjoyed the boost. A drop in the bucket. The common wisdom about OLPC is it helped some kids, plus Sugar Labs and the hardware design teams, reaped substantial benefits in terms of getting to prototype tomorrow's "best of breed" technologies. >From my point of view if you have a safe "home alone" environment then great: problem solved in your case. Given the number of homeless runaways not seeing a safe study space anywhere on the horizon, the work for NGOs I support is ongoing. If governments are in any position to assist with high tech, then lets think of high tech as more than a laptop. It's a safe personal workspace. Schools fit the bill if they give students space to be individuals with private space and time. Some do. Many don't see that as their role. Many are more like prisons which specialize in "all or nothing" i.e. you're either never alone, or you're in solitary. I'm not looking for those extremes for average work / study students just seeking better lives for themselves. 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