[Edu-sig] Editors/IDEs for teaching

[A Jorge Garcia]

If u want more bells and whistles, cocalc.com like sage but it's a subscription service.

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On Jul 4, 2018, 12:26 PM, at 12:26 PM, A Jorge Garcia <calcpage at aol.com> wrote:
>I like Processing and c9.io for my Computer Science kids. We also used
>arduino studio with codrones. 
>
>My math students and I use python a lot on sagecell.sagemath.org.
>
>HTH,
>AJG
>
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>
>On Jul 4, 2018, 12:16 PM, at 12:16 PM, Andre Roberge
><andre.roberge at gmail.com> wrote:
>>On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 12:09 PM Wanjun Zhang <by.wanjun at gmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> We recently had to pick a beginner-friendly python editor for our
>>Invent
>>> to Learn summer program. We also teach a lot of Raspberry Pi based
>>Intro to
>>> Python workshops for kids and adults alike. In addition to
>>editor/IDE,
>>> there’s another category to consider - specialized education
>platform
>>- For
>>> instance, EarSketch <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarSketch> is a
>>> programming environment made specifically to teach coding through
>>sound
>>> mixing.
>>>
>>> Over the years we tried Trinket.io, PyCharm Edu, Visual Studio Code,
>>Mu,
>>> iPythonNotebooks, Earsketch, Processing in Python mode, Thonny, IDLE
>>+ some
>>> I don’t remember.
>>>
>>> For us, it’s about prioritizing specific goals for our students and
>>our
>>> program. For the summer program we are working with FabLab Houston
>to
>>equip
>>> students with both maker skills and programming skills. They will
>>learn
>>> Python with the Raspberry Pi with first the Minecraft Pi api, then
>>sensor
>>> stuffs with Circuit Python on Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Learning
>>> Express, then Processing in Python mode to visualize some data with
>>> neopixels. For Fab Lab our goal is also to 1. train FabLab staff
>>members
>>> with enough programming skills so they can deliver the Invent to
>>Learn
>>> program without us, 2. produce open source curriculum from this
>>program for
>>> other makerspaces.
>>>
>>> Ultimately, I think it should be up to the specific teacher to pick
>>out
>>> features - as programmers we tend to look at specs and numbers, but
>>we must
>>> also prioritize setting up educators for success - they are the
>>frontline
>>> workers delivering the service. For instance, trinket.io is our
>go-to
>>> because a lot of educator’s don’t have admin access to their
>>computers, so
>>> web-based editor that is easy to use and specifically made for
>>education is
>>> great. However we do recognize the value in exposing our students to
>>tools
>>> that developers use - like PyCharm.
>>> This is our pro and cons list off of the top of my head for choosing
>>an
>>> editor for different partners and educators that we work with:
>>>
>>> - *Platform* - can we do things in command line on the computer that
>>is
>>> available to us, whether that’s a raspberry pi, mac, or pc?
>>Trinket.io is
>>> a great web-based solution if that’s an issue.
>>>
>>> - Existing *resources and community* - are there educator resources?
>>Is
>>> this random IDE made by one person as a marketing exercise? if open
>>source,
>>> when is the projects' last pull request? The Thonny Editor is
>awesome
>>> because there are a lot of high quality curriculum from
>>> https://projects.raspberrypi.org/ Same goes for Trinket.io.
>>>
>>> - Learning Curve for *educator *- If a teacher is teaching this and
>>not a
>>> developer, are they able to successfully use this tool? Do we expect
>>them
>>> to learn to use the terminal? Again, Trinket.io is a great starting
>>point.
>>>
>>> - Learning Curve for *student *- Does the IDE/Editor have too many
>>> options? Not enough? What is the cognitive load for the student.
>>>
>>> *- Utility for student* - Do we want to provide a real world
>>developer
>>> experience for our students? Or is our goal to have them build
>>something as
>>> to inspire. Is this a long term program or a short term project? Do
>>we want
>>> learners to quickly go through turtles (trinket.io) or be exposed to
>>> developer tools (pycharm)?
>>>
>>> After much consideration, we chose Thonny and also Python mode in
>the
>>> Processing IDE for our three week program.
>>>
>>> Hope this helps.
>>>
>>
>>
>>​Yes, it does help very much.  I like your choice of Thonny +
>>Processing.
>>And your list of criterion is very good and may be useful to many
>>people on
>>this list.
>>
>>/Digression about trinket, and an alternative that I designed
>>
>>I know that a lot of people like trinket.io.  However, it has some
>>negative
>>points in my opinion:
>>
>>1. It uses an implementation of Python 2 - it is not compatible with
>>Python
>>3. To me, this is almost inexcusable.
>>2. It is not a completely free, open source solution.
>>
>>As web based alternative to trinket, I suggest my own site:
>>http://reeborg.ca/reeborg.html - which does support Python 3 and does
>>not
>>require users to log in. This has the downside that they cannot save
>>their
>>code on my site. However, it is possible to load code hosted
>elsewhere.
>>For
>>example, one could save some code on https://pastebin.com/ and load it
>>from
>>there.
>>
>>For graphics, Reeborg's World is based on using a Karel-like robot
>>instead
>>of a turtle mode ... BUT, one can (in principle) use turtle graphics
>on
>>it
>>-- I just haven't gotten around to incorporating the Brython turtle
>>module
>>into it.  (It's on my list of things to do. I can bump it up in
>>priority
>>enough people are interested, willing to test it and provide
>feedback).
>>
>>While anyone can run arbitrary programs on it, it is designed to have
>>tasks
>>that can give feedback to students as to whether or not a given task
>>has
>>been accomplished.
>>
>>It also offers the *choice* of using an REPL or a block programming
>>interface.  Students can do live "pair programming" (with 2 or more
>>people
>>working on a same program from different computers) - or this can also
>>be
>>done by a teacher guiding a student at distance.  (For this feature,
>it
>>uses Mozilla's TogetherJS - which is not compatible with the block
>>interface designed by Google.) One can step through the code, examine
>>the
>>content of variables at every stage, etc.
>>
>>Because it is open source, anyone can get a copy of it and run it on
>>their
>>own site.  (Many teachers do this, as their students have limited
>>access to
>>the Internet.)  There's more that I could mention including an online
>>python tutorial which I wrote and which is available in 3 languages
>>(with a
>>4th one in the works), an online texbook (written by someone else)
>that
>>uses it, a printed book (published in France by another author) etc.,
>>but
>>this should be enough motivation for anyone interested to have a look
>>at it.
>>
>>/End of digression
>>
>>
>>
>>André
>>
>>
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>>
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