Hello World in Python

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 6:14 PM, Rustom Mody <rustompmody at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, January 25, 2015 at 5:36:02 AM UTC+5:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
>
>> One thing that I really like doing with my Python students (full
>> disclosure: I'm a mentor with www.thinkful.com and am thus at times
>> paid to help people learn Python) is some form of screen-sharing, so I
>> can watch him/her trying things. There are a number of zero-dollar
>> ways to do this, and it helps enormously. Flip on screen-share, ask
>> him to run the script, and see where that leads.
>
> Would be interested in how you manage that!
> Am teaching a class where everyone has a laptop.
> Having them setup with a bare modicum of uniformity is turning out some challenge.
> Some windows, some linux(es), even one blessed mac!

Generally we use Google Hangouts - video chat, with options for
screen-share (replacing the camera; let's face it, when you're
discussing code, staring at talking heads isn't all that useful) and a
few other neat features. But if uniformity is an issue, you might want
to look into some kind of virtual Linux box like http://nitrous.io/ -
that way, everyone's using the same system, and nobody has to worry
about the stupid hassles of trying to support three different OSes.
Though Nitrous mightn't be as important for you as it is for the
Thinkful course; as part of the course, we teach PostgreSQL + Python +
PsycoPG2 + SQLAlchemy, and if you're on a Mac and your student is on
Windows, you'll *really* appreciate not having to figure out how to
install that lot on a foreign platform! (In theory, the situation
should be getting better. Installing stuff from PyPI under Windows has
long been a massive nuisance, but it's starting to become a bit
easier. But it's still a massive pain for someone who doesn't know
Windows to try to walk a Windows person through the setup.)

And hey. If you want a pay-for Python programming course, do check 'em
out - www.thinkful.com. You get regular one-on-one mentorship, a
highly responsive team of staff, and all sorts of random fun. There,
I'm done advertising now. :)

ChrisA