[Edu-sig] [ANN] rur-ple: pre-release of new lessons.

[kirby urner]

>
> if:
>
> IDLE 1.1.2
> >>> from visual import *
> >>> display(background=color.white)
> <visual.ui.display object at 0x0927D150>
> >>> sphere(color=color.blue)
> <visual.primitives.sphere object at 0x0927D120>
>
> ain't enough to get a kid excited, the kid is simply jaded.
>
> A fancier technology - Croquet? - plays better to the jaded, perhaps.


I understand your point and I think you've expressed it effectively.

However, the Dragon Kit might be sold as such:  a laboratory for scripting
dragon behaviors, and sharing these creations with your friends online.  You
can even make them fight each other in cyber-arenas, which are firewalled to
ensure no remote controlling i.e. your dragon competes on the merits of its
code, with no last minute patches once the bout is in progress.  However,
other dragon ethusiasts would have little interest in arena-based dragon
fights.  They're more into intricate storytelling, complete with wizards,
knights, the works.  More like Shrek.

Oh yeah, some programming required (says so on the box, little Python
logo).  But like duh, that's a given.  All such toys require some kind of
programming, that's what we went to school for, to learn from like you're
showing above (VPython and so on, with lots of cross-references to other
disciplines, no market-centric bias to push someone's bottom line).

seems to me with some certainty that playing to jaded sensibilities  is
> not the role that educators should play.
>
> > An important fact to keep in mind, as we explore the space of
> > potentially marketable products.
>
> didn't know we were.
>
> Art
>
>
I routinely rope in commercial products for their educational value,
including but not limited to computer games and simulations.  It's important
for our family that we have access to toyz.  I actively stimulate the
imaginations of toy makes with descriptions of what we'd likely buy, and
charge on our Platinum Amazon Visa, which I just signed for while buying
Tara a new robot dog with her own money (the 16+% variable APR is pretty
outrageous -- thinking mainly of the promotional discount, which turned out
not to apply, as this was a pass through from Toys R Us, and therefore
apparently not qualified).

Kirby
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