[Edu-sig] More CP4E News

[Jeff Rush]

kirby urner wrote:
> 
> On the pedagogical front, Dr. Sonnenfeld at New Mexico tech,
> a proud python owner (as in the literal snake) with his son Cody
> and Company, wonders aloud at the paucity of Python (the
> computer language literature) in the form of childrens books,
> especially given all the buzz the adults're talkin' (me included).

I've never seen programming books in the form of children's books -- can you
point me at some for -other- programming languages?  I'm curious what they
would look like, and maybe we can get some for Python if we have examples and
names of publishers who've already done it.


> His kids are ready to learn, but with what?  Where's the kid-friendly
> fantasy angle?
> 
> Given the popularity of Piratology and Dragonology books, you'd
> think O'Reilly'd already have something similar (actually that'd be
> a departure -- it's kid book authors and illustrators with track
> records we need, mixing OLPC & CP4E (a "head first" for kids
> -- like not too dumbed down, even with all those twisted aqua
> teen type graphics)).

Hmm, as you say O'Reilly isn't a primary source of children's books, but the
kid book authors and illustrators in turn are not sources of programming
books.  How the heck are you going to get them to work together?  They think
differently and don't have established relations.


> Listing 1:  exercise:  circle a dict object being initialized.  What
> alternative syntax might the writer have used?  Give a short
> example in the space provided: ___________________________

An interesting idea for teaching - showing source and asking students to
reason -about- it, instead of writing programs from scratch for exercises.
I'll have to consider applying this in some Python educational ideas I have.

-Jeff