[Edu-sig] learning python the "best" way... (end of year overview)

[kirby urner]

At the PDX Code Guild, which has a Monday
night Flying Circus event, which I've been
frequenting -- though not in the last five weeks
as my teaching gig was Mon / Weds -- I hear
quite a few geeks say they've been studying
Learning Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw.

I finally took a look at the on-line version
yesterday and notice he's very adamant about
learning 2.7, not 3.x.  Disappointing.  Maybe
he's working on the 3.x version.

Zed does give a lot of fabulous advice about
techniques for learning, emphasizing the importance
of the hands-on practicum. Just watching videos
gives only casual knowledge.  To get it in your
bones, you need to write code, learn by doing.

He also talks about the importance of sleep
and even dreams when it comes to gaining
new skills.

"Day dream and doodle in code" is advice I give
my  own students.

I also encourage writing deliberately "demented"
code when learning, to focus on corner cases.

Update about me:  In addition to teaching Python
to adults (night school gig), I'm an instructor-
-in-training  with Coding With Kids (CwK), which
provides right-after-school coding classes, with
one Chromebook per child (work is saved in the
cloud).

Working with kids means diving into Scratch again,
as our Python students tend to come with a Scratch
background (what CwK uses with the younger
kids, not that adults can't have fun with Scratch;
it's quite engaging as many on edu-sig already
well know.

A path I'd recommend (one of many):

Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Python 3
http://www.diveintopython3.net/

Allen Downey's Think Python (2nd edition)
http://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/

John Zelle's excellent book is out in a 3rd
edition:  http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/

for beginner to intermediate, followed by

Luciano Ramahlo's Fluent Python

for more advanced concepts (e.g. coroutines
and asyncio).

I introduce Jupyter Notebooks pretty early when
working with adults.

Then it's time to branch out into more specialized
interests i.e. knowledge domains e.g. mathematics
with Amit Saha or Peter Farell, or Litvins (I've got
math stuff online, some of it even more specialized
to spatial geometry meaning lots of Visual Python).

Or physics, or bioinformatics, or stats or web apps
or...  Pymunk sure looks fun.

Geeks coming through Flying Circus on Mondays
are into all kinds of weird things; I've missed being
at the meetups. I'm going to a Hanukkah Party this
Monday now that my night gig is over until January,
then lets hope I get to Flying Circus again the day
after Christmas.

Happy New Year everyone.

Kirby Urner
4Dsolutions.net
/ocn/cp4e.html
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