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Re: [school-discuss] Hello and Re: first programming language



On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 11:01 PM, Jennifer J Dellner
<jjdellner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello, All:
>
> I am new to the list. I found you through Joel Kahn, who thought I would be
> interested in the topics on this list, and he was right. I've worked
> primarily in higher ed, on the humanities/social science side of things, but
> am fairly geeky, always interested in how technology and education come
> together. Until recently, though a Mac user, I hadn't spent any serious time
> at a terminal since MS-DOS, but have found my way back to one after
> receiving an XO laptop when I donated to OLPC's "Give One, Get One." So it
> struck me that the first three respondents out of the gate quickly said
> "Python," because the XO, of course, has "Pippy," a version of Python, and a
> marvelous thing called EToys that involves creating things by programming
> with tiles.
> One of my motivations for getting the laptop, besides curiosity, was the
> idea that I might be able to learn some Python by playing like a kid again,
> and this is happening. So I thought I'd put in a good word for Python from
> the non-programmer side, and wonder, Roberto, if you could even get your
> hands on one of these XOs for your student to play with. Its UI, Sugar, can
> be run in emulation, but people keep debating Sugar per se vs. other Linux
> possibilities.
>
> I also thought of MIT's site, again for kids, for learning Scratch (tiled,
> and based on Squeak). Here is the url: http://scratch.mit.edu/ . Apologies
> if this has been discussed before. A danger of being new to the list.
>
> Nice to meet you all !
>
> Jennifer Dellner
>
thank you very much Jennifer

also your opinion was useful for me; that's why i'll propose to the
boy two main alternatives:
graphical programming languages: scratch or tweak
line text programming language: python definitively :)

as i said, i'll keep you posted about news about this teaching experiment ...

>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 8, 2008, at 12:02 PM, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 11:15:49PM +1000, Richard Andrews wrote:
> Note: I'm not a teacher - I'm a software engineer.
>
> Python.
>
> Once upon a time I had it in my mind to make a book on programming
> for kids in the 8-12 yo range, similar to "Atari BASIC: A Self Teaching
> Guide"
> that I had as a kid.  (It covered the basics (no pun) and had an unoffensive
> cartoon character guide you along the way.)
>
> I asked Schoolforge and other lists what they thought would be a good
> language, and all but about 3 people said Python.  Someone said Squeak.
> I forget what the other suggestion was, at this point.
>
> And yes, I'd love to write that book.  But (1) don't know Python, (2) don't
> have time. :(
>
> Yet. :)
>
> --
> -bill!
> bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/
>
>



-- 
roberto
OS: GNU/Linux, Debian