Re: [seul-edu] Language to teach 10 year olds

[Manuel Gutierrez Algaba <algaba@gmx.net>]

At 11:13 p.m. 09/07/01 +0800, Harish Pillay 9v1hp wrote:
>Hi.  I have been asked by a math teacher of a primary school (7-12 year olds),
>to come up with a plan to help 10/11 year olds design a set of applications
>that help teach math to primary one students (7 year olds).
>
>The idea is for these 10 year olds to create animated applications to teach
>things like addition, subtraction in a fun and game like manner.  The object
>is to have these apps have some form of animation (simple) and help to
>re-inforce what has been covered in class for the 7 year olds.  The 10 year
>olds would have learned how to work in a project team and also how to design
>applications to deliver a message.
>
>I am torn between proposing the likes of illumatus/director and perhaps
>smalltalk/logo.  I am seeking ideas on how else I can do this.  Although it
>is not important that Linux be used here, I will have a good reason to
>introduce it if the overall scheme is right.

Tipically, Python and Logo are the proposed languages for this sort of things.
I'm a python fan, but thinking seriously about it, perhaps, the easiest 
language
to get *very simple things get done* is tcl/tk. Tcl/tk is even more cross 
platform than
Java, you can find it in Mac, Windows and Linux, it's very easy to create 
windows,
buttons, even small animations, the syntax is not complex.

About Smalltalk, it'd be a bit complex and restricted to the smalltalk-ish 
environment.
Tcl/tk is close enough to many languages to be useful in the long term.
Object orientation is fine, but 10 years old shouldn't worry about it. Logo
is very nice for maths and for drawing, but that's a too much *mathematicalish*
point of view of programming.



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MGA