[Edu-sig] CP4E VideoPython learning to teatch / teaching to learn ..[xpost: was {'cpl',"don't laugh"}]

[Kirby Urner]

Hi Jason --

I have no problem with your impassioned plea for better 
teaching materials, including multimedia.  No laughing
matter.  Lots of people working on it no doubt.

Also thanks for your rave review of Flash5, which I
haven't had the time to look into.

Sometimes I think what bogs people down is foresaking 
any knowledge domain and trying to learn the "programming
language" as the generic "thing to know".

More useful, I think, is to bring in a knowledge domain
(some topic in mathematics, a graphical challenge, some
real problem needing a solution), and then learn the
language in tandem with that knowledge.

Because when do you really "know" Python or Java?  
When you've mastered every module or package that comes
with it.  I've yet to meet a programmer who has.  And
yet the newbie might get the impression this is the goal,
and immediately get lost.

Sometimes a good teacher is just someone who knows how
to parse a large domain into doable, masterable steps,
whereas the drowning student is the one who has plenty
of intelligence and talent, but thinks learning it ALL
(whatever ALL means) is what's necessary -- as if others
have done that (really, they haven't).

Kirby