[Edu-sig] More brainstorming in PDX

[kirby urner]

Greetings from jennifer, my edubuntu box in the basement (just loaded
some laundry, enjoying the cool of an underground cave -- no central
A/C in this house nor even wall units, and it's a record breaking day
for A/C in PDX, in terms of consumed megawattage (KOIN News
www.koin.com), with a local high of 102F, also record-breaking.

At the local supermarket (good A/C in there) I picked up the latest
Linux mags and noticed Ruby getting a lot of attention as a kind of
"SmallTalk + Perl" (interesting).  I did study the Rails system after
the last OSCON and understand the appeal of "opinionated platforms"
(not all things to all people -- but maybe exactly what *you* need for
this job at this time).

Python was also showcased in one article: picture of Guido +
entrepreneur, around this photo journalism service (online Python
webapp).  I don't have the mags with me, so won't be able to pin down
the reference in this post.

I'm mostly @ Math Forum & blogs of late, challenging California's ed
standards (a way of sparking debate) and talking up gnu math (Pythonic
math is a subclass of this more generic approach to merging OO with
more traditional pre-computer notations).

I'm not sure how tied I am to OO in the long run, but find Python's
concept of namespaces, based on dictionaries (right down to
self.__dict__) so satisfyingly consistent, that I'm not inclined to
abandon ship any time soon.

Closer to home, I continue to work through Wanderers, a local
thinktank under the umbrella of isepp.org, recently joined by Glenn
Stockton of Global Matrix, David Tver (a mathematician) and others.

It's through this group that I landed my paying gig as Pythonic math
teacher at the local university (PSU), with an ideal set of young
enrollees.  I've often used Wanderers as a focus group, when preparing
a new Python talk, be that for Linuxfest in Bellingham, a training for
local GIS/GPS experts, an OSCON, Pycon, or EuroPython.

I'd like to try more adult-centric venues next, so am sorry about not
making it to EuroPython this year (mostly young-than-me adults), but
maybe next year.

More local venues should suffice for field testing.  I'll keep ya'll up to date.

Kirby