Mailman 3 December 2003 - Edu-sig

promoting computer literacy through programming python
by John Miller Jan. 2, 2004

Jan. 2, 2004

Hi, and a Happy New Year to everyone. For the past year or so, I've been working on my doctoral dissertation in Educational Technology at the University of Michigan. I've finally finished (passed the oral exam on Dec. 17th) and I've posted it in .pdf format at: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jmillr/miller_dissertation.pdf (1.25 MB) The reason I mention it here is that I decided to do a qualitative analysis of the messages posted to this newsgroup. Here is the topic that I was pursuing: What considerations are most important in teaching Python as a first programming language in a secondary school setting? I thought that the messages posted here would provide sufficient material to approximate a reasonable answer to the question. I'd like to stress the fact that I only considered a fraction of the total material; there was simply too much to include all the interesting and provocative ideas that have been addressed over the past four years. I also ignored all the personal interactions and focused instead on the ideas being presented. I'd also like to thank everyone who posted to this newsgroup with their insightful perspectives on the difficulties of promoting Python programming in educational settings. I have learned much from reading and analyzing these archives. I hope that this dissertation will prove useful to others who share these concerns. If anyone is inclined to take a look at it, but won't be able to read the entire 288 pages, I suggest that Chapter 4 might be the most interesting as it most directly deals with the messages and ideas of the newsgroup, along with Chapter 5 which provides the conclusions drawn from the results of the fourth chapter. Finally, here is the abstract of the dissertation: """ Computer programming contributes an essential aspect to a well-rounded computer literacy, analogous to the role of writing in the domain of traditional print literacy. Many computer languages are unwieldy for rapid prototyping; however, the open-source Python language was designed to be easy for beginners to learn and is appropriate as a first computer language. This dissertation explores what considerations are most important in teaching Python as a first programming language in a secondary school setting. The data examined was three years worth of messages publicly posted to the online Python edu-sig newsgroup. These messages were filtered to obtain only those that were contained in meaningful threads; that is, threads of mean length or longer containing a mean number or more of unique posters. The filtered threads were then categorized by a) subject header and b) phrases identified by an automated keyword algorithm, and further reduced by choosing categories most germane to this dissertation’s topic. The selected threads were then subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The data revealed numerous issues that teachers who may want to incorporate programming into their classroom may need to deal with, including, whether to establish a standalone programming class or integrate programming exercises with other subjects; the importance of establishing programming teams and involving the students’ interests; how to present both procedural and object-oriented programming styles; differences in mathematical notation compared with traditional classes; encouraging a healthy programming aesthetic; and teaching algorithmic thinking. Three major conclusions were derived from the results: a) computer programming is a bona fide form of writing that combines well-formed arguments with good stories, and is central to a complete mastery of computer literacy; b) learning to program enables programming to learn; that is, the major purpose of learning computer programming in school settings is to develop the means of using programming to promote learning in other subject areas; and c) computer programming fosters a variety of executable notations that alters what is worth knowing in other subject areas. """ John Miller

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interactive code example
by Jason Cunliffe Dec. 30, 2003

Dec. 30, 2003

A nice little example of code with interactive explanations. Actionscript in flash, but same technique coudl be ysed for Python etc. http://www.jurjans.lv/flash/shape.html - Jason

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SCORM
by Jason Cunliffe Dec. 30, 2003

Dec. 30, 2003

http://www.rhassociates.com/scorm.htm "This is an overview of the Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model. It's hard to make technical standards understandable (much less interesting). Nonetheless, here's the cliff notes version of what you need to know about SCORM. SCORM is a suite of technical standards that enable web-based learning systems to find, import, share, reuse, and export learning content in a standardized way. (See ADL Background for how SCORM came to be.) Note that SCORM is written primarily for vendors and toolmakers who build Learning Management Systems and learning content authoring tools so they know what they need to do to their products to conform with SCORM technically. A "Designer's Guide" for implementing SCORM is in the works. Stay tuned."

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edu-sig@python.org, cialis
by Violet Barrow Dec. 30, 2003

Dec. 30, 2003

%Med + lots of other medications http://Dr7o.rroot5.com/v95/index.php?id=v95

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Re: APU, and at once
by Maribel Dec. 29, 2003

Dec. 29, 2003

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Re: AWYOSYPD, they say there
by Conrad Olson Dec. 28, 2003

Dec. 28, 2003

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Re: [Edu-sig] re: NLII 2004 Annual Meeting
by Toby Donaldson Dec. 22, 2003

Dec. 22, 2003

> But there is almost nothing here about students or their actual > experience, process, perspective, input, happiness success, results etc. > It seems to be more about management and budgets. > > I'd hate to be misreading all this without doing my homework properly. > I am far outside of the formal school system so I'd welcome further > analysis and comments For the last 5 years, I've been in an environment where the sort of mentality that you describe dominated. It was indeed mostly about project management, planning, and budgets (which is true of all large projects, in some sense), although there is certainly a strong rhetoric of "learner centered" teaching. There was a lot of evangelism, a lot of people shouting (so to speak) "praise the lord" whenever eLearning was mentioned. > Learning Object: Any digital resource that can be reused to support > learning. Maybe "learning objects" are a good idea, but this definition is worthless. The letter "e" is a digital resource that can be reused to support learning, and so is Internet Explorer, Google, Yahoo!, and my mother's friend's blog on weaving. From what I've read, the eLearning people who promote this stuff seem pretty much to have taken it because, in programming, "object" = "good". (Cynics might say that the only reason learning objects are popular in academia is that 1) at least a couple of years ago, it attracts large grants where the outcomes are as vague as the above-definition; and 2) it doesn't involve people. 2) is a bit scary once you realize that the push for eLearning in universities a couple of years ago was almost an entirely top-down initiative: administrators looking for a cost-effective way to teach more students. Compared to learning objects --- which never complain, don't need offices or benefits packages --- people look mighty expensive.) But I grant that there is something to the *idea* of learning objectives, even though the definitions are foolish. I see a much bigger problem: the learning object camp have no clue about how to actually re-use learning objects. They confuse *storing* with *reusing*. The problem I've had in using learning objects is that they are often too much work to *configure* for my particular usage. How do I *split* a learning object, e.g. what if I just want half of a learning object? Or what if I want to remove mention of one concept because it's inaccurate (e.g. imagine an animation that talks about 500Mhz as being the fastest available computers)? What if I want to fix an error, or change a font to match my other presentations, or add footnotes? Know one can be sure ahead of time what part of learning object they may want (or need) to change. Ultimately, I remain unconvinced that education is that much different than any other content management problem. I suspect that most teachers would be better off buying good weblog software as opposed to WebCT, or its ilk. Toby -- Dr. Toby Donaldson Assistant Professor School of Interactive Arts and Technology Simon Fraser University

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re: NLII 2004 Annual Meeting
by Arthur Dec. 22, 2003

Dec. 22, 2003

Its all too good actually: A closer look at my original cite: http://hem.passagen.se/thebee/waldorf/links2.htm does list The Nature Institute as an affiliated entity to the Rudolf Steiner folks, Go to The Nature Institute site http://www.natureinstitute.org/ And find: """ This site comes to you through the extraordinary generosity of O'Reilly & Associates, book publishers. """ Click through to O'Reilly (it's a link on the Nature Institute site) and we are back in Python territory. >From the 19th century mystic, Steiner, right back to home territory in three clicks. And around the world, once - as well. Simply too good. Art

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re: NLII 2004 Annual Meeting
by Arthur Dec. 22, 2003

Dec. 22, 2003

Nicola writes: >Interesting in this vein is the work being done by Steve Talbott with >NetFuture and other organizations: >http://www.netfuture.org/ Some more connect-the-dots: """ NetFuture is a freely distributed newsletter dealing with technology and human responsibility. It is published by The Nature Institute, 169 Route 21C, Ghent NY 12075 (tel: 518-672-0116). """ Ghent NY rang a bell. Search revels that it is the home of the Rudolf Steiner Library. Steiner is the founder of Anthroposophical movement, which provides the philosophical underpinnings of the Waldorf education movement, which I referenced earlier in these discussions. Because of their strong stance in regard to the use of computers in early childhood education. And it is pretty well clear to me that The Nature Institute, which publishes NetFuture, is either Waldorf related or Waldorf influenced. See: http://www.netfuture.org/ni/ """ Our Fall, 2003 program - three lectures and a workshop: on a human-centered understanding of illness, a Goethean understanding of science, and a nature-centered understanding of language. """ And refer back to my cite in the Education Arcade thread: """ The Waldorf School movement, with which I have no affiliation or particular interest, has an aggressive perspective on this kind of thing. http://hem.passagen.se/thebee/waldorf/links2.htm """ And you will there see prominent mention of Goetheanism. I don't know what Goetheanism is. I make this clear and direct link between netfuture.org and the Waldorfian movement only as a point of information I spy. Art

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re: NLII 2004 Annual Meeting
by Arthur Dec. 21, 2003

Dec. 21, 2003

Tony writes - >I suspect that most teachers would be better off buying good weblog >software as opposed to WebCT, or its ilk. I'm suspecting that good weblog software can be bought for $0. A budget buster, sure enough ;) Art

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