Mailman 3 December 2009 - Edu-sig

xturtle online via processing.js !?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 28 Sep '12

28 Sep '12

Hi, I am struggling around with interactive online py tutorials with https://launchpad.net/projects/intro-to-code (ith might become securely sandboxed soon, as pypy made it possible http://blog.sandbox.lt/en/WSGI%20and%20PyPy%20sandbox :) but one more thing is I'd like to let access xturtle functionality online - one possible way could be triggering tkinter to save its canvas to ps, and then convert them with imagemagic and show via web (animated gif or static) - but if pyjamas can render GUI for js (http://www.google.lt/search?&q=pyjamas+python ), mayby there is a way to **translate turtle commands to processing.js analogues** http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/ would it be difficult -- how do you think? -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; jabber: jurgis(a)akl.lt; skype: dz0rdzas; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://sagemath.visiems.lt

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CS teaching approaches
by Andy Judkis 08 Jan '10

08 Jan '10

Two feet of snow on the ground, a good time to respond . . . I teach high school kids, but I really think that most of what I teach should have been covered in middle school. I'd recommend: 1) Having the kids open up computers and taking a good long look at the stuff inside. Talk about what's in a chip, what a printed circuit board looks like,what a bus is. Take it out of the realm of magic, make sure that kids know it's just a machine -- albeit a really really fast one. 2) Talk about the history. Show them some really old computers. Talk about the Analytical Engine. Make sure they know what Moore's Law is. 3) Show them some things about operating systems (the task manager, a DOS command window) and talk about viruses, worms, zombies, botnets, cyberwar. . . stuff like that 4) Make sure they know how binary numbers work, and how sound and images can be encoded. 5) Teach them about the internet -- packets, IP addresses, TCP and IP, routers, DNS -- not in detail, just enough to demystify it a little. (In the very first class I taught, I vividly remember one student sputtering in frustration, "But what IS the internet?") 6) Have them do some simple web pages by writing HTML tags with a text editor. 7) Introduce them to programming. I use Python (starting with RUR-PLE) but for middle school, I'd do Scratch or Alice. 8) Have them research some cool/scary things that are happening with robotics and AI, and have them give presentations to the class. To me, the important thing is to get them to not think of a computer as a magic black box, but instead to get under the hood and think about how things work. (see http://extremities.com/pct/index.php?nxt=intro&sub=guyundercar) The very first thing I have kids do is make up a list of things that they wonder about -- I'm actually rather proud of that particular assignment: http://extremities.com/pct/index.php?nxt=intro&sub=goodquestions Best of luck -- I'm eager to hear what you come up with. Andy Judkis Academy of Allied Health and Science Neptune, NJ

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Fwd: student project (market reseach)
by kirby urner 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

Greetings to edu-sig friends, HNY! Kirby ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 5:49 PM Subject: student project (market reseach) """ Slinging code from this resource: http://uswaretech.com/blog/2009/06/bing-python-api/ More background in blog: http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2009/12/back-stage.html Also edu-sig: open source buzzbot project proposal http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2009-September/009520.html """ import urllib2 import urllib import simplejson import logging APP_ID = "your_app_id_here" class BingException(Exception): pass class Bing(object): def __init__(self, app_id, loglevel=logging.INFO): self.app_id = app_id self.log_filename = 'log.log' self.end_point = ' http://api.search.live.net/json.aspx?Appid=%s&'%app_id<http://api.search.live.net/json.aspx?Appid=%s&%27%app_id> logging.basicConfig(level=loglevel, format='%(asctime)s %(name)-6s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s', filename=self.log_filename) def talk_to_bing(self, query, sources, extra_args={}): logging.info('Query:%s'%query) logging.info('Sources:%s'%sources) logging.info('Other Args:%s'%extra_args) payload={} payload['Appid'] = self.app_id payload['query'] = query payload['sources'] = sources payload.update(extra_args) query_string = urllib.urlencode(payload) final_url = self.end_point + query_string logging.info('final_url:%s'%final_url) response = urllib.urlopen(final_url) data = simplejson.load(response) if 'Errors' in data['SearchResponse']: logging.info('Error') logging.info('data:%s'%data) data = data['SearchResponse'] errors_list = [el['Message'] for el in data['Errors']] error_text = ','.join(errors_list) raise BingException(error_text) logging.info('data:%s'%data) return data def do_web_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='web', extra_args=extra_args) def do_image_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='image', extra_args=extra_args) def do_news_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='news', extra_args=extra_args) def do_spell_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='spell', extra_args=extra_args) def do_related_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='relatedsearch', extra_args=extra_args) def do_phonebook_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='Phonebook', extra_args=extra_args) def do_answers_search(self, query, extra_args={}): return self.talk_to_bing(query, sources='InstantAnswer', extra_args=extra_args) def testmulti( n = 100 ): theurls = [] hits = -1 bing = Bing(APP_ID) # your APP_ID while hits < n: try: results = bing.talk_to_bing("Flextegrity", sources = "web", extra_args={'web.offset':hits+1}) except BingException: print BingException break hits += len(results['SearchResponse']['Web']['Results']) for result in results['SearchResponse']['Web']['Results']: theurl = result['Url'] theurls.append(theurl) return theurls def onepass(): return testmulti(n = 1) def simplecheck(): bing = Bing(APP_ID) # your APP_ID try: results = bing.talk_to_bing("Flextegrity", sources = "web") except BingException: print BingException return results def tests(): #print simplecheck() # print onepass() print testmulti(50) if __name__ == "__main__": tests() -- >>> from mars import math http://www.wikieducator.org/Digital_Math -- >>> from mars import math http://www.wikieducator.org/Digital_Math

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turtle in education
by roberto 24 Dec '09

24 Dec '09

hello, i am looking for materials, experiences etc. about using turtle module in math, physics and related for middle or high school students i realized a lot of work is going on but is there any place where all or part of this material is gathered ? i am going through the talk of Gregor Lingl at PyCon; if you're aware of anything else just tell me thank you very much -- roberto

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CS teaching approaches
by Daniel Ajoy 20 Dec '09

20 Dec '09

On Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:00:01 -0500, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > hello, > i will start introductory CS courses for middle school students (age 10 -13); > i will mainly make use of logo-like languages and approaches, Turtle > Art among a couple of others; > i'd like to ask if you know which the most widespread approaches to CS > teaching are today for young students, or if someone has collected on > the web a simple classification among different approaches, showing > similarities and differences; > i'd like to let students taste something new and then report back to > you the result of the courses In my country some teachers still go through Flowcharts pseudocode then actual programming: using visualfox, pascal, or visual basic another conducting thread is the "input - processing - output" model which leads to DFD diagrams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Flow_Diagram and then to coding I've seen many introductory courses focus on: variables types type conversions input and output commands conditional commands loops In a Logo course we don't talk about types or type conversions. And loops and conditionals are approched together using tail-end recursion instead. Usually in the context of drawing stars or polygons. Another approach is to start with Object Oriented concepts form the beginning. Thinking about which objects you want to model and which attributes and behaviours they should exhibit. Teaching Smalltalk is a lot about learning how to navigate the jungle (ecosystem they call it) that is the smalltalk image. Teaching J or APL is again very different. They you just teach what the commands do, and how they go about changing the input until you obtain the desired output. Daniel

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CS teaching approaches
by roberto 19 Dec '09

19 Dec '09

hello, i will start introductory CS courses for middle school students (age 10 -13); i will mainly make use of logo-like languages and approaches, Turtle Art among a couple of others; i'd like to ask if you know which the most widespread approaches to CS teaching are today for young students, or if someone has collected on the web a simple classification among different approaches, showing similarities and differences; i'd like to let students taste something new and then report back to you the result of the courses thank you very much in advance -- roberto

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Another cross-reference (edu-sig, math-teach)
by kirby urner 11 Dec '09

11 Dec '09

FYI mentions Python in connection with constructivism a few times, also OLPC and MIT: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2019948&tstart=0 Comments welcome of course. Kirby -- >>> from mars import math http://www.wikieducator.org/Digital_Math

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CICE-2010: Paper Submission Deadline is Approaching!
by Galyna Akmayeva 09 Dec '09

09 Dec '09

Kindly email this call for papers to your colleagues, faculty members and postgraduate students. Apologies for cross-postings. CALL FOR PAPERS Canada International Conference on Education (CICE-2010), April 26-28, 2010, Toronto, Canada (www.ciceducation.org) The CICE is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practices in education. The CICE promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and professionals from Education. The aim of CICE is to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy. The CICE 2010 invites research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation. All the accepted papers will appear in the proceedings and modified version of selected papers willbe published in special issues peer reviewed journals. The topics in CICE-2010 include but are not confined to the following areas: *Academic Advising and Counselling *Art Education *Adult Education *APD/Listening and Acoustics in Education Environment *Business Education *Counsellor Education *Curriculum, Research and Development *Competitive Skills *Continuing Education *Distance Education *Early Childhood Education *Educational Administration *Educational Foundations *Educational Psychology *Educational Technology *Education Policy and Leadership *Elementary Education *E-Learning *E-Manufacturing *ESL/TESL *E-Society *Geographical Education *Geographic information systems *Health Education *Higher Education *History *Home Education *Human Computer Interaction *Human Resource Development *Indigenous Education *ICT Education *Internet technologies *Imaginative Education *Kinesiology & Leisure Science *K12 *Language Education *Mathematics Education *Mobile Applications *Multi-Virtual Environment *Music Education *Pedagogy *Physical Education (PE) *Reading Education *Writing Education *Religion and Education Studies *Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) *Rural Education *Science Education *Secondary Education *Second life Educators *Social Studies Education *Special Education *Student Affairs *Teacher Education *Cross-disciplinary areas of Education *Ubiquitous Computing *Virtual Reality *Wireless applications *Other Areas of Education Important Dates: *Research Paper, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Submission Deadline: December 15, 2009 *Notification of Paper, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Acceptance Date: December 28, 2009 *Final Paper Submission Deadline for Conference Proceedings Publication: March 1, 2010 *Participant(s) Registration (Open): November 20, 2009 *Author(s) Early Bird Registration Deadline: January 31, 2010 *Author(s) Late Bird Registration Deadline: April 26, 2010 *Conference Dates: April 26-28, 2010 For further information please visit CICE-2010 at www.ciceducation.org

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Re FOSS and fonts
by kirby urner 09 Dec '09

09 Dec '09

I should perhaps direct this to a marketing list, but then it's more about Drupal than Python if you read the whole thing. PHP is our friend, is one of those "P languages" from LAMP days, before CMS and web frameworks and Ruby on Rails (with which relations are also friendly, thanks to Django's wise leadership). The joke about Nova (below) was in Spanish speaking subcultures it means "no va" (doesn't go). Being the butt of unfortunate jokes is a marketing nightmare sometimes. This excerpt below was from a longer essay re the international school circuit, including TECC in Alaska, IS, OSR etc. (schools to which I have close connections, per autobio @ WE). The Python angle is my focus on generators as the bee's knees when it comes to sequences, a standard theme of my slideshow, hence the focus of PYTHON TUTORIALS so far on Wikieducator. http://www.wikieducator.org/PYTHON_TUTORIALS A word about fonts: Patrick Barton, one of my peers, was suggesting my font is "cute" but not as useful as plaintext (image files for source code? how perverse!). The deal on that is Akbar font is based on Matt Groening's handwriting ('Life in Hell', 'Simpsons', 'Futurama') and has this kid-friendly look. I would appeal to several respected sources, including Knuth Semi-Numerical Algorithms (my copy escapes me at the moment), suggesting that deviations from "machine uniformity" excite the human eye and adds to readability. These code snippets are so short, it doesn't hurt to hand enter them, and in the early stages, that's a very necessary activity (all cut and paste does not a programmer make). Kirby """ Here's another problem: FOSS means "fart" in Arabic. So whereas FLOSS reminds of something one does to one's mouth, FOSS focuses on another orifice. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=foss (see meaning 7) That being said, I don't think it's possible to be sensitive to all possible connotations and unfortunate multilingual homonyms. You'll inevitably have those, so except for a few signature words, such as Exxon, or Nova, you won't want your marketing people to waste billable hours looking for name collisions of this kind. That's why we have different namespaces (i.e. languages) in the first place. Python modules embody the namespace idea pretty successfully, which is partly why we use this as leverage in other fields (e.g. linguistics). My practice is to stick with FOSS as covering the bases, where the F points back to the "four freedoms" and the original GNU model (our source for the GPL). If I'm writing to an Arabic speaking person, I might go with FLOSS, but I could just as well go with LOSS by similar reasoning and have done so, even though the anti-LOSS hoards might capitalize on the "LOSS is for losers" slogan (how infantile). Documenting the FOSS heritage of design science and Bucky's legacy involved making sure plenty of Synergetics made it into a FOSS format. Having the Fuller Projection a standard artifact in Cyberia was only the tip of the iceberg. The concentric hierarchy, including the quanta modules, the octet-truss, and a lot of the lore connecting these was also pumped into the mix, giving us an excellent new "concrete" (as in "Concrete Mathematics" -- an influential work by Knuth et al -- rhymes with "discrete" and "digital" and therefore "quantum mechanical"). """ [ Synergeo 57004 ] -- >>> from mars import math http://www.wikieducator.org/Digital_Math

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Re: [Edu-sig] New APL
by Daniel Ajoy 07 Dec '09

07 Dec '09

On Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:52:37 -0500, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote: > From: Edward Cherlin echerlin at gmail dot com > To: edu-sig(a)python.org > Subject: [Edu-sig] New APL > > An old friend, ex-IBM, ex-Wall Street, is working on a new Open Source > APL which he and I intend to get into the Sugar education software for > OLPC. I can't tell you any more than that until he puts code out for > the public to test. Exciting, I hope it ends up with good integration with the sugar environment: * ability to use the journal * ability to share through the mesh * ability to copy and paste code and results easily * if the APL is able to generate graphics, ability to manipulate those graphics with other XO tools, Paint... Daniel PS. I wish someone did the same for UCBLogo...

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