Mailman 3 December 2014 - Edu-sig

Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 137, Issue 12
by Marianne McKenna Dec. 26, 2014

Dec. 26, 2014

I am away from the office. I will try to respond by email. If you need immediate help, please contact tech support. Thanks!

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 137, Issue 11
by Marianne McKenna Dec. 25, 2014

Dec. 25, 2014

I am away from the office. I will try to respond by email. If you need immediate help, please contact tech support. Thanks!

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Re: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 137, Issue 10
by Marianne McKenna Dec. 24, 2014

Dec. 24, 2014

I am away from the office. I will try to respond by email. If you need immediate help, please contact tech support. Thanks!

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Looking for volunteers @ the PyCon 2015 Education Summit
by Chalmer Lowe Dec. 23, 2014

Dec. 23, 2014

A number of folks on this list were extremely helpful last year for both the lead-up and the execution of the Python Education Summit. I recently posted to the PyCon blog the following note about the need for assistance again this year. If you are inclined to assist in any way (big or small), please let me and Jessica Nickels (cc'ed) know. Below is the text of the PyCon blog announcement: The Third Annual Python Education Summit <https://us.pycon.org/2015/events/edusummit/>, held during PyCon <https://us.pycon.org/2015/> on Thursday *April 9th 2015*, is coming together. We are gathering some excellent talk ideas (click here <http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=211b44> to see some of the proposed talks). Thanks to those who have summited talks so far. As with any event, the Education Summit can't be pulled off alone, so we are asking for volunteers. Some of the roles that you can help with include: - *Keynote Speaker Team*: help us identify and invite Keynote speakers(s) - *Call for Proposal Manager*: help us support the call for proposal process (answer questions, process submissions, etc) - *Emcee*: help emcee for our second track in the afternoon - *Publicity Rep(s)*: support us in advertising via the twitters/facebooks/etc - *Ushers/go-fers*: help ensure that the actual event runs smoothly If you would like to help, please contact Chalmer Lowe <chalmer.lowe(a)gmail.com> or Jessica Nickel <jessicanickel(a)gmail.com>. *NOTE*: Even if your schedule doesn't allow you to support through volunteering, please feel free to sign up <http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-pycon-2015-education-summit-tickets-1502916…> for the Education Summit to meet with your peers in education to learn more about combining Python and Education.

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Re: [Edu-sig] Need resource for beginners
by Laura Creighton Dec. 17, 2014

Dec. 17, 2014

Screen-scraping has proven to be a favourite introductory topic here. People want to know when something has changed on any of a list of favourite websites -- the 'are the concert dates announced yet?' problem. The problem with using their math and physics problems, is that if they find math and physics uninteresting, they will get the idea that programming is unintersting -- or worse, only for scientists and engineers. Can you get the students, ahead of time, to answer the question 'what do you wish your comptuer could do'? Or, more in general 'what would you like to get out of this course? Why are you here?' The Raspberry Pi Foundation http://raspberrypi.org has a whole lot of really useful, proven resources. I'd start there rather than try to roll my own lessons, especially since it sounds like this is your first time doing this. Best of luck, and let us know how it works out. Laura

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Need support/volunteers for the upcoming Python Education Summit...
by Chalmer Lowe Dec. 14, 2014

Dec. 14, 2014

Dear edu-sig mailing list: We are gearing up for the next Python Education Summit in April 2015. There are a number of things to do between now and then. We are looking for interested volunteers to support these types of activities: Now: * Identification and outreach to potential Keynote Speaker(s). * Publicity (author/issue tweets, blog posts, etc) * Management of the Call for Proposals process (help track submissions - notify selected speakers/not-selected speakers) * etc On the day of the Summit * Ushers/go-fers * 2nd Emcee (for our second track in the afternoon) * etc If you are interested in helping, please feel free to reach out, offline, to me (chalmer.lowe(a)gmail.com) and Jessica Nickel (Jessanickel(a)gmail.com) I plan on setting up weekly hangout sessions to discuss our progress, talk over ideas, etc. chalmer lowe Chair, Python Education Summit

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Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners
by Andre Roberge Dec. 11, 2014

Dec. 11, 2014

Hi everyone, I would really like some advice based on practical experience teaching beginners. Next year, I will be teaching an introductory course in programming using Python. The course is going to be taught asynchronously via distance education. I will be recording short videos that students will be able to view at their own pace. I want the student to be able to reproduce everything they see in the video on their own computer (minor cosmetic differences for tools). Students, as young as 14, will have to use their own computer, so the solution chosen has to be easily available on all major platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux). I aim to use only free ($0) software as much as possible. My own preference, when programming, is to use SublimeText (fast and pleasant to use, but not free although it can be used that way for an "extended unlimited demo) and have a DOS console open. However, the console experience is not the best for beginners and it would be different on different platforms. I am looking at having students installing at most three things initially: 1. A 3.4+ Python version; let's assume it is the one from python.org 2. An editor/IDE. 3. Pygame (This might be problematic under OSX as I understand it.) I will NOT be in a position to help students individually with their setup, other than in a very superficial way. (Aside: the students will first start by using Reeborg's World ( http://reeborg.ca/world.html, so that the initial experience will definitely be the same for all. By the time they get to use Python on their own computer, they will already know the very basics about editing, running and saving programs, although in a very different environment.) Here are the choices as I see them: 1. Use IDLE. Free, part of the standard distribution. I never used it very much myself and I keep reading about how tricky it can be to set up properly for beginners - mostly, I gathered, due to path problems on Windows. There is a proposal to make it better ( https://github.com/asweigart/idle-reimagined/wiki) but it is doubtful it will be realized soon enough (or at all) to make it worthwhile waiting for it. 2. Use PyCharm - community edition. Very powerful IDE, a bit overwhelming for beginners but has embedded console and debugger which may be useful as a teaching tool. 3. Use Komodo Edit. I know that the IDE includes a Python console, but it is not clear to me that the free version does. I used the full IDE many (5+?) years ago and liked it at the time. 4. Use Wing IDE 101 (free version). Supposedly designed to teach beginners. I tried Wing many years ago (at the same time as Komodo), including on a Mac where it ran under X11 and my experience was not very satisfactory. 5. Use Spyder. (https://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/) Very complete IDE that includes a really nice (python) help window. I did a few tests with it and really liked what I saw. However, in addition to the standard Python distribution, it requires PyQT or Pyside to be installed (I didn't try that). Alternatively, it is included with the Anaconda Python distribution (which is how I got to try it). However, I could not get Pygame working with the Anaconda Python distribution - I'm sure it is possible, but it would likely not be a simple solution for beginners learning remotely. Right now, I am thinking of using PyCharm together with the Python standard distribution. However, if you have some experience teaching Python (especially at a distance) with complete beginners using a variety of platforms (Windows + Macs especially), I would really, really like to hear your opinion. Cheers, André

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Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners
by calcpage Dec. 11, 2014

Dec. 11, 2014

How about vim, gvim or eimacs? Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: calcpage <calcpage(a)aol.com.dmarc.invalid> Date: 12/10/2014 10:48 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Charles Cossé <ccosse(a)gmail.com>, Fernando Salamero <fsalamero(a)gmail.com> Cc: edu-sig(a)python.org Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners All you need is nano or Pico or gedit or ... Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Charles Cossé <ccosse(a)gmail.com> Date: 12/10/2014 10:14 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Fernando Salamero <fsalamero(a)gmail.com> Cc: edu-sig(a)python.org Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners Hi, I've been programming in python for 15 years now, always and only with NEdit. It has syntax-highlighting, tabs and enhanced whitespace toggleability ... all you need, and nothing else. It's part of every Linux distro that I'm aware of. Developed at Fermilab!! Good luck, Charles Cosse www.asymptopia.org On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Fernando Salamero <fsalamero(a)gmail.com> wrote: I like (so my students) the amazing Ninja-IDE, with explicit PEP8 and python 3 tips. Version 3 is coming. Open source, programmed in python for python. http://ninja-ide.org/ El 10/12/2014, a las 23:21, Vernon D. Cole <vernondcole(a)gmail.com> escribió: I second the suggestion to use PyCharm. I have been using it commercially (and almost exclusively) for two years. The free version is very capable for any normal desktop projects, and the professional version is free for educational institutions or students. If has a few bad habits (mostly inherited from the fact that it is written in Java) but the many good things about it far outweigh them. Built-in support for hard to learn but easy to use features like Python virtual environments and pip downloads makes it a real winner. The integrated debugger is quite good, and it operates almost identically in both Windows and Linux. Similarly, I have been using git (and GitHub) for the same two years. GitHub is great, and almost makes up for the terrible faults in git. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend starting students out using Bitbucket and Mercurial, for the same reasons that you are teaching Python rather than C++. It is so much easier to learn. They can transfer learning to Git if and when they are forced to. Both git and hg are well supported by PyCharm. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig(a)python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig(a)python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig

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Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners
by calcpage Dec. 11, 2014

Dec. 11, 2014

All you need is nano or Pico or gedit or ... Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Charles Cossé <ccosse(a)gmail.com> Date: 12/10/2014 10:14 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Fernando Salamero <fsalamero(a)gmail.com> Cc: edu-sig(a)python.org Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners Hi, I've been programming in python for 15 years now, always and only with NEdit. It has syntax-highlighting, tabs and enhanced whitespace toggleability ... all you need, and nothing else. It's part of every Linux distro that I'm aware of. Developed at Fermilab!! Good luck, Charles Cosse www.asymptopia.org On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Fernando Salamero <fsalamero(a)gmail.com> wrote: I like (so my students) the amazing Ninja-IDE, with explicit PEP8 and python 3 tips. Version 3 is coming. Open source, programmed in python for python. http://ninja-ide.org/ El 10/12/2014, a las 23:21, Vernon D. Cole <vernondcole(a)gmail.com> escribió: I second the suggestion to use PyCharm. I have been using it commercially (and almost exclusively) for two years. The free version is very capable for any normal desktop projects, and the professional version is free for educational institutions or students. If has a few bad habits (mostly inherited from the fact that it is written in Java) but the many good things about it far outweigh them. Built-in support for hard to learn but easy to use features like Python virtual environments and pip downloads makes it a real winner. The integrated debugger is quite good, and it operates almost identically in both Windows and Linux. Similarly, I have been using git (and GitHub) for the same two years. GitHub is great, and almost makes up for the terrible faults in git. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend starting students out using Bitbucket and Mercurial, for the same reasons that you are teaching Python rather than C++. It is so much easier to learn. They can transfer learning to Git if and when they are forced to. Both git and hg are well supported by PyCharm. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig(a)python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig(a)python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig

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Re: [Edu-sig] Recommendation for editor+console or IDE for teaching beginners
by Vernon D. Cole Dec. 11, 2014

Dec. 11, 2014

I second the suggestion to use PyCharm. I have been using it commercially (and almost exclusively) for two years. The free version is very capable for any normal desktop projects, and the professional version is free for educational institutions or students. If has a few bad habits (mostly inherited from the fact that it is written in Java) but the many good things about it far outweigh them. Built-in support for hard to learn but easy to use features like Python virtual environments and pip downloads makes it a real winner. The integrated debugger is quite good, and it operates almost identically in both Windows and Linux. Similarly, I have been using git (and GitHub) for the same two years. GitHub is great, and almost makes up for the terrible faults in git. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend starting students out using Bitbucket and Mercurial, for the same reasons that you are teaching Python rather than C++. It is so much easier to learn. They can transfer learning to Git if and when they are forced to. Both git and hg are well supported by PyCharm.

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