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Hi Kirby Thanks for excellent points... Actually you are one of the people I would want to interview + I love your Mathematics packing Python-POV page. http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/numeracy0.html It is precisely to have a bio-diversity of 'experts' saying things like:
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..
That is the problem with all the massive programming books and the full features of advanced software.. Experts know how to navigate pragmatically among the tools and techniques at their disposal and how to learn about new ones.. I guess the cliché subtitle could be 'Learning to Learn Programming with Python' ! LLPP-ly yours - Jason ________________________________________________________________ Jason CUNLIFFE = NOMADICS.(Interactive Art and Technology).Design Director ----- Original Message ----- From: Kirby Urner <pdx4d@teleport.com> To: <Edu-sig@python.org> Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 5:33 PM Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] CP4E VideoPython learning to teatch / teaching to learn ..[xpost: was {'cpl',"don't laugh"}]
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
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