[Edu-sig] Programming for non-programmer IT professionals (in healthcare)

[Alan Gauld]

>this discussion has focused on the application of Python to teaching
>programming at the primary and second school levels, with a bit of
>introductory programming at the college level thrown in. 

Yes, I guess this reflects the aims of the CP4E project which originally drove
the list(at least when I first joined it).

>There is another application for Python in education 
>.... train individuals for careers in information technology >not primarily
oriented to programming. 

Yes, we have a lot of that in the UK. 
In fact it was specifically for that group that I created
my beginners web tutorial. [ My book takes a slightly wider 
view and aims for generally computer literate individuals
rather than IT literate.]

>.... For these latter individuals, it is important that they
>understand certain concepts related to coding 

Just so, 

>  such as control flow, the general meaning of 
>  object-oriented and modular design, 
>  issues related to data parsing, 

I cover these in my tutor,

>  expression of data and program structure with UML,

but don't cover this. Interestingly tho' I am currently 
writing some articles for InfomIT on the UML.

> communication between systems, 
> programming for application servers, etc.

Wow, thats getting into pretty advanced stuff. I'm not
sure it would be fair to expect that from a sys admin 
or resource manager type. (Otherwise they might expect 
us to start understanding all the resource management 
stuff :-)

> They also need to be able to discuss program design 
> issues intelligently with programmers. 

Agreed, although I'd argue that basoic UML knowledge 
would suffice. Certainly at the level of, say, 
Fowler's UML Distilled.

> few of the higher level topics I mentioned above 
> are addressed at that level of C training, 

Certainly the design and networking stuff are 
unlikely to be dealt with.

> and thirdly because this brief exposure to C does not leave
> them with useful tools for their personal work. 

And thats the real reason I did my tutor in Python.
Its great for "personal use" - just making tools that 
ease the burden of a busy sys admin.

> In response to this, I'm beginning to develop 
> a programming course for medical informatics based on
> Python which will be offered to appropriate students 


> Elkner's Python version of "How to think..." in some detail). 
Its very good and I saw it once on the Python Intros page. Then it dissapeared,
not sure why.

>members are interested in this type of teaching, 

Not at the college course level but certainly its pretty 
much where my tutor and to a lesser extent my book are 
aimed.

Alan G.
http://www.crosswinds.net/~agauld/