[Edu-sig] Lisping

Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra rsenra at acm.org
Sat Jun 11 16:07:35 CEST 2005


 [ Lloyd Hugh Allen <chandrakirti at gmail.com> ]
 -----------------------------------------------
 | As a math teacher, I always fear that I am teaching my students a
 | particular piece of technology rather than the concept that I am
 | trying to teach. As a small example, I am confident that my students
 | can find the point of intersection between two lines with a TI-83, but
 | less confident that they can find it with a TI-92 or a Casio-whatever;
 | and I often fear that they don't recognize that they would get the
 | same answer by solving each equation for y, setting the y's equal to
 | each other, and then solving for x.

 | # cut

 | It is fine and good to learn a single language, but this is not
 | computer science. A single language is just a tool. It is necessary to
 | learn several languages in order to have an idea of what computer
 | science actually means.
 
 | Prerequisite to this is knowledge and use of more than one language.

 I couldn't agree more. 

 I see people trying to teach a _pattern_ directly, as a shortcut to
 wisdom-transferring. I humbly believe that to teach a _pattern_,
 the educator must *carefully* choose the samples and guide the
 student to discover the _pattern_. Nevertheless, this path is
 harder for the educator, and thus less traveled day-after-day.  

 best regards,
 Senra 

-- 
   ,_           
   | )          Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra |at| acm.org>                      
   |(______     -----------------------------------------------
 _(    (|__|]   GPr Sistemas  http://www.gpr.com.br               
_ |    (|___|]  Blog          http://rodsenra.blogspot.com                    
___    (|__|]   IC - Unicamp  http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~921234  
   L___(|_|]    -----------------------------------------------


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