[Edu-sig] IDLE wish (was Edu-sig Digest, Vol 31, Issue 16)

[Andre Roberge]

On 3/3/06, Gregor Lingl <glingl at aon.at> wrote:
[snip]
> There are really many interesting questions to  discuss and that is not
> possible in a fruitful athmosphere on a list where two people who do
> more than 50% of the overall postings (in terms of number not to speak
> of volume, as it was in the last six month) dislike it.

When only two people contribute to a thread (or many), it is an indication that
1. other people are not interested, or
2. other people feel they have nothing significant to contribute.

[I have been in both camps, at various times.]

When a new thread comes up that generates interest from *many* other
people than the two people mentioned above, it is a sign that it
*should* be discussed on the list.

(btw, I assume you mean Art and Kirby; personally I have come to
appreciate Art's opposite point of view [from mine] on various topics
- it causes me to think twice.  As for Kirby... Kirby is Kirby; Laura
Creighton gave us a great [unintentional] quote about him in a message
not so long ago ;-)

>Moreover it
> would also be not interesting enough for the majority of the
> participants of Edu-Sig. So it would suffice to report progress and
> results from time to time here.
>
I disagree.  Strongly.  It belongs here!  (in my opinion)

To me, the thread about turtle.py is leading to my ideal kind of topic
for edu-sig.  Here's how I would like to see this thread evolve:

Actual examples (starting from simple ones) of how turtle.py is
currently used to introduce computer programming.
Fact-based assessment of weaknesses of the current turtle.py in
teaching Python or computer programming in general.  There already has
been some hints of that :-)

This tread is great:
- It talks about using Python in an educational setting
- turtle.py can be used to introduce "computer programming 4 everybody" ;-)
- It talks about improving a Python tool well known.

I would love to see the same kind of discussion by people that have
tried PyGeo to do this.   Of course I would love, for a slightly
different reason, to hear of people's opinion of RUR-PLE, its
strengths and weaknesses.

André