[Edu-sig] creating an interface vs. using one

[ajsiegel at optonline.net]

From: kirby urner 
Date: Monday, September 25, 2006 2:33 pm
Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] creating an interface vs. using one
To: Michel Paul 
> Speaking of which, I'm giving Tara the option to join me on a 
> trip to
> New York pretty soon. She's already got something planned 
> though, so
> another time would also be OK (but I'm still going -- got some Fuller
> School events happening (New York's a big center for us)).

I noticed the Fuller/Noguchi exhibit closing concert at the Noguchi museum in Queens on Oct 8th.

Sounds inviting.

Be there?

I think I go on a short trip to Shanghai on the 9th - in the pursuit of a eco-capitalism idea I am 
trying to make real  (or find out better why it is unreal).  Probably too hectic to try to fit 
this in on the 8th, otherwise I was considering it.

Art  
 
> > I still don't see that bundling VPython in the core install 
> need be
> > the solution. Guido should rewrite the standard tutorial if 
> so. Or
> > somebody should.
> 
> Again, I think schools should come up with home grown solutions and
> not rely on Python.org to do their work for them. Core Python 
> is well
> defined and competently taught. There's no responsibility to 
> get into
> esoteric add-on capabilities e.g. linear algebra, vector 
> graphics, in
> the core documentation.
> 
> PIL is one of the best and earliest role models of a self-sufficient
> add-on library (self-sufficient in terms of doing all of its own work,
> relying on Python.org only for core Python).
> 
> > It's the school that should be asked, not Python.org, which 
> has no
> > responsibility to *push* these solutions on people.
> >
> > We want schools to *pull* based on forces in the marketplace (i.e.
> > competition). We don't want PSF to have to shovel and/or 
> spoon feed.
> > That's not its job.
> 
> Guido has always been appropriately modest about his area of
> expertise, focusing on Python the language and the computer science
> behind it. He doesn't claim credentials as a pedagogue (unlike Alan
> Kay, who likes to mint DVDs showing how he's on the front lines with
> the children).
> 
> I'm less immodest than Guido, around pedagogy, because I'm a career
> math teacher with textbook editing experience (McGraw-Hill, 
> Avenue of
> the Americas), but more modest about my system level language skills.
> If the Python -> C -> C# -> IronPython course opens up, I might be
> among the first to sign up as a student -- but I'm wanting it as HDTV
> screencasts as an option, but I don't have an HDTV. Tsk. I 
> think my
> DVD player is compatible though, plus Kim and Jimmy have the 
> real deal
> (Dave too, in his bizmo, but he's hardly ever around).
> 
> > Make *schools* do the work. Python.org has already done more than
> > enough. Everyone associated with Python, including Guido, 
> should have
> > permission to retire with royalties, and not lift a finger to "save
> > education".
> >
> > Twasn't Python Nation that sank it in the first place.
> >
> > Kirby
> >
> 
> Kirby
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