[Edu-sig] education as Python's killer app

[Andrew Harrington]

Beautifully written Michael!  Plus I learned some interesting facts and 
bent my head a bit differently.
I think you are right that we would do well to consider the implications 
of Sugar -- beyond the XO machine.

I would not say there are no easy and interesting places to start with 
Python -- Rur-ple for instance.  It is not a killer-app, though.  I find 
Rur-ple constraining when trying to extend past the carefully planned 
sequence in the tutorials. 

Thinking ahead, an environment with built-in objects with the high level 
methods of Scratch sprites would be good:  easy animation of multiple 
sprites with multiple views, knowledge of collisions, maybe even 
knowledge of bouncing off walls and other sprites....  Scratch adds a 
mouse based editor/construction environment that makes syntax errors 
impossible. I would think that for someone with a little experience, 
Scratch would be a lot slower than typing.  I am not suggesting 
insisting on taking the typing out of Python.  (I have not looked to see 
what has been built on top of PyGame -- does something come close to 
what I am saying?)  For starting off, I like the 2D world of 
Pygame/Scratch.  I find the 3D world of Alice distracting.

Andy Harrington

Michael Tobis wrote:
> My thoughts on Python in education
>
> Article: http://pencilscience.blogspot.com/2007/04/edu-python-pythons-killer-app.html
>
> Resources: http://pencilscience.blogspot.com/2007/04/python-first-educational-resources.html
>
> Presentation: http://webpages.cs.luc.edu/~mt/Python-First/Py1.html
>
> Comments and suggestions welcome. Please no fussing about formatting
> or grammar; this is all draft. However, I would appreciate anyone
> pointing out broken links.
>
> Mostly, I'd like to hear what you think I've left out (or anything
> I've gotten wrong).
>
> The thrust of the article is tarting to emerge:  CP4E is real again
> thanks to OLPC (a project whose near-term success, while desireable,
> is uncertain) and Sugar, its user environment, which may well be
> unstoppable.
>
> On the advocacy front, this presents Python with a potential killer
> app with possibilities far larger  than Ruby on Rails can ever aspire
> to.
>
> thanks for your attention
> Michael Tobis
>
> PS - anonymous blog comments are enabled, if you'd like to reply there.
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-- 
  Andrew N. Harrington
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