[Edu-sig] fyi. a published thesis, use of Python in class

[Fotis Georgatos]

Hello Kirby et al,

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 5:46 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you Fotis, I have been reading this all morning, had not seen it
> before.  Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

My pleasure :)

I just figured I haven't provided a URL for the .pdf document, too;
so, here it is:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/0809.1437v1

> I've mostly documented by classroom work in my blogs, but usually in
> connection with Saturday Academy, which doesn't compete to offer
> transferable credits, only skills and its own credential, which does
> count for something.  This is not the same as having an established
> state school recognize Python as a good learning language.  I salute
> the Pedagogical Institute for having some vision.

In the name of accuracy, I'd like to point out that the Pedagogical Institute
hasn't given a blessing -or contempt- about using the language at large scale.
To their tribute though, they did grant license early on to conduct the research
in the real environment, and there are sharp individuals there that understood
the benefits very quickly; as well as the few colleagues that went all along.
So, what happened under their auspices and guidance was the experiment.
But, having people willing to experiment in an area that is new and unknown,
and even do that in a fearless yet considerating way, yes, that was vision.

I hope now that the OLPC is a standard topic in the educational community
and Python has got much extra publicity and popularity because of it,
people here and elsewhere will be more willing to consider it as a
learning vehicle.
I'm not claiming that a transition to Python is going to happen quickly but,
if I saw educators having it as a bold item in their mind, that would
be progress!

I wonder which country/ies would dare put the language as a recommendation
in their country-wide curriculum, do we have any firsts in this area?

cheers,
Fotis