From jeff at elkner.net  Mon Jun  1 02:00:21 2009
From: jeff at elkner.net (Jeff Elkner)
Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 20:00:21 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Python
In-Reply-To: <B1F325EBCAA28646A301317AC6362F05D62F7C@MBX04.fcps.edu>
References: <B1F325EBCAA28646A301317AC6362F05D62F7C@MBX04.fcps.edu>
Message-ID: <37fa1dfb0905311700k661be677g96bf54acab2bea34@mail.gmail.com>

Hi Gerry,

I'm cc'ing a number of folks (and a mailing list) on this reply in order to
get you more feedback than I could alone provide.  Firstly, the Python in
Education Special Interest Group (edu-sig) is the place to start:

http://www.python.org/community/sigs/current/edu-sig

Dr. Andre Roberge is currently managing that part of the python web site,
and I've included him in the cc list.  You may want to consider joining our
mailing list.

Of interest in your deliberation may be the presentation given at PyCon 2009
by the Michigan University CS department on their decision to switch to
Python in their CS 1 course:

http://us.pycon.org/2009/conference/schedule/event/8/

(btw.  You can look for TJHSST graduating senior, Filip Sufitchi, in the
audience at the beginning of the presentation ;-)

The essence of their findings is that CS majors performance was not effected
by using Python in the first course, while everyone else (since half the
students in their CS 1 classes are not CS majors), benefitted by leaving the
CS 1 class with a tool they could actually use in their work in other
fields.  I included Dr. Charles Severance from U. of Michigan in the cc list
as well.  He has a book just out on the Google App Engine:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596800697/

The programming language for the Google App Engine is Python, so this book
includes a good intro.  The book is very well written and easy for bright
high school students to understand.

I'm working on a free, on-line, first year text book aimed at high school
students:

 http://openbookproject.net/thinkCSpy/index.xhtml

(note: you can't view this document properly with Internet Explorer, but any
other browser should work fine.)

Since I'm not teaching CS this year, work on the book has slowed down, but I
should be able to work on it during the Summer.  The first 12 chapters are
finished, making it a perfectly usable resource with which to start out.

I hope this all helps.

Thanks, and good luck!  Please let me know if there is anything else I can
do to help.

jeff elkner


On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Berry, Gerry J <GJBerry at fcps.edu> wrote:

> Hope things are going well and that you are enjoying your job. I retired
> from TJ this past June but I am still doing some teaching there.
> I have received request for info on what a good first course in CS would
> be. After working with you and Shane Torbert, I think that for most high
> school students Python makes a lot of sense. Can you direct me to some good
> web sites that might help schools who want to set up a Python course at high
> school or middle school level. Any ideas would be appreciated.
>
> Hope you have a terrific summer.
>
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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Tue Jun  2 01:49:45 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 16:49:45 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Python
In-Reply-To: <37fa1dfb0905311700k661be677g96bf54acab2bea34@mail.gmail.com>
References: <B1F325EBCAA28646A301317AC6362F05D62F7C@MBX04.fcps.edu>
	<37fa1dfb0905311700k661be677g96bf54acab2bea34@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906011649o3c652986ue6e292376e57e3fb@mail.gmail.com>

Python seems a very non-controversial pick, plus there's student
leadership on this issue, i.e. if you allow a choice, see what
happens.  As Jeff points out, they don't seem to suffer, in aggregate,
for choosing the better language. :)  Actually, learning Python
provides great motivation for then tackling C-family system languages,
including Java.  That's how you get on python-dev after all.

What's up for grabs is what "computer science" has to mean, like how
much game playing we might get away with.

What's great about Python is it doesn't fall by the wayside like Alice
might, or Scratch, but it's not either/or.  Those two are for younger
aged kids.  You have your teddy bears, then you have your barbie
dolls.  Python is more barbie doll than teddy bear, i.e. just right
for high school aged scholars.  Then it keeps staying relevant.  They
come back and thank you later (according to reports).

My lobbying position vis-a-vis Oregon is in support an entirely new
four year track through the high school years, called DM in contrast
to CM or AM, for "continuous" or "analog" math.  They'd run in
parallel (these tracks), which means green field development for our
trials, while CM runs undisturbed, traditional precalc (including calc
if accelerated).

We'll have some calc too of course, lots of peer reviewed jabber on
math-teach. The D tends to mean "digital" BTW, getting away from
"discrete" as too weighed down with preconceptions already.

Given our demographic is music savvy, they understand the transition
from analog to digital in everyday life, to the point where nowadays
getting an analog turntable for vinyl records is considered charmingly
retro (I got us one for Christmas recently, listen to old Beatles and
U2 with my family).

Our goal is to have a lot of the "mathematics" of our day be
"charmingly retro" one day soon, as we wean off the calculators and
start using computer languages for real, including in government
schools and community centers for older workers and hobbyists.

We're focusing on FOSS because its free but also standard (easy to
grab and install, if you move to another school, no need to worry
about licensing if wanting to show off the Python you've learned to
your next set of math teachers).  I'll be doing a public talk on these
themes end of this much, at OS Bridge, Portland's newest open source
pow wow.  See some of you there maybe?

Kirby


On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Jeff Elkner <jeff at elkner.net> wrote:
> Hi Gerry,
>
> I'm cc'ing a number of folks (and a mailing list) on this reply in order to
> get you more feedback than I could alone provide.? Firstly, the Python in
> Education Special Interest Group (edu-sig) is the place to start:
>
> http://www.python.org/community/sigs/current/edu-sig
>
> Dr. Andre Roberge is currently managing that part of the python web site,
> and I've included him in the cc list.? You may want to consider joining our
> mailing list.
>
> Of interest in your deliberation may be the presentation given at PyCon 2009
> by the Michigan University CS department on their decision to switch to
> Python in their CS 1 course:
>
> http://us.pycon.org/2009/conference/schedule/event/8/
>
> (btw.? You can look for TJHSST graduating senior, Filip Sufitchi, in the
> audience at the beginning of the presentation ;-)
>
> The essence of their findings is that CS majors performance was not effected
> by using Python in the first course, while everyone else (since half the
> students in their CS 1 classes are not CS majors), benefitted by leaving the
> CS 1 class with a tool they could actually use in their work in other
> fields.? I included Dr. Charles Severance from U. of Michigan in the cc list
> as well.? He has a book just out on the Google App Engine:
>
> http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596800697/
>
> The programming language for the Google App Engine is Python, so this book
> includes a good intro.? The book is very well written and easy for bright
> high school students to understand.
>
> I'm working on a free, on-line, first year text book aimed at high school
> students:
>
> ?http://openbookproject.net/thinkCSpy/index.xhtml
>
> (note: you can't view this document properly with Internet Explorer, but any
> other browser should work fine.)
>
> Since I'm not teaching CS this year, work on the book has slowed down, but I
> should be able to work on it during the Summer.? The first 12 chapters are
> finished, making it a perfectly usable resource with which to start out.
>
> I hope this all helps.
>
> Thanks, and good luck!? Please let me know if there is anything else I can
> do to help.
>
> jeff elkner
>
>
> On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Berry, Gerry J <GJBerry at fcps.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hope things are going well and that you are enjoying your job. I retired
>> from TJ this past June but I am still doing some teaching there.
>> I have received request for info on what a good first course in CS would
>> be. After working with you and Shane Torbert, I think that for most high
>> school students Python makes a lot of sense. Can you direct me to some good
>> web sites that might help schools who want to set up a Python course at high
>> school or middle school level. Any ideas would be appreciated.
>>
>> Hope you have a terrific summer.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>
>

From jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com  Wed Jun  3 23:45:21 2009
From: jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com (Jurgis Pralgauskis)
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:45:21 +0300
Subject: [Edu-sig] Python flavoured Scratch
Message-ID: <34f4097d0906031445p4b7b2566y6ba5dab3dd28a6a2@mail.gmail.com>

Hi,

probably most of You know Scratch
http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Educators

I thought it has quite some pythonic approach
(especially, because it is easy to learn),
so I tried to "localize" it to Python ;)...
You can see the results (and comparison screenshots)
http://files.akl.lt/users/jurgis/scratch/python_flavour/

well, parentheses seem to get in a way a bit..
value assignment "=" and "+=" looks ok
also clauses look nice -- other languages wouldn't manage this ;)

there are problems with placeholders order for lists, but it will be
fixed for Scratch 1.4 (comming in 2 weeks)
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=130068

also there is problem with logical equality comparison
it is hardcoded somewhere, so I can't change "=" to "==" :/
(but Scratch is opensourced, so this is quite feasible :))

Also Scratch uses messages instead of functions.
this is more like throwing/catching exceptions, but still different
so I left this as is  "When message <blabla> received"


ps.: What's the use of all this?
well, students could get more used to python while Scratching
then it is possible to export Scratch scripts to xml with Chirp
http://www.chirp.scratchr.org/
so one can translate them to python

Scratch quite follows LOGO paradigm,
so xturtle could be mapped to it somehow, I guess..

by the way,  XO TurtleArt has python bindings
http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2009/02/using-python-blocks-in-turtleart.html


-- 
Jurgis Pralgauskis
Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;)
http://sagemath.visiems.lt

From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Thu Jun  4 12:00:24 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:00:24 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 3
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a0241774f3b9aca00c2ba2006.2417750@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 9th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From csev at umich.edu  Thu Jun  4 13:11:50 2009
From: csev at umich.edu (csev)
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 07:11:50 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Pythonic Scratch
In-Reply-To: <mailman.7.1244109601.7594.edu-sig@python.org>
References: <mailman.7.1244109601.7594.edu-sig@python.org>
Message-ID: <72711CD5-CA57-4575-93C6-748906ADE64C@umich.edu>


>
> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:45:21 +0300
> From: Jurgis Pralgauskis <jurgis.pralgauskis at gmail.com>
> To: "edu-sig at python.org" <edu-sig at python.org>
> Subject: [Edu-sig] Python flavoured Scratch
> Message-ID:
> 	<34f4097d0906031445p4b7b2566y6ba5dab3dd28a6a2 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hi,
>
> probably most of You know Scratch
> http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Educators
>
> I thought it has quite some pythonic approach
> (especially, because it is easy to learn),
> so I tried to "localize" it to Python ;)...
> You can see the results (and comparison screenshots)
> http://files.akl.lt/users/jurgis/scratch/python_flavour/

This is very cool.  Very nice work and nice screen shots.

For me it makes scratch even more attractive.

Charles Severance
University of Michigan
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From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Fri Jun  5 12:00:45 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:00:45 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 4
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a0241cbc33b9aca00a1b11a22.241cbc4@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 9th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

-------------- next part --------------
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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Fri Jun  5 22:37:15 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:37:15 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] mentions of Py on Math Forum....
Message-ID: <f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com>

Brief mention of Python on Math Forum this morning, in same sentence
as Mathematica, though I don't see them as filling the same market
niche (partially overlapping though, yes):

http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1949352&tstart=0

This guy Gary at work one time wanted my analysis of Mathematica vs.
Python in light of their MUMPS thing crapping out, and I was saying
how the former is more for front end analysis and publishing, whereas
Python likes to talk directly to SQL engines (maybe through ORM),
which isn't Mathematica's forte.

However, in saying this, I don't mean to slight Python's libraries
especially geared for front end publishing work, like this
professional color-coding package seems pretty high end for open
source (not my field though, as I'm more back office silo than
marketing, unless you count blogging as marketing (true in some
cases)).

http://code.google.com/p/python-colormath/

Regarding that digital math track I was talking about, there's a
GIS/GPS component in wanting to help students keep track of
environmental factors, such as community garden locations, big in
Portland these days, and feeding the move to bring back Home Economics
as a high school subject, lots of local politics I won't bore you with
(it's not as retro as it sounds, as we're looking at "cooking show" as
a TV production experience, not just breaking eggs and learning
weights and measures).

I haven't tried 3.1 yet, have been using dictionary versus list to
harp on the cardinality vs. ordinality distinction (per Midhat
Gazale), understand there's a "new kind of dictionary" that has
ordinal properties.  I mention that here:

http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1949077&tstart=0

Reports from the field?  3.1 lore anyone?  My Ubuntu laptop died is
the thing, leaving me somewhat demoralized not to mention
semi-paralyzed, as a curriculum writer.  But I'm compensating, using
my "left foot" (WinXP box in a dusty back office).  Someday, there'll
be a budget for a replacement (I also have the XO, so could do it in
Pippy maybe).

Chauffeur duty calls, not to the airport this time...

Kirby
OCN/4D

From Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org  Fri Jun  5 23:00:46 2009
From: Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org (Scott David Daniels)
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:00:46 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] mentions of Py on Math Forum....
In-Reply-To: <f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com>
References: <f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <h0c0mg$cs2$1@ger.gmane.org>

kirby urner wrote:
> I haven't tried 3.1 yet, have been using dictionary versus list to
> harp on the cardinality vs. ordinality distinction (per Midhat
> Gazale), understand there's a "new kind of dictionary" that has
> ordinal properties....

You really should.  The io module went to C, so simple file I/O is
substantially faster.  It had been slowed down to make sure the
semantics were all correct for where the Unicode and where the bytes
should be.  There will be no fixes to the 3.0 line, 3.1 is the
ongoing Python 3.* version (3.1 was a quick follow-on to address
issues discovered in the 3.0 release (think if 3.0 as a Python 3000
alpha or beta).

--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org



From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Sat Jun  6 01:30:08 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 16:30:08 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] mentions of Py on Math Forum....
In-Reply-To: <h0c0mg$cs2$1@ger.gmane.org>
References: <f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com>
	<h0c0mg$cs2$1@ger.gmane.org>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906051630h7eff028dl1c9a0bc2209016c4@mail.gmail.com>

OK, took your advice.

Turns out I was thinking of OrdererdDict added to collections in 2.7
(?), now used more routinely for some return types.

An ordered dictionary doesn't support indexing but does remember the
order in which items were inserted, is prepared to divulge such items
in either LIFO or FIFO depending on popitems "last" parameter).

Kwel.

Such a rich set of data structures, hard to see why any CS0/CS1 would
start with say Java, but then it's not either/or.  As mentioned, my
Princeton intro to computer programming was smorgasbord/sampler (10
languages in 10 weeks or something like that, not that you learn any
really well, although I got pretty good at APL on my own time).

But if you're going to pick just one for a long slog, why not Python?
The high schools are doing it (the good ones), why not colleges too?

Kirby


On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Scott David
Daniels<Scott.Daniels at acm.org> wrote:
> kirby urner wrote:
>>
>> I haven't tried 3.1 yet, have been using dictionary versus list to
>> harp on the cardinality vs. ordinality distinction (per Midhat
>> Gazale), understand there's a "new kind of dictionary" that has
>> ordinal properties....
>
> You really should. ?The io module went to C, so simple file I/O is
> substantially faster. ?It had been slowed down to make sure the
> semantics were all correct for where the Unicode and where the bytes
> should be. ?There will be no fixes to the 3.0 line, 3.1 is the
> ongoing Python 3.* version (3.1 was a quick follow-on to address
> issues discovered in the 3.0 release (think if 3.0 as a Python 3000
> alpha or beta).
>
> --Scott David Daniels
> Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>

From lac at openend.se  Sat Jun  6 09:14:48 2009
From: lac at openend.se (Laura Creighton)
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:14:48 +0200
Subject: [Edu-sig] mentions of Py on Math Forum....
In-Reply-To: Message from kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> of "Fri,
	05 Jun 2009 13:37:15 PDT."
	<f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com> 
References: <f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com> 
Message-ID: <200906060714.n567EmfB024212@theraft.openend.se>

What kind of money are you looking for to replace your laptop?

Laura

From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Sat Jun  6 12:00:14 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:00:14 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 5
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a02421e833b9aca00dedaf6a3.2421e84@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 9th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Sat Jun  6 16:09:10 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 07:09:10 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] mentions of Py on Math Forum....
In-Reply-To: <200906060714.n567EmfB024212@theraft.openend.se>
References: <kirby.urner@gmail.com>
	<f604188c0906051337w2d1deaa2nc5572b7f58e67271@mail.gmail.com>
	<200906060714.n567EmfB024212@theraft.openend.se>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906060709o2d990a49qc6351f7e5d5d5739@mail.gmail.com>

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 12:14 AM, Laura Creighton<lac at openend.se> wrote:
> What kind of money are you looking for to replace your laptop?
>
> Laura
>

That's a kind question Laura, OK asking the list. ;)

It's a relief to have so much in the way of pictures and source code
etc. already uploaded, so its really a matter of time and priorities,
with money simply a signal to slice in the time.

I don't want to pay myself to fiddle with that hard drive, maybe by
putting it in some identical laptop off eBay (it might boot perfectly
-- or I could slave it in another system, mount it as a peripheral),
because I'm already trying to do too much.

It'd probably be a good sign though, that I was getting the time.

My business associates are also overworked, would love R&R but don't get any.

>From what I can tell, it has to do with a rotten economy, which won't
get any better at all with all those people running around in the
desert thinking they're helping somebody, wasting their lives, but
that's difficult to control from Portland, easier to drink coffee and
celebrate small victories when I can (special wine in the cooler).

Making good progress with digital mathematics track, getting lots of
help on that, but its volunteers (Lindsey, Chris, many others).  No
one has a budget for anything really important and relevant.  That's
what "rotten economy" means.

Still getting fun movies though, fantasy worlds always in relative
abundance.  Did you see that funny xkcd about 'Snakes on a Plane 2'?

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/05/stupid-summer-movie.html

Kirby

From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Sun Jun  7 12:00:19 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:00:19 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 6
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a02422d313b9aca00c6c0984e.2422d32@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 9th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Mon Jun  8 12:15:44 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:15:44 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 7
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a024239053b9aca00646393de.2423906@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 9th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Mon Jun  8 18:46:25 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:46:25 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Example Poster
Message-ID: <f604188c0906080946p19ccc29dmf2c1ffe8d56364cb@mail.gmail.com>

This weekend I was privileged to join a former student's graduation
festivities.  His family sought me out through Saturday Academy, the
word of mouth school we use to recruit for various walks of life, by
inspiring a love of the field.  We do have a Google Video ad, but that
maybe counts as part of word of mouth I'm not sure.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3331684038533449838&hl=en

Anyway, back when still in 8th grade, Tim built a Linux server for his
basement, registered dynamic ip that way people do, and customized
pybloxsom for Father Bob, the headmaster at his school.  The
liturgical calendar as well as USA secular "holy days" were built in
such that different CSS would load depending on the season and/or day,
changing the look, plus he went to all the work to find out about
mod_python and have stuff run from in there (through Apache).

On the day he was to give his presentation, I was there, and noticed
that although his teachers were awed and appreciative, they had little
idea what he was talking about when all this got mentioned.  Tim was
lonely in his knowledge, but for geeks like me, and like ya'll out in
edu-sig world, who really know about this stuff and provide community
for those eager learners who push on ahead before most kids are very
far at all down this read.

My hypothetical question for Vern would be:  assuming a parallel
Universe in which Tim's project was accepted by Pycon for showcasing,
what would that look like?

Having seen all the Blip TV out of Pycon 2009, part of my thinking is
"poster session" should mean an official part of the post-Pycon video
feed, i.e. browsers might surf to Tim's exhibit online, watch the
presentation, including screen shots, live action.  Five minutes or
less would be an appropriate format (lightning talk).  Here he'd have
a link for college admissions officers, others charged with background
checking a portfolio.

As soon as I think this, I'm thinking why just post Python?  Why
couldn't Pycon have this branding control over a YouTube channel
devoted to showcasing winners and runners up?  The older exhibits
wouldn't go away, even as new ones were added.

My final piece of the puzzle:  user groups.  In terms of seeking out
talent like Tim, or giving them a local contact, not every town has
either a Saturday Academy or a Python User Group, but the latter is
what's easiest to set up, even within a school.  Every year, Princeton
University asks its alums to actually meet with candidates and write
up their impressions in response to set questions.  I could see Vern
getting feedback from the field in that way e.g.:  "Dear Vern, as
member of user group X, I was asked to check in on Tim and assess that
state of his Python project, and here are my findings..."

This way you have someone on the ground authenticating a project, not
just getting a Youtube submission from out of the blue claiming to
show Pythonic animation of inside-outing sphere.  On the other hand,
if there's working source code and results might be duplicated... on
the other hand, we don't want to deluge Vern (or anyone else) with
projects needing to be "installed and run" unless that part of a paid
day job, with room to add staff.

As a beleaguered volunteer, that'd be thankless, plus doesn't even
address the whole need for judging beyond simply ascertaining that
so-and-so really is doing what they say they're doing.  That's why I'm
suggesting enlisting the support of user groups and giving young
talent the fun experience of a Pythonista coming to their school, say,
meeting the student, getting an introduction to the project, taking
away some pictures, maybe a DVD.  The beginning of the process... fame
and glory on the Pycon channel a possible end result.

Kirby

PS:  Tim is going to Princeton, my alma mater (and his mom's), isn't
planning to major in computer science though, was talking about a year
abroad in Varanasi maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8_Fc7_zn8w
http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-wings.html
http://www.saturdayacademy.org/

From vceder at canterburyschool.org  Mon Jun  8 19:23:36 2009
From: vceder at canterburyschool.org (Vern Ceder)
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:23:36 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Example Poster
In-Reply-To: <f604188c0906080946p19ccc29dmf2c1ffe8d56364cb@mail.gmail.com>
References: <f604188c0906080946p19ccc29dmf2c1ffe8d56364cb@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A2D4918.7010004@canterburyschool.org>

Hi Kirby,

kirby urner wrote:
> My hypothetical question for Vern would be:  assuming a parallel
> Universe in which Tim's project was accepted by Pycon for showcasing,
> what would that look like?

Good question. I had been thinking that if possible it would be cool to 
have a machine/monitor available to show video and demos on a rotating 
basis...

In general, we'll no doubt rely upon what contributors want/are able to 
send, which may (or not) tend toward the traditional - some poster sized 
"slides" hitting the high points of what was done. And it matters if the 
"presenter" is able to come to PyCon and stand beside the presentation 
or if it has to stand on its own....
> 
> Having seen all the Blip TV out of Pycon 2009, part of my thinking is
> "poster session" should mean an official part of the post-Pycon video
> feed, i.e. browsers might surf to Tim's exhibit online, watch the
> presentation, including screen shots, live action.  Five minutes or
> less would be an appropriate format (lightning talk).  Here he'd have
> a link for college admissions officers, others charged with background
> checking a portfolio.

I would agree. We should certainly offer poster session presenters the 
option of providing a short clip, and any clips "accepted" would have a 
fair claim to be part of the PyCon video record.

> As soon as I think this, I'm thinking why just post Python?  Why
> couldn't Pycon have this branding control over a YouTube channel
> devoted to showcasing winners and runners up?  The older exhibits
> wouldn't go away, even as new ones were added.

I'm not sure what the PSF thinks of this idea, but it sounds interesting 
to me.

As to the idea of using local Pythonistas on the ground to 
verify/encourage/etc potential poster session contributors, I think 
that's also a good idea, maybe more from the encouraging and providing a 
link to the community side than the verification side. As I see it, 
we're likely to be fairly generous in accepting poster session 
contributions in the beginning, unless and until we get too many to handle.

When I hit NECC at the end of the month (as mentioned before, partly on 
the PSF's dime) I plan hit a fair number of their some 250 poster 
sessions, which run the gamut from interactive to static, and from 
commercial to academic. I'm hoping to get a feel for what works there 
and what might work at PyCon.

I'm in a 3-way crunch at the moment - end of school year data 
processing, book deadline (The Quick Python Book, 2nd ed. from Manning) 
and preparing my NECC talk, so I really appreciate the boost you've been 
providing periodically.. :)

Starting in July, my efforts will turn toward this more fully, which 
should allow time to talk to the various PyCon organizers and 
committees, and generate a CFP to be ready in mid-August as teachers and 
students head back to school.

Cheers,
Vern

> My final piece of the puzzle:  user groups.  In terms of seeking out
> talent like Tim, or giving them a local contact, not every town has
> either a Saturday Academy or a Python User Group, but the latter is
> what's easiest to set up, even within a school.  Every year, Princeton
> University asks its alums to actually meet with candidates and write
> up their impressions in response to set questions.  I could see Vern
> getting feedback from the field in that way e.g.:  "Dear Vern, as
> member of user group X, I was asked to check in on Tim and assess that
> state of his Python project, and here are my findings..."
> 
> This way you have someone on the ground authenticating a project, not
> just getting a Youtube submission from out of the blue claiming to
> show Pythonic animation of inside-outing sphere.  On the other hand,
> if there's working source code and results might be duplicated... on
> the other hand, we don't want to deluge Vern (or anyone else) with
> projects needing to be "installed and run" unless that part of a paid
> day job, with room to add staff.
> 
> As a beleaguered volunteer, that'd be thankless, plus doesn't even
> address the whole need for judging beyond simply ascertaining that
> so-and-so really is doing what they say they're doing.  That's why I'm
> suggesting enlisting the support of user groups and giving young
> talent the fun experience of a Pythonista coming to their school, say,
> meeting the student, getting an introduction to the project, taking
> away some pictures, maybe a DVD.  The beginning of the process... fame
> and glory on the Pycon channel a possible end result.
> 
> Kirby
> 
> PS:  Tim is going to Princeton, my alma mater (and his mom's), isn't
> planning to major in computer science though, was talking about a year
> abroad in Varanasi maybe.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8_Fc7_zn8w
> http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-wings.html
> http://www.saturdayacademy.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig

-- 
This time for sure!
    -Bullwinkle J. Moose
-----------------------------
Vern Ceder, Director of Technology
Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804
vceder at canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137

From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Tue Jun  9 12:00:25 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:00:25 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 8
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a02429f853b9aca0086d5b6ba.2429f86@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 10th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Wed Jun 10 12:00:17 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:00:17 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 9
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a0242fd2d3b9aca0055d9a23f.242fd2e@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 10th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us  Thu Jun 11 12:00:13 2009
From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:00:13 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 71, Issue 10
Message-ID: <fc.0119ed2a0243544e3b9aca00fc7f3a57.243544f@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us>

I will be out of the office till June 10th.  I will be checking e-mail,
however if you need immediate help please contact the computer center or
tech support.
thanks!

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From ttoenjes at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 16:36:51 2009
From: ttoenjes at gmail.com (Trevor Toenjes)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:36:51 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Slashdot today: should python replace Fortran?
Message-ID: <4A311683.1030107@gmail.com>

If anyone wants to jump into a Slashdot discussion today, there are 
various opinions about Python being taught in Universities.

http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/06/11/1228209/Should-Undergraduates-Be-Taught-Fortran

From da.ajoy at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 17:37:42 2009
From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:37:42 -0500
Subject: [Edu-sig] Teacher looking for software for displaying 3D vectors
	and planes
Message-ID: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>

http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/8riul/teacher_looking_for_software_for_displaying_3d/

"""
Hi, I have spent a good few hours on a fruitless search for something that will help my students understand 3D vectors better. What I'm teaching is basically stuff like this: The equation of a line in three dimensions (something like r = a + t b (b is a direction vector, t is a parameter)

The equation of a plane as r . n = a . n

Intersection between lines and planes, angles between two planes, between a plane and a line, identifying lines as skew, parallel, etc., techniques like cross product for finding plane normals.

(This is all part of the UK "A-level" Maths if you're wondering).

I'm looking for something to help visualise this type of mathematics, because almost all students say this area is one of the hardest of the course, and they never seem to be very good at constructing an appropriate image in their mind that would allow them to see a sensible strategy for finding the solution. I feel sure that my combination of metre rules and desks and pieces of paper is insufficient for them to build a good mental picture.

So I want something that will not only show planes and lines on the projector screen in a good quality 3D representation, but will (v important) allow me to rotate the image or the objects in the image, or move lines and see how a point on the line moves with it, etc.

Software doesn't have to be free, but I doubt my school would be prepared to pay several hundred dollars. I teach English qualifications in China, by the way, so bear that in mind.

Edit: I forgot to mention we don't have internet in the classroom at the moment, so it needs to be an offline tool.

Thanks if anyone has a suggestion.
"""



From andre.roberge at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 18:00:19 2009
From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:00:19 -0300
Subject: [Edu-sig] Teacher looking for software for displaying 3D
	vectors and planes
In-Reply-To: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
References: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
Message-ID: <7528bcdd0906110900g463946f8jc13d37b6298a3ee9@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Daniel Ajoy <da.ajoy at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/8riul/teacher_looking_for_software_for_displaying_3d/
>
> """
> Hi, I have spent a good few hours on a fruitless search for something that
> will help my students understand 3D vectors better.


PyGeo (http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/) might do what you are looking for.
Note that its creator, Arthur Siegel, was a prolific contributor to edu-sig
and, sadly, passed away a few years ago.

Andr?



> What I'm teaching is basically stuff like this: The equation of a line in
> three dimensions (something like r = a + t b (b is a direction vector, t is
> a parameter)
>
> The equation of a plane as r . n = a . n
>
> Intersection between lines and planes, angles between two planes, between a
> plane and a line, identifying lines as skew, parallel, etc., techniques like
> cross product for finding plane normals.
>
> (This is all part of the UK "A-level" Maths if you're wondering).
>
> I'm looking for something to help visualise this type of mathematics,
> because almost all students say this area is one of the hardest of the
> course, and they never seem to be very good at constructing an appropriate
> image in their mind that would allow them to see a sensible strategy for
> finding the solution. I feel sure that my combination of metre rules and
> desks and pieces of paper is insufficient for them to build a good mental
> picture.
>
> So I want something that will not only show planes and lines on the
> projector screen in a good quality 3D representation, but will (v important)
> allow me to rotate the image or the objects in the image, or move lines and
> see how a point on the line moves with it, etc.
>
> Software doesn't have to be free, but I doubt my school would be prepared
> to pay several hundred dollars. I teach English qualifications in China, by
> the way, so bear that in mind.
>
> Edit: I forgot to mention we don't have internet in the classroom at the
> moment, so it needs to be an offline tool.
>
> Thanks if anyone has a suggestion.
> """
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>
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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 19:00:56 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:00:56 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Teacher looking for software for displaying 3D
	vectors and planes
In-Reply-To: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
References: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906111000t458fcc39o675430436401d094@mail.gmail.com>

coyote_academy -1 points0 points1 point 207 milliseconds ago[-]

The curriculum I've been using in Portland, Oregon is vector
intensive, with scaffolding like stickworks.py, documented and
explained on ShowMeDo. For output, we use x3D (VRML) and POV-Ray, a
free ray tracer, no Internet required, plus these tools are no cost
and multi-platform.

However, our commitment is to learning a lot of Python, and ray
tracing, as an end in itself, i.e. we don't really care about "pure
math" per se, divorced from its use with some tool or other, so if you
goal is to keep it very abstract, without the hours of practice with
the technology (Python in our case -- we learn about "math objects"
across the board, vectors one among many), then our solution is not
for you.

Links:
ShowMeDo: http://showmedo.com/videotutorials/series?id=101
SA: Math: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/pymath.html (vectors etc.)

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Daniel Ajoy<da.ajoy at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/8riul/teacher_looking_for_software_for_displaying_3d/
>
> """
> Hi, I have spent a good few hours on a fruitless search for something that will help my students understand 3D vectors better. What I'm teaching is basically stuff like this: The equation of a line in three dimensions (something like r = a + t b (b is a direction vector, t is a parameter)
>
> The equation of a plane as r . n = a . n
>
> Intersection between lines and planes, angles between two planes, between a plane and a line, identifying lines as skew, parallel, etc., techniques like cross product for finding plane normals.
>
> (This is all part of the UK "A-level" Maths if you're wondering).
>
> I'm looking for something to help visualise this type of mathematics, because almost all students say this area is one of the hardest of the course, and they never seem to be very good at constructing an appropriate image in their mind that would allow them to see a sensible strategy for finding the solution. I feel sure that my combination of metre rules and desks and pieces of paper is insufficient for them to build a good mental picture.
>
> So I want something that will not only show planes and lines on the projector screen in a good quality 3D representation, but will (v important) allow me to rotate the image or the objects in the image, or move lines and see how a point on the line moves with it, etc.
>
> Software doesn't have to be free, but I doubt my school would be prepared to pay several hundred dollars. I teach English qualifications in China, by the way, so bear that in mind.
>
> Edit: I forgot to mention we don't have internet in the classroom at the moment, so it needs to be an offline tool.
>
> Thanks if anyone has a suggestion.
> """
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>

From stef.mientki at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 21:07:51 2009
From: stef.mientki at gmail.com (Stef Mientki)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:07:51 +0200
Subject: [Edu-sig] Teacher looking for software for displaying 3D
 vectors and planes
In-Reply-To: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
References: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc>
Message-ID: <4A315607.6020209@gmail.com>

look at VPython, very easy to use
http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/demonline/virtual/09_crossproduct.html

which will hopefully this weekend also available embedded,
see
http://mientki.ruhosting.nl/data_www/pylab_works/pw_animations_screenshots.html

cheers,
Stef



Daniel Ajoy wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/8riul/teacher_looking_for_software_for_displaying_3d/
>
> """
> Hi, I have spent a good few hours on a fruitless search for something that will help my students understand 3D vectors better. What I'm teaching is basically stuff like this: The equation of a line in three dimensions (something like r = a + t b (b is a direction vector, t is a parameter)
>
> The equation of a plane as r . n = a . n
>
> Intersection between lines and planes, angles between two planes, between a plane and a line, identifying lines as skew, parallel, etc., techniques like cross product for finding plane normals.
>
> (This is all part of the UK "A-level" Maths if you're wondering).
>
> I'm looking for something to help visualise this type of mathematics, because almost all students say this area is one of the hardest of the course, and they never seem to be very good at constructing an appropriate image in their mind that would allow them to see a sensible strategy for finding the solution. I feel sure that my combination of metre rules and desks and pieces of paper is insufficient for them to build a good mental picture.
>
> So I want something that will not only show planes and lines on the projector screen in a good quality 3D representation, but will (v important) allow me to rotate the image or the objects in the image, or move lines and see how a point on the line moves with it, etc.
>
> Software doesn't have to be free, but I doubt my school would be prepared to pay several hundred dollars. I teach English qualifications in China, by the way, so bear that in mind.
>
> Edit: I forgot to mention we don't have internet in the classroom at the moment, so it needs to be an offline tool.
>
> Thanks if anyone has a suggestion.
> """
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>   


From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Thu Jun 11 22:15:06 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:15:06 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Teacher looking for software for displaying 3D
	vectors and planes
In-Reply-To: <4A315607.6020209@gmail.com>
References: <op.uvc9o4od0gup8g@daniel-pc> <4A315607.6020209@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906111315m682f7bb2t14c41ded839de662@mail.gmail.com>

Yeah, I shoulda mentioned my stickworks.py is a wrapper for VPython,
but that's obvious on the Showmedo tape.

Good seeing your stuff progressing Stef, I know I've linked to it.

Many 100s of pages on VPython in my blogs, for those seeking ideas for using it.

IDLE 1.2.1
>>> for thing in ['worldgame','controlroom','mybizmo']:
	print("http://%s.blogspot.com/search?q=VPython" % thing)

	
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/search?q=VPython
http://controlroom.blogspot.com/search?q=VPython
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/search?q=VPython
>>>

Kirby



On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:07 PM, Stef Mientki<stef.mientki at gmail.com> wrote:
> look at VPython, very easy to use
> http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/demonline/virtual/09_crossproduct.html
>
> which will hopefully this weekend also available embedded,
> see
> http://mientki.ruhosting.nl/data_www/pylab_works/pw_animations_screenshots.html
>
> cheers,
> Stef

From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Sat Jun 13 02:39:41 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:39:41 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] more re "manga code"...
Message-ID: <f604188c0906121739g75851a27q8e403d07b97bae90@mail.gmail.com>

I'm appending a post to another group, lotsa links to Python which I
won't go into here except here's a nice shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/3614960140/
(Zen of Python, alcove office, Linus Pauling House, Portland, Oregon)

My purpose in passing this through to edu-sig is to illustrate this
nomenclature "manga code", which means something similar to "pseudo
code" except that pseudo-code doesn't execute (because it's not a real
language, but a phony one made up to capture the essence).

I'd say there's a twilight zone between pseudo- and manga- in that you
might not need to run source, but if you *did* have time to build the
real machine, you know that it could be run, i.e. a real emulator is
definitely doable (MMX comes to mind, other academic languages).

We've all heard Python referred to as "runnable pseudo-code" but here
I think the opportunity is to drop "pseudo" (keeping it for contrast)
and go with "manga code" in the sense of "cartoon simulation,
fictional but still worth playing".

People have different ways of pronouncing "manga" but that's true for
Python as well (some say Pythun, whereas for others Python rhymes with
thong, me in this latter camp).**

Kirby


** Don't say "mah-no" though, if you mean the Novell product Mono.
That's definitely "moe no" for Monkey.  If you don't get that it's
monkey, you lose half the branding, not to mention you'll sound like a
bloody Anglophone who's had a few too many.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM
Subject: Re: [wwwanderers] some business items
To: Wanderers


Oh wait, I did want to say I volunteered to start building "a Python
data structure" from Glenn's holographic notes (a holograph means
something else in this namespace, check dictionary **).

The data structure I'm thinking of is:

>>> thearchive = [("Title of Tape","Speaker","Date of Talk","number of copies"), (...,), ...]

(the above being actual Python code, manga-code (executing), not
pseudo-code (phony):

>>> thearchive
[('Title of Tape', 'Speaker', 'Date of Talk', 'number of copies'),
(Ellipsis,), Ellipsis]

Now you may think it selfish of me to build the inventory in Python
(and I could use some help) but actually it's quite trivial, once we
have this list, to spit it out as XML, JSON or whatever you consider
"native" in your world. ?Spreadsheet? ?No problemo.

Kirby

** for those who don't know: ?a single word search on Google, if on a
valid word in the language, gets you a dictionary link in the upper
right, give it a try. ?I didn't test this feature in Lithuania but I'm
quite sure it'd work great (if Aldona is listening, or Hyzy)

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 4:44 PM, kirby urner<kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> So I went back and decorated my proposal with a picture of Glenn
> starting to take inventory this afternoon, gives a sense of the scale
> of the operation:
>
> http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2009/06/taking-inventory.html
>
> A secret of my blogs is that some pictures click through to an actual
> photostream, where I've got a few more like the above, including some
> close ups on titles, feast your eyes.
>
> Anyway, back to work, am not really involved in this project other
> than to photo-document a little, help catalyze a social networking
> exercise maybe, though Glenn didn't think anyone wanting to watch a
> tape solo should be forbidden to do so, and duh we're not going to be
> sending ISEPP police to doors of solo viewers.
>
> However, an electronic filing regarding the contents of said tape,
> attached to your identity somehow, would be nice to get.
>
> We're collecting what Wanderers think about the tapes, not just the tapes.
>
> Given you're the people seeing a lot of these lectures in a very
> literate town with above average connectivity (netness), your thoughts
> actually have some historical interest, is how I'm spinning this (not
> just empty flattery -- Portland was pretty special in our day, no ifs
> ands or buts, Terry's work a big part of that).
>
> Kirby
>

From echerlin at gmail.com  Mon Jun 15 23:44:46 2009
From: echerlin at gmail.com (Edward Cherlin)
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:44:46 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Fwd: Gravity lesson
In-Reply-To: <e574f6eb0906151440k4e34b3dfmd5421e8f891a1d59@mail.gmail.com>
References: <e574f6eb0906151440k4e34b3dfmd5421e8f891a1d59@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <e574f6eb0906151444xe79da2eo3dd074fa56e9996b@mail.gmail.com>

FYI. Lots more to come, now that I have Turtle Art 51 running, and
various other things coming together.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Subject: Gravity lesson
To: iaep <iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org>


I have created a version of Alan Kay's third grade gravity lesson

http://download.laptop.org/content/conf/20080520-country-wkshp/Video/2008-05-20/13-Beyond-Printing
(medium).ogg

with models built in Turtle Art 51, and posted a link to it at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai/Plans_and_Essays

I will be interested to hear comments. This is just the first of
perhaps 10,000 such ^_^, if we follow Bryan Berry's estimate of the
number of topics for every subject in every grade.

-- 
Silent Thunder (??/???????????????/????????????? ?) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)

From stef.mientki at gmail.com  Tue Jun 16 20:27:12 2009
From: stef.mientki at gmail.com (Stef Mientki)
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:27:12 +0200
Subject: [Edu-sig] [ANN] first full alpha release of PyLab_Works v0.3
Message-ID: <4A37E400.4080305@gmail.com>

hello,

I am pleased to announce the first full alpha release of PyLab_Works, v0.3.

PyLab_Works is a modular Visual Development Environment, based on 
data-flow programming technics. PyLab_Works is specially aimed at 
Education, Engineering and Science. The ideas behind PyLab_Works are, 
that the final user should not be burdened with programming details and 
domain details, whereas the domain expert should be able to implement 
the specific  domain knowledge without being a full educated programmer.

You can always find my notes on PyLab_Works on
   http://pic.flappie.nl
Most of these pages are also collected in a single pdf document, which 
can be found here:
  http://pylab-works.googlecode.com/files/pw_manual.pdf

The source code and a one-button-Windows-Installer can be found on 
codegoogle:
  http://code.google.com/p/pylab-works/
The files are rather large, because they contain some data samples.
The Windows-Installer contains everything you need to get started with 
PyLab_Works: ConfigObj, gprof2dot, HTTPlib, MatPlotLib, Numpy, Pickle,  
Psyco, pyclbr, PyGame, PyLab_Works, PyODBC, Python, RLCompleter, Scipy, 
Sendkeys, SQLite3, SQLObject, URLparse, wave, Visual, win32*, wxPython. 
Although the PyLab_Works programs are compiled with Py2Exe, all the 
source files are explicitly included.

have fun,
Stef Mientki

From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Mon Jun 22 03:59:31 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:59:31 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] decompressing from OS Bridge
Message-ID: <f604188c0906211859i4a7d892cp5eceac3999eadc55@mail.gmail.com>

Greetings edu-siggers --

I'm still decompressing from an intensive 3-day OS Bridge conference
here in Portland, Oregon.  Having a purely Portland management and
local focus made this a rather different experience, a small gem actually,
well run and cram packed with interesting talent and talks, from a
cyborg anthropologist to a typography expert.  We're attracting more
social science and artist types, musicians, clowns (professional) who
explain the web in easy geek (thinking of Keroes).

My own talk hit most of my usual themes, filling in details regarding
my work crewing with "buckaneers" as well as around marketing new
kinds of geometry teaching (showed off the usual hypertoon, Scott
Daniels actually in the same building this time -- he did the decorators).

Re: me 'n farmer David:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/06/show-time.html

Lots of overlap with our Institute for Science, Engineering and Public
Policy (e.g. the keynote speaker had been with us earlier -- she really
gets around it seems to me (hi Amber)).  ISEPP was not a sponsor
though, and I was representing 4D Studios, which is a DWA thing
(DWA and ISEPP are completely distinct).  I represented ISEPP at
Pycon (brought Josh Cronemeyer to Pauling House for a look see
-- having missed him in Chicago (another geek with some Quaker
connections)).

Here's a blog post with links to the slides.  Apologies in advance for
the large file size (6 megs), but in making this a retrospective in some
ways, I got into screen scraping at the pixel level, meaning we're often
looking at fully stored bitmaps even where type fonts are concerned
(no vector graphics).

Turnout was low (lots of empty chairs) but it's quality not quantity.
I had a professor from Linnfield College who'd been to my OSCON
talk years ago.  He came right up to me and said that as a result
of that talk he'd gone straight back and started wheels turning,
getting Python accepted.  Now they're moving more physics to
VPython, like some other schools we know about.  This is all
gratifying to hear, sounds like we're a lot on the same wavelength,
whether or not we actually get to meet all that often (the years
fly by eh?).

As I noted to my lobbyist friend (Software Association of Oregon):

"""
PS:  the low turnout was not a surprise, is somewhat par for the
course in a geek conference averaging age 35, no one there a high
school math teacher by training or future intent.  I've been in rooms
just like it with just as few, but once it was both Guido (BDFL) and
Robin Dunn (wxPython), and this time I had you and
ThoughtWorks/Chicago, plus there're the recordings and prestige, so
lets just say I was not dissatisfied.  What packs 'em in is when its
directly about their career, so in a conference for math teachers
needing computer language skills, you'd expect a tight fit, sometimes
people on the floor (rolling?).  ROFL.
"""

Plone was a presence.  Canada is near.

I'll blab some more as time goes on.  Got a note that Paul is
dropping off though continues tracking through various blogs
and/or wikis.  I invited him to rejoin and requit as many times
as he likes (not that I'm listowner or anything -- that'd be
Mr. Wilson or Andre or Dr. Pepper maybe).

Cronemeyer's talk was Google App Engine related, as you'll find
my blog post 'Winding Down' with his picture.

http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2009/06/winding-down.html

Wave to Jeff Elkner, been yakking about you behind your
back (all good).

Not sure exactly how it works, but I think when Portland does its
own FOSS conference, the dynamics with Microsoft are different.
Redmond is part of the same bioregion.  Their queen of open source
made a big splash plus Python has generally been Windows
friendly, given how tremendously successful her code base in this
platform, now with the DLR's backing.  You'd think their marketing
machine would take more interest, especially with Sara Ford at
the helm.

Kirby

From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Mon Jun 22 04:11:43 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:11:43 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] decompressing from OS Bridge
In-Reply-To: <f604188c0906211859i4a7d892cp5eceac3999eadc55@mail.gmail.com>
References: <f604188c0906211859i4a7d892cp5eceac3999eadc55@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906211911hf9a5495va90acbfea49e0737@mail.gmail.com>

<< SNIP >>

> Turnout was low (lots of empty chairs) but it's quality not quantity.
> I had a professor from Linnfield College who'd been to my OSCON
> talk years ago. ?He came right up to me and said that as a result
> of that talk he'd gone straight back and started wheels turning,
> getting Python accepted. ?Now they're moving more physics to
> VPython, like some other schools we know about. ?This is all
> gratifying to hear, sounds like we're a lot on the same wavelength,
> whether or not we actually get to meet all that often (the years
> fly by eh?).

Correction:

Linn Benton Community College
http://www.linnbenton.edu/

Thx!

Kirby

From jeff at elkner.net  Mon Jun 22 20:53:11 2009
From: jeff at elkner.net (Jeff Elkner)
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:53:11 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Crunchy and Sphinx?
Message-ID: <37fa1dfb0906221153x80fc8cpb8a4f270d7a4aa31@mail.gmail.com>

Hi Andr?!  I've spent the last month converting python educational materials
from lore to sphinx.

For the results, see:

http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e

and

http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/gasp/course

The only missing feature at this point (sphinx rocks!) is support for
crunchy.  Any thoughts on that? I didn't see any reference to
reStructuredText or Sphinx on the crunchy site.

Thanks!

jeff elkenr
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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Mon Jun 22 22:25:03 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:25:03 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] classroom layout (DM and/or CS)
Message-ID: <f604188c0906221325x66e93e71o46d9e7ab833accdb@mail.gmail.com>

I've got this thread going with holdenweb re the ideal classroom
configuration.

Like, we're all familiar with conference venues, where we just balance
a laptop or share power strips around tables, but for one's workaday
environment, where one has more control over layout, what would be
your ideal digital math and/or CS track "box car" i.e. would would you
want delivered to the top school of your choice?

Wave your magic wand, dream, as thoughts are inexpensive and often
worth sharing (we have pixels to spare).

We got a peak at Microsoft's Codeplex office, no cubes to speak of,
all outfitted for pair programming, plus I talked with Josh Cronemeyer
of Thought Works quite a bit, and again, XP is taken quite seriously
there.

So how might our classrooms, including for high school aged kids,
prepare them for the real world working environment?  They need to
give lightning talks, take turns sharing projections, run planning
meetings.  I've suggested we need teachers to pair up as well, to role
model sharing authority, trading hats.

The traditional "rank and file" of the Roman Imperial classroom might
not be most conducive to the formation of geek-level work habits and
skills (imagine that).  Like, you'll never be a dev if you're always
wall flower Ms. Docile who doesn't know how to "ask the room".  We
don't want another generation of kiss-butts, like the last one was.

The blog post below diagrams what we used at West Precinct (a U
shape).  I'm not suggesting one size fits all or that every digital
math track features the same layout -- though for spreading a brand
(of charter school say), a franchise motif actually helps, e.g.
Burgerville's are pretty similar everywhere (free Wifi, and now, more
nutrition information ** -- good grist for the mill in our newly
calorie-conscious Home Economics track (being designed in tandem with
Digital Math, for field testing in top notch overseas schools as well
as local ones, IAGATP)).

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/06/at-work-again.html

Kirby

**
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/3643447292/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315 at N00/3643447414/in/photostream/

From da.ajoy at gmail.com  Mon Jun 22 22:16:33 2009
From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy)
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:16:33 -0500
Subject: [Edu-sig] Do Programmers Optimize... Life?
Message-ID: <op.uvxzxvdv0gup8g@daniel-pc>

http://www.cforcoding.com/2009/06/do-programmers-optimize-life.html

"the age-old chicken-and-egg question of: do people become programmers because they have the right mindset or do they develop that mindset as a consequence of becoming computer programmers?"

Rich said...

"The problem with being an optimizer is that human interaction and human social norms are so inefficient that you tend to optimize out of them. And thus, real programmers end up avoiding human contact in favor of more efficient means to whatever end..."


Daniel


From lac at openend.se  Tue Jun 23 07:34:04 2009
From: lac at openend.se (Laura Creighton)
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:34:04 +0200
Subject: [Edu-sig] classroom layout (DM and/or CS)
In-Reply-To: Message from kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> of "Mon,
	22 Jun 2009 13:25:03 PDT."
	<f604188c0906221325x66e93e71o46d9e7ab833accdb@mail.gmail.com> 
References: <f604188c0906221325x66e93e71o46d9e7ab833accdb@mail.gmail.com> 
Message-ID: <200906230534.n5N5Y4WO014140@theraft.openend.se>

In a message of Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:25:03 PDT, kirby urner writes:
>I've got this thread going with holdenweb re the ideal classroom
>configuration.

Since price is no object, get yourself a rear projectoin interactive
copyboard.  See: http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/ftp/whiteboardguide-mirandanet.pdf

Laura


From michael at d2m.at  Tue Jun 23 08:06:36 2009
From: michael at d2m.at (Michael Haubenwallner)
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:06:36 +0200
Subject: [Edu-sig] Crunchy and Sphinx?
In-Reply-To: <37fa1dfb0906221153x80fc8cpb8a4f270d7a4aa31@mail.gmail.com>
References: <37fa1dfb0906221153x80fc8cpb8a4f270d7a4aa31@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A4070EC.7010109@d2m.at>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Jeff Elkner wrote:
> Hi Andr?!  I've spent the last month converting python educational materials
> from lore to sphinx.
> 
> For the results, see:
> 
> http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e
> 
> and
> 
> http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/gasp/course
> 
> The only missing feature at this point (sphinx rocks!) is support for
> crunchy.  Any thoughts on that? I didn't see any reference to
> reStructuredText or Sphinx on the crunchy site.
> 

Congratulations, the book looks impressive. Adding crunchy is a great idea.

Btw, while Sphinx marks the HTML documents UTF-8
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
the webserver serves the pages as iso-8859-1. This results eg. in ugly
permalink markers (??).

Regards
Michael

- --
http://blog.d2m.at
http://planetzope.org

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From da.ajoy at gmail.com  Fri Jun 26 02:31:46 2009
From: da.ajoy at gmail.com (Daniel Ajoy)
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:31:46 -0500
Subject: [Edu-sig] spirals and prime numbers, python
Message-ID: <op.uv3vq8fk0gup8g@daniel-pc>

http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/spirals/index.html

Daniel



From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Fri Jun 26 05:04:22 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:04:22 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] spirals and prime numbers, python
In-Reply-To: <op.uv3vq8fk0gup8g@daniel-pc>
References: <op.uv3vq8fk0gup8g@daniel-pc>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906252004x7dbcf8a3l693f13ee6dbbb35c@mail.gmail.com>

Fantastic.

Hey Trevor, check this out.  Ulam spiral and Python, handsome!

Kirby


On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Daniel Ajoy<da.ajoy at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/spirals/index.html
>
> Daniel
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>

From warren.sande at rogers.com  Fri Jun 26 18:16:46 2009
From: warren.sande at rogers.com (Warren Sande)
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:16:46 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Edu-sig] Python book authors on TV
Message-ID: <860914.66659.qm@web88108.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Carter and I were on the local 6:00 news a couple days ago, when we had
the book launch for our book "Hello World! Computer Programming for
Kids and Other Beginners"

You can see it here:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip186877#clip186877


Warren Sande
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From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Fri Jun 26 20:06:08 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:06:08 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Python book authors on TV
In-Reply-To: <860914.66659.qm@web88108.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
References: <860914.66659.qm@web88108.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <f604188c0906261106k81e5f74xf29b106a6359545c@mail.gmail.com>

Ya know, that's really excellent.

I was just pumping my fist in the air for Canada (yay Canada) and then
this hits my inbox.

Wearing my TV producer hat, the biggest kick is when little kids
aren't afraid to be eloquent and pithy on TV, and here ya have it,
gets other kids to sit up and listen eh?

You do pretty well for yourself too, like a Father's Day commercial
only better.  My 15 is just starting Python and its your book that
she's using.  Good to hang out with Josh Cronemeyer @ OS Bridge, one
of the other technical reviewers.

Sheesh, I've gotta get off this Europython list, don't remember
Vilnius being this verbose -- most be those English speakers. :)

Kirby

** extolling Canada
http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=6766098&tstart=0
-- wearing my "belligerent lobbyist from Portland" hat, not for 9 year
olds maybe :)
(I was even more Klingon this morning -- goes with the territory, math
wars 'n al)

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 9:16 AM, Warren Sande<warren.sande at rogers.com> wrote:
> Carter and I were on the local 6:00 news a couple days ago, when we had the
> book launch for our book "Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and
> Other Beginners"
>
> You can see it here:
>
> http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip186877#clip186877
>
>
> Warren Sande
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>
>

From csev at umich.edu  Sat Jun 27 15:38:38 2009
From: csev at umich.edu (csev)
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:38:38 -0400
Subject: [Edu-sig] Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other
	Beginners
In-Reply-To: <mailman.5.1246096801.22884.edu-sig@python.org>
References: <mailman.5.1246096801.22884.edu-sig@python.org>
Message-ID: <A9641883-C947-4909-83B3-AFE6DD5876E4@umich.edu>

Warren and Carter - congratulations on your book.  I just reviewed it  
in my blog and twittered about it.

Here is the text from my blog post - (feel free to correct me )

Chuck Severance
www.dr-chuck.com

I am an advocate for using Python as a first language and for using  
programming as a tool to explore abstract concepts and technology  
literacy (Informatics) starting in elementary and middle school. Here  
is a book written for kids using Python that looks like it can support  
making Python accessible to younger learners.

Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners

The book is written by the father and son pair of Warren D. Sande and  
Carter Sande.

Here is an interview with the author and his son on Canadian  
Television with the authors:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip186877

Here is the web site for the book including several sample chapters:

http://www.manning.com/sande/

This is very cool and I will buy the book and then review it in more  
detail.

On first glance looking at the sample chapters and table of contents,  
it looks well siuted for K-12 applications since has many short  
chapters, gets into graphics quickly using its own GUI (easygui), and  
is careful to have lots of additional explanation in areas that  
readers might have questions. Of course since Carter Sande is still in  
K12 it is very natural to have it structured properly for K12.

Perhaps after they get done with Warren and Carter's book - the  
students will want to web programming on Google App Engine! And of  
course there is a book for that - Using Google App Engine.

This all moves us further down the path of technology literacy based  
on foundations of open source technology and transforming K-20  
education to include technology literacy at the right places.

Congratulations to Warren and Carter!

From echerlin at gmail.com  Sun Jun 28 10:29:25 2009
From: echerlin at gmail.com (Edward Cherlin)
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:29:25 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other
	Beginners
In-Reply-To: <A9641883-C947-4909-83B3-AFE6DD5876E4@umich.edu>
References: <mailman.5.1246096801.22884.edu-sig@python.org>
	<A9641883-C947-4909-83B3-AFE6DD5876E4@umich.edu>
Message-ID: <e574f6eb0906280129h749f9c27ice8418c3208c17f8@mail.gmail.com>

I have to write up some lessons on how to start programming in Python
in the Sugar version of Turtle Art, where there are two programmable
tiles. One accepts a Python expression, and the other reads in a
Python file.

The easiest Hello, World program in Turtle Art uses the Print tile.
Just type in the text you want the Turtle to display. We can introduce
more complex tile-based programming techniques, and then show how each
can be done in Python by using the programmable tiles, and by
examining the quite modular Turtle Art source code in Python. Then we
can show students how to create their own tiles, and move up gradually
to creating a new Sugar Activity.

I intend to teach Python as Computer Science, not simply as program
syntax and features. Making the CS topics accessible to students at
just the right level, without driving any of them away, will be one of
the hardest parts to get right. Ordering topics according to both
meaning and dependencies on other topics will also take a lot of work.

Also a lot of fun.

I have spent the last few week experimenting with the latest version
of Sugar on a Stick (Sugar set up for installation on a bootable USB
flash drive) and also writing a book for FLOSS Manuals on Open
Translation Tools. So I have lots more to tell you, but no way to say
when I can do it yet.

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 6:38 AM, csev<csev at umich.edu> wrote:
> Warren and Carter - congratulations on your book. ?I just reviewed it in my
> blog and twittered about it.
>
> Here is the text from my blog post - (feel free to correct me )
>
> Chuck Severance
> www.dr-chuck.com
>
> I am an advocate for using Python as a first language and for using
> programming as a tool to explore abstract concepts and technology literacy
> (Informatics) starting in elementary and middle school. Here is a book
> written for kids using Python that looks like it can support making Python
> accessible to younger learners.
>
> Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners
>
> The book is written by the father and son pair of Warren D. Sande and Carter
> Sande.
>
> Here is an interview with the author and his son on Canadian Television with
> the authors:
>
> http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip186877
>
> Here is the web site for the book including several sample chapters:
>
> http://www.manning.com/sande/
>
> This is very cool and I will buy the book and then review it in more detail.
>
> On first glance looking at the sample chapters and table of contents, it
> looks well siuted for K-12 applications since has many short chapters, gets
> into graphics quickly using its own GUI (easygui), and is careful to have
> lots of additional explanation in areas that readers might have questions.
> Of course since Carter Sande is still in K12 it is very natural to have it
> structured properly for K12.
>
> Perhaps after they get done with Warren and Carter's book - the students
> will want to web programming on Google App Engine! And of course there is a
> book for that - Using Google App Engine.
>
> This all moves us further down the path of technology literacy based on
> foundations of open source technology and transforming K-20 education to
> include technology literacy at the right places.
>
> Congratulations to Warren and Carter!
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>



-- 
Silent Thunder (??/???????????????/????????????? ?) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)

From kirby.urner at gmail.com  Sun Jun 28 20:18:42 2009
From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner)
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:18:42 -0700
Subject: [Edu-sig] Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other
	Beginners
In-Reply-To: <e574f6eb0906280129h749f9c27ice8418c3208c17f8@mail.gmail.com>
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	<A9641883-C947-4909-83B3-AFE6DD5876E4@umich.edu>
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Message-ID: <f604188c0906281118k6267df52j5cbd4d5f43693876@mail.gmail.com>

Yo guy!  <-- New Jerseyism (a home sweet home)

Looking forward to posters about your work at Pycon, fed through our
VC, showing kids blissing out on Turtle Art, indeed a perennial genre,
see no chance of its fading, just abetting with "3D" turtles in a
turtle tank (yes already been done, I know that, by coders more
skilled than I in those ways -- plus I say "4D" cuz I'm a buckaneer
contrarian with a "geometry of lumps" from ToonTown (another of
Portland's many monikers, e.g. Beervana, Bridge City, FOSS Capital
etc.** )).

Note:  during Shuttleworth Summit in London that time (with Alan Kay),
we had the paradigm school teacher ("teach students, not subjects")
who showed me what commercial Logos are like, way ahead of anything
open source (more like Sims), which is why I don't have that either/or
attitude, allow proprietary games to be delivered by armored car if
necessary (protecting source).  Some software is very closed for a
reason:  you don't want the chipmunks getting into it.  That being
said, many closed projects use open libraries, improve on them,
strengthen them, and contribute them back (I usually cite
ConocoPhillips at this juncture, but we all have multiple silos we
could name, especially if we've been doing FOSS for long time).

I'm also continuing to have high hopes for PDF as a standard textbook
delivery format, have the Sandes book in that, or did on my Jackalope
SATA HD (in a dead carcass at the moment, still salvageable, along
with Litvins digital math tome (Pythonic)).  PDF has under-exploited
features as Alan Potkin well knows -- I passed a demo of his off to
that GIS boss at GIS in Action 2009 in Washington State, where I had a
packed room eager to learn Pythonic lore (unlike at OS Bridge, where
the recession-minded saw little future in "high school math teaching"
(and who can blame 'em, the unions have that track pretty well sewed
up at the moment, are sitting pretty behind a firewall, comfortably
protected against geeks (except in the rag-tag newer charters, elite
academies, and international schools, where we're making lots of
inroads)).

In general we're looking for more TV shots of happy campers waving
their MIT XOs, as that's probably the only positive PR the USA is
getting in most corners, yet the teletubbies in charge of the airwaves
(not VOA, illegal to face inward) have done a miserable job with OLPC,
applying their stupid know-nothing cynicism, not getting this was a
last opportunity for that much vaunted "generosity" to show itself
(but what we heard was a lotta whining, cuz you couldn't just G1 at
Circuit City (now gone)).  How many more companies will shut down
and/or get snarfed up by the competition I wonder (I hear the Russians
control Exxon, not sure I believe it, although it's true Anheuser Bush
has reverted to European).

http://www.anheuser-busch.com/
http://www.cleveland.com/wine/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1245832450148710.xml&coll=2

Kirby


** Vancouver BC is laying claims to the latter, doing the Munich thing
of switching to FOSS as a municipality, which doesn't mean "no
Microsoft" (given Codeplex etc.), however PDX doesn't cede its crown
so easily, given we're doing so much with the new curriculum (gnu
curriculum), including hosting a G1G1 last year.

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 1:29 AM, Edward Cherlin<echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have to write up some lessons on how to start programming in Python
> in the Sugar version of Turtle Art, where there are two programmable
> tiles. One accepts a Python expression, and the other reads in a
> Python file.
>
> The easiest Hello, World program in Turtle Art uses the Print tile.
> Just type in the text you want the Turtle to display. We can introduce
> more complex tile-based programming techniques, and then show how each
> can be done in Python by using the programmable tiles, and by
> examining the quite modular Turtle Art source code in Python. Then we
> can show students how to create their own tiles, and move up gradually
> to creating a new Sugar Activity.
>
> I intend to teach Python as Computer Science, not simply as program
> syntax and features. Making the CS topics accessible to students at
> just the right level, without driving any of them away, will be one of
> the hardest parts to get right. Ordering topics according to both
> meaning and dependencies on other topics will also take a lot of work.
>
> Also a lot of fun.
>
> I have spent the last few week experimenting with the latest version
> of Sugar on a Stick (Sugar set up for installation on a bootable USB
> flash drive) and also writing a book for FLOSS Manuals on Open
> Translation Tools. So I have lots more to tell you, but no way to say
> when I can do it yet.
>
> On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 6:38 AM, csev<csev at umich.edu> wrote:
>> Warren and Carter - congratulations on your book. ?I just reviewed it in my
>> blog and twittered about it.
>>
>> Here is the text from my blog post - (feel free to correct me )
>>
>> Chuck Severance
>> www.dr-chuck.com
>>
>> I am an advocate for using Python as a first language and for using
>> programming as a tool to explore abstract concepts and technology literacy
>> (Informatics) starting in elementary and middle school. Here is a book
>> written for kids using Python that looks like it can support making Python
>> accessible to younger learners.
>>
>> Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners
>>
>> The book is written by the father and son pair of Warren D. Sande and Carter
>> Sande.
>>
>> Here is an interview with the author and his son on Canadian Television with
>> the authors:
>>
>> http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip186877
>>
>> Here is the web site for the book including several sample chapters:
>>
>> http://www.manning.com/sande/
>>
>> This is very cool and I will buy the book and then review it in more detail.
>>
>> On first glance looking at the sample chapters and table of contents, it
>> looks well siuted for K-12 applications since has many short chapters, gets
>> into graphics quickly using its own GUI (easygui), and is careful to have
>> lots of additional explanation in areas that readers might have questions.
>> Of course since Carter Sande is still in K12 it is very natural to have it
>> structured properly for K12.
>>
>> Perhaps after they get done with Warren and Carter's book - the students
>> will want to web programming on Google App Engine! And of course there is a
>> book for that - Using Google App Engine.
>>
>> This all moves us further down the path of technology literacy based on
>> foundations of open source technology and transforming K-20 education to
>> include technology literacy at the right places.
>>
>> Congratulations to Warren and Carter!
>> _______________________________________________
>> Edu-sig mailing list
>> Edu-sig at python.org
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Silent Thunder (??/???????????????/????????????? ?) is my name
> And Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
> http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>

From andre.roberge at gmail.com  Mon Jun 22 21:18:09 2009
From: andre.roberge at gmail.com (Andre Roberge)
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:18:09 -0000
Subject: [Edu-sig] Crunchy and Sphinx?
In-Reply-To: <37fa1dfb0906221153x80fc8cpb8a4f270d7a4aa31@mail.gmail.com>
References: <37fa1dfb0906221153x80fc8cpb8a4f270d7a4aa31@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <7528bcdd0906221218l69de7c38o48c6314974fdeeab@mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Jeff Elkner<jeff at elkner.net> wrote:
> Hi Andr?!? I've spent the last month converting python educational materials
> from lore to sphinx.
>
> For the results, see:
>
> http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e
>
> and
>
> http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/gasp/course
>

This looks great!


> The only missing feature at this point (sphinx rocks!) is support for
> crunchy.? Any thoughts on that? I didn't see any reference to
> reStructuredText or Sphinx on the crunchy site.

Crunchy can read either reStructuredText files (and transform them in
html files) or html files directly.

If you launch Crunchy, you can see it in action with the menu item:
Advanced Topic -> reStructuredText

Crunchy recognizes a few additional "rst directives".  For example,
some cut-and-paste text from taken directly from that file:
"""
We start by showing two simple Python code samples,
with no special directives,
one with a simulated interactive Python session,
the other without, so that Crunchy will perform
its magic based on your preferences.

    >>> print "Python is great!"
    Python is great!

And for the other example without a Python prompt, that
Crunchy will not know what to do with.

    print "Crunchy is pretty good too!"

We now move on to using embedded directives.

Interpreters
============

The following is an example of a borg interpreter.
If you type the above text into the box, you will see
that "answer" can be defined and then printed

.. interpreter:: interpreter
   :linenumber:

   >>> answer = 42
   >>> print answer
   42
"""

If all you're using are interpreter prompts, then the Crunchy default
should work just fine, with no additional directives.

I just loaded the page
http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/gasp/course/1-intro.html,
setting this site to "trusted" (from the security item on the Crunchy
menu at the top), reloaded the page, and everything worked just fine!

It looks better if you de-select the "popups" from the preferences.

I've attached a "screen capture image" so that anyone interested can
compare with the original.  Note that the "style" (css) is the Crunchy
default which is different from that on the original website.

Cheers,
Andr?



>
> Thanks!
>
> jeff elkenr
>
>
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