[Edu-sig] "Computer Science For Kids" Book Announcement

[Chris Brooks]

Andre,

Thanks for your efforts putting this together.  As the text stands
right now I'd have a hard time recommending it over CS Unplugged
(http://csunplugged.org/).  You are covering very advanced concepts at
times on a single page, and in some cases I would question the value
of learning that concept in an intro text (threads, network ports,
dictionary data structure).  You use exception notation at times
(try/except) that I think would confuse a beginner audience (why not
just build on the if/then concept?).

Most of the teachers I know that would be candidates for this
(elementary / middle school) would have a hard time teaching from the
text and would need quite a bit of supplemental information to
understand the concept being taught.  I would study the level of
detail you see in the (free, creative commons) CS Unplugged modules to
get a sense for how much needs to be explained to get even basic
concepts across.

Thanks for asking,

Chris Brooks