[Edu-sig] (no subject)

[kirby urner]

Hi Dan --

You ask a lot of good questions.

I don't think it's required that you know Python cold (i.e. really
well) before sharing it with your daughter or others.  They see you're
tackling something and getting better at it bit by bit, like sailing,
playing the guitar, and that's inspiring.

If she passes you in proficiency and starts showing you stuff, that
would be fine too right?

[ Have you shown her Vi Hart's work?  She's a daughter of a computer
geek turned artist.  My daughter, 18, is a fan.]

http://youtu.be/heKK95DAKms

Thanks for those links by the way.  I delivered one of those talks,
but hadn't until tonight heard the panel moderated by Zac Miller,
dunno why.

There's lots going on, cross-currents.  I don't think you can go wrong
investing more time in Python.  Your daughter may or make not take to
it (sometimes they just circle).  If she just watches over your
shoulder sometimes, as you tackle something you're working on...

My foray into teaching high school right out of college, even with
considerable computer training (not a computer science major though,
liberal arts here) felt like one of those science fiction disaster
films where all the cars are coming the other way on the freeway, and
you're alone heading into Boston or whatever.

The teachers were all leaving that career, feeling burned out, and
knew if they could get more computer skills, they could probably get a
higher paying position outside of teaching.  People with computer
skills were not flooding in to help with math teaching.  They had
their sites set elsewhere.

I later worked at McGraw-Hill and looked at textbook publishing from
that angle.  Lets just say there's lots of inertia in this picture,
and that teachers aren't usually revolutionaries (only sometimes).

This was 1981 (I was class of 1980).

I ended up in a small exclusive Catholic academy for young women (a
high school) for a couple years.  My contemporaries, with similar
training, would soon be making six times my income, but I was young
and carefree and already privileged, so I was willing to live poor.

I'm now listening to Maria Litvin in the background.  Her book,
written with her partner Gary (a poster to this list) is worth
ordering if you don't have it yet:  Mathematics for the Digital Age
and Programming in Python (Skylit Publishing).

http://www.skylit.com/mathandpython.html

OK, now Jeff is starting talking.  I've met him in person several
times, fun guy, a pioneer in this area.

"Is that Jeff Elkner?" Steve just asked, recognizing the voice on my
laptop.  That's Steve Holden, former chairman of Python Software
Foundation.

I'm over at his apartment on Superbowl Sunday -- the power's out in
the stadium.  I missed the first half of the game, watching Tosca (the
opera) downtown (a windfall free ticket).

Your idea to do fractions, to build them from the inside out, is a
good idea.  You could start with Guido's record-simple GCD function,
for Euclid's Algorithm, then gradually build out with __add__, __mul__
etc. using these inside a class (you can call out to them).

def gcd(a, b):
    while b:
        a, b = b, a % b
    return a

def lcm(a, b):
    return ( a * b ) // gcd(a, b)

The thing about Euclid's Algorithm is it's barely taught at all in
high schools, and if you ask why, then you've again jumped into a
rather deep discussion, deeper than just computers.

The Litvins books starts to build a Fraction but mostly eschews
defining classes.

A "classes early" approach is also doable -- many different approaches
to this airport, pick your vector.

I show how a class looks something like a snake:

class Head:
    # rib cage
    def __rib__(self):
        pass  # air between ribs
    def __rib__(self):
        pass
    def __rib__(self):
        pass
    def __rib__(self):
        pass
    def __rib__(self):
        pass

... and in general use a lot of biological metaphors / analogies.


Kirby

Web resources:

http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/numeracy0.html
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html