[Edu-sig] Welcoming newcomers

[kirby urner]

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 9:59 AM, <Jeannine.Coutts at use.salvationarmy.org>
wrote:

> I am also new to this community. I am interested in learning how to
> implement Python coding into lessons for elementary students.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ms. Jeannine S. Coutts
> Education Technology Specialist
>

Hi Jeannine, welcome to edu-sig.  I'm one of the two listowners currently,
Naomi Ceder the other, though for decades on edu-sig that wasn't true i.e.
I'm relatively new in that capacity.

We've been fortunate over the years to have done a lot of brainstorming,
all archived, but then the vista keeps changing so it's not like there's a
point where everything we could say has been said. :-D

I used to be a high school math teacher long ago and more recently have
worked with junior high aged.

Only in the last few months have I had much first hand experience in a
classroom populated with 1st graders tackling Scratch, or 5th graders
tackling Codesters.

My sense of what's realistic and possible is still developing.  I'm almost
60 years old myself, lots of white hair.

What we find at the company I work for is that Chromebooks are adequate for
getting into the cloud via WiFi, where a host of on-line tools makes coding
accessible even to the very young.

However when you have to hunt for every keyboard key, and fight mightily
with a track pad, just to slide some blob around, you're hardly ready to do
much typing.

Codesters.com offers a drag and drop approach to Python programming, free
of charge, however it's built to imitate MIT Scratch, with which it helps
to be familiar with first.

Before Scratch, you have games like at Code.org, which help develop the
finer motor skills.

Example:

https://studio.code.org/hoc/1
(may trigger a promotional video, PR for Learning to Code, then it takes
you to an exercise I'm actually seeing used with 1st graders here in
Portland, along with MIT Scratch).

I'm about to dive into Codesters myself to see if I can get a tic-tac-toe
thing going in the canvas, rather than console-based, which is already
provided.

Here on this list, Andre has developed Reeborg's World:
http://reeborg.ca/index_en.html

Also, we've enjoyed the presence of Gregor Lingl who maintains the turtle
module.

Right out of the box, Python comes with turtle graphics, if you have IDLE
installed.

https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html

Older debates on this listserv have been about whether kids that young
shouldn't be out developing gross motor skills first, like is so much
screen time really ideal?  However not all kids are alike in their
interests and for those really eager to dive in, its great to have some
options.

Another resource I enjoy:  repl.it

Just last night I was working on this one:
https://repl.it/H7VF/11  (a window pops up asking you to sign up, but you
don't have to)

There's a ton of stuff out there!  More every day it seems.

Kirby

PS:

Here's a talk I'm lining up to give at the Linus Pauling House next
Tuesday, a meet-up place in my neighborhood (Portland claims to Linus's or
Lini, both Torvalds and Pauling, the latter a 2x Nobel Prize winner,
unshared, for both chemistry and peace, though he credited his wife Ava
Helen for a lot of his courage in doing peace work).


*What Does the Future Bode, in Terms of Learning to Code?*

The "code school" business is still shaping up in
a rough and tumble world, full of uncertainties.

*O'Reilly Media* finally threw in the towel, closing
its fledgling *School of Technology*.  So then what
happened to Wanderer Kirby Urner, one of the
school's full time Python mentors (souvenir biz
cards will be available)?

He's branched out into mentoring much younger
folk, in addition to sometimes hosting a night gig
for professional adults, off and on (a forty hour
ordeal). He did a Python for Wanderers a few
years ago, Allen Taylor attending.

*Coding with Kids* is the new company, based in
Redmond, so you might be thinking Windows,
but we use Chromebooks on resources in the
cloud, what Kirby plans to project.  After school,
in schools (both public and private).

Given Kirby's unique perspective from the front
lines, along with years spent developing curriculum
for his Oregon Curriculum Network [1], we should
get some interesting discussion going, starting
with a 20 minute show and tell (projected) featuring
some of the latest tools now in use in education.

*Presenter's bio*:

Kirby is a former full time math teach (St. Dom's
in Jersey City), text book editor, political activist
etc., an early childhood denizen of Portland with
an upbringing overseas (Rome, Manila) and a
degree from Princeton (philosophy a focus). He
returned to Portland in his later twenties to met
his late wife Dawn Wicca and raise a family.
(ISEPP was one of Dawn's bookkeeping clients
back in the 1990s). Kirby specialized in writing
programs for nonprofits and for medical research.

Full resume:  http://grunch.net/kirby-urner

Want to optionally do some homework ahead of time?
Read these to bone up on the presenter's views:

*On Medium*:

https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/is-code-school-the-
new-high-school-30a8874170b
https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/the-plight-of-high-school-math-teachers-
c0faf0a6efe6

*Ongoing Debate @ Math Forum*:
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2852324

[1] Oregon Curriculum Network
http://4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html
http://4dsolutions.net/ocn/
http://wikieducator.org/Digital_Math
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20170429/b137df29/attachment.html>