dont laugh

[Jason Cunliffe]

Thanks for Smalltalk Link, I will look into it..

Well I agree yes *perhaps a video is not the best final distribution medium,
perhaps it is.. depends on your audience/user. I do not believe one can say
at this stage.. Focus first on what is the concept, audience, structure of
material.. then address the best media to apply.

Ideally one wants to balance between real-life: people talking, showing and
doing  _with_ structured tutorial,interactive etc.. For me an excellent way
to start would be to shoot  over the shoulder video interviews with python
masters. Review what they do, how they do it, some people are better live
presenters/teachers while other may be better non-live
programmers/designers..

Shockwave Director or Flash would be ideal for mixing the two because they
allow very easy to focus multi-media. you can zoom in and highlight text
examples, overlay audio, create object oriented tree structures etc.. You
can also launch and link to external applications. Director has a starter
Xtra which will allow one to connect to the Python interpreter.
Unfortunately it does not yet pass python objects..but it is still  a
wonderful thing. Written by Steve Spicklemire steve at spvi.com and released as
openSource.

Perhaps with a little more work one would have the basis of a formidable
Python tutorial platform. I can't say. Even without any extensions on might
create very satisfactory linking between Shockwave[Director/Flash] and
hands-on Python stuff. For Director there are a number of Xtras which allow
firm control over the operating system, tasks, windows etc. This would allow
one to really run a structured environment and maintain flow connectivity
between the components. Essential is you don't want to lose people
[beginners].

Another approach on Win32 might be to make an suitable ActiveX component to
talk to Python if such does not already exist. Director can embed ActiveX
very nicely. one of he main advantages then would be better multimedia
control and filtering of type size, style, placement, voiceover, rhythm...

On the other hand Video really works when it is good. A lot of what mars
many training video are basic film making mistakes:
- lousy sound
- poor focus
- crappy lighting [ hideous shadows, unhealthy color]
- dumb camera angles
- lack of relevant close-ups and cut-aways
- inappropriate edits

..in fact the same list of culprits which make public access TV a dog and
video-conferencing a washout..

Why video IS great = easy installation + high bandwidth + people + rhythm +
attention..
[ it is story telling and you have much better chance to communicate than
interactive hyper-linked paradigms which often takes one away from the
thread..]
These days once can embed DV into so many apps that it seems a pity not to
take best advantage of real teachers. Plus video, often is a means/process
to capture the whole experience as it happens [documentary]. On is not
obliged to keep it in this form. For example he sound is often much more
important than the constant image.. and vice versa. imho, CBT is typically
too silent or full of inane muzak sound effects..

I just finished watching ome video of a conference I could not attend last
spring. In one hour the tape gave me an excellent sense of what it was all
about, and was only marred by terrible sound when showing screen demos and
poor visual detail of demos also. However even with that, programmers
navigating around their source files, showing evolution of projects,
versions, tricks, techniques is invaluable and very helpful.

My Question in part is how best to convey Python mindset and technique to
beginners?

Meanwhile I just learned from Edu-sig at python.org that Yorktown High School
are developing a series of Python videos!
http://yhspatriot.yorktown.arlington.k12.va.us/

--
regards
- Jason
________________________________________________________________
Jason CUNLIFFE = NOMADICS.(Interactive Art and Technology).Design Director

Cees de Groot <cg at gaia.cdg.acriter.nl> wrote in message
news:8omadr$o8i$1 at gaia.cdg.acriter.nl...
> Jason Cunliffe <jasonic at nomadicsltd.com> said:
> >I am not only laughing, but crying too - at you folks for not
appreciating
> >what a good question this really is!
> >
> A video is probably not the best medium. For inspiration, Cincom has
> released a goodie for VisualWorks Smalltalk this week: a lesson browser
> with a bunch of entry-level Smalltalk lessons. No funky graphics, but a
> reasonably thorough introduction to VW and to Smalltalk, good enough to
> get someone going. I've got a bit of an RSI problem this week so I won't
> dive into the details - you need to download VW and the lesson browser
> if you want to dig up a bit of inspiration. Certainly would be a good
> addition to a Python environment like IDLE.
> --
> Cees de Groot               http://www.cdegroot.com     <cg at cdegroot.com>
> GnuPG 1024D/E0989E8B 0016 F679 F38D 5946 4ECD  1986 F303 937F E098 9E8B
> Forge your CipherSaber and list it: http://www.xs4all.nl/~cg/ciphersaber/