[Pythonedu-wg] Python Education Bundle

[stewart at penguintutor.com]

> Common feedback from people trying to use Python in education is that 
> it can be difficult and confusing to get a system that includes all the 
> dependencies they require.

Not many people have contributed to this discussion although argubly I 
think this is just as, if not more important than the editor discussion.

Working on my own projects is fairly straight forward as I usually 
develop on Linux (which is much easier platform for Python development 
than say Windows), my computer is not restricted in anyway and I always 
have an internet connection (at least during the development and setup). 
However when I have worked with schools then it's not been possible to 
install additional packages as the machines are locked down, or because 
they are not allowed to connect to the network. So I think this is an 
important step forward in making it easier to learn programming in 
Python.

I have found on some of my own projects I have had to list a large 
number of steps required in installing the pre-requisites that an 
educational bundle will help with.

I think it's good to start with the requirements rather than solutions. 
 From the "must have" list, and my understanding, I was expecting just a 
list of modules that could be pre-built and easy installed, but the 
highly desired list goes beyond that.  I think there could be a real 
benefit with those addditional features, although I'm not sure how 
easily they can be implemented on computers that are "locked down". One 
thing I do think we need to consider is how updates to the education 
bundle can be managed as no doubt there will be additional modules that 
need to be added in future such as when the next super-dooper Raspberry 
Pi hat comes out :-)

I think it's worth highlighting some of the issues / difficulties on the 
different platforms, I've listed some of my experiences below.


**Windows**

It is harder to install python moduels (and software in general) on 
Windows as it may be neccessary to install using different sources (eg. 
binary install files as well as PIP). I think the biggest problem with 
Windows is likely to be that they are locked down to prevent software 
from being installed (including locking out the teachers in some cases). 
I think that having a single installable package which includes the most 
popular modules that are used in education would make it easier to give 
that as a single install step that can be applied to existing Windows 
systems. It could then be presented to the adminstrator as a single 
install client that can be pushed out on the system.

**Linux (excluding Raspberry Pi)**

Although (excluding the Raspberry Pi) Linux is used less in schools than 
the other platforms I think it's still useful to at least look at how 
the education bundle can be implemented on Linux. I think this could be 
useful for colleges and schools looking to re-use some older machines. I 
think we are likely to see this considered more in future as teachers 
become more adept with Linux based on experience with the Raspberry Pi.
The current PIP system is designed to make it easier to install 
software, but it's not quite as straight forward as it should be. It can 
be an issue where a computer is locked down to prevent additional 
software being installed and support for all packages isn't as easy as 
it could be. For example to install pygame for Python 3 on Ubuntu 
requires compiling the package and if using PyUSB (to control a USB 
device) then that includes dependencies upon Libusb and the package 
needs to be manually downloaded and installed using setup.py.

**Raspbian on Raspberry Pi**

Raspbian is already further ahead than some other Linux distributions 
with inclusion of pygame for Python 3, although it still has difficulty 
with some other packages (such as PyUSB). In some schools the Raspberry 
Pis are all being used off-network (due to school policy), so I think it 
would be good to get additional packages installed in the NOOBS image so 
they are available by default.

**Mac OSX**

Unfortunately I don't have any experience with Mac to be able to comment 
on the particular issues, although I expect it will not be too different 
from the other platforms in terms of issues.




--
Stewart Watkiss
@stewartwatkiss @penguintutor
http://www.penguintutor.com