[Pythonedu-wg] How can you help Python in education today?

[Chris Roffey]

Dear Carrie Anne and Amit

I too have been concerned about the Python documentation being too difficult for students to understand.

To be easy to teach, navigate and to link to in IDEs, the documentation requires a clear and logical structure.

To be easily understandable and accessible to youngsters, the language in the documentation needs to be concise and clear and with a consistent style. This means, in my mind, that although it can be a community endeavour, it needs an agreed structure first and a good copy-editor at the end.

To see what this would involve I have had a go and discovered it will be a big job. Well worth sharing!
I have experimented with a straight html structure but I have no idea if this is the best way of doing this to make it easy to incorporate in IDEs. I suspect XML would be better.

I have produced a nested index system with plain english descriptions provided all the way through but ending in a single page with a logical name that could be used in IDEs. So, for example, the random.choice() function has its own page with the same headings as other functions and is accessed by navigating through built-in modules then random (which has its own description) then then clicking on the choice() link which has its own description.

I have not explored classes and their corresponding methods provided by modules built this way because I think it is pretty easy to see how these can follow the same system.

Anyway, have a look and see what you think: http://codingclub.co.uk/EdDoc/ <http://codingclub.co.uk/EdDoc/>
(I have used an obvious link style so you can clearly see where I have provided examples. This is not a comprehensive Documentation set!!)

Best wishes
Chris

> On 13 Jul 2016, at 07:32, Carrie Anne Philbin <carrieanne at raspberrypi.org> wrote:
> 
> This is a great blog by a teacher in Bath who I believe is on this mailing list. I'm sure she can give you a list, but to start with here is the post <https://codeboom.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/scratch-is-the-new-powerpoint/> I was referring to. 
> 
> I hope some teachers will read this and add their requests for good documentation so your offer of help gets snapped up! As Nicholas mentioned, a Python in education website is being formulated. We will need good documentation for it. More details to come!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Carrie Anne.
> 
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 5:12 AM, Amit Saha <amitsaha.in at gmail.com <mailto:amitsaha.in at gmail.com>> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 3:52 AM, Carrie Anne Philbin
> <carrieanne at raspberrypi.org <mailto:carrieanne at raspberrypi.org>> wrote:
> > I've been distracted lately by all of the work that the micro-python group
> > have been doing to support the BBC micro:bit. Work that continues and needs
> > your support.
> >
> > 1. Work is continuing on Mu the learner focused Python IDE. The team would
> > really appreciate your thoughts and feedback, especially if you work with
> > young people or those new to Python. You can do so here, on another thread
> > or on the Microbit-Python mailing list.
> >
> > 2. Support for teachers/learners. If you need support learning python or
> > teaching with python then why not start a thread here? A wonderful Python
> > community person will help you out. This is a really quick and simply way
> > that members can get involved. They want to help you!
> >
> > 3. Lesson plans, tutorials/resources. Have you written any that you want to
> > share with others? Then share them here with a new thread. Spread the love!
> >
> > 4. Documentation. Recently CodeBoom wrote a really good blog post about the
> > lack of good documentation for python modules that are used in education.
> > Could educators on this list, collate their most used modules that need
> > documenting for those wanting to get started with them. Could others help
> > with this?
> 
> I would be keen to help with the documentation. Can you please point
> to the post you are referring to?
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > 5. Education bundle. Dan Pope started a thread sharing his progress on this.
> > Can you provide feedback, ideas, suggestions, a pat on the back, testing
> > opportunities in the future?
> 
> I am looking forward to help with the edu bundle too.
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > The moral here is do not let this WG die! Everyone always asks me "how can I
> > get involved?" Educators share your success, failures and frustrations.
> > Community members share your ideas, solutions and good-will.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Carrie Anne.
> >
> > --
> > Director of Education
> > Raspberry Pi Foundation
> > UK Charity No. 1129409
> >
> > www.raspberrypi.org <http://www.raspberrypi.org/> | www.codeclub.org.uk <http://www.codeclub.org.uk/>
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> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
> 
> --
> http://echorand.me <http://echorand.me/>
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Director of Education
> Raspberry Pi Foundation
> UK Charity No. 1129409
> 
> www.raspberrypi.org <http://www.raspberrypi.org/> | www.codeclub.org.uk <http://www.codeclub.org.uk/>
> @ <http://twitter.com/missphilbin> | in <https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carrie-anne-philbin-a20649b7> | ▷ <https://www.youtube.com/user/GeekGurlDiaries>
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