[Edu-sig] RE: [Tutor] a couple of ideas I've been bouncing around

[Kevin & Masako Ollivier]

Hi Patrick and Rob,

I also like both of your ideas! (BTW, thanks Patrick for sharing this with
the edu-sig list! I had not realized there was also a Tutor list!)

Building on the ideas you presented, what about an software tool (possibly
an "enhanced" version of IDLE?) that gives learners a set of successively
harder programming tasks? At any point, the learner can jump to a virtual
"help center" and view tutorials, the Python references, FAQs/trivia, or
even be given a way to ask a question on the lists. As the learner
successfully complete the tasks given to them, the software will keep a
record and let them know how far they are towards "mastery." (Of course,
true mastery comes only with experience, but it's a start!) I think it has
elements of everything discussed thus far, trivia, tutor, and testing. While
I'm not sure how we could "officially" certify people who complete the
training, we can at least give them a list of all the skills they've
gathered over the course of the training, along with when they were last
assessed.

I think making "real-world tasks" would help increase motivation and give
them examples of what Python is typically used for. The more real it seems,
the more it will be part-game and part-edusoft I think. If we did it well
enough, it could even lead to a finished software product, which is at least
as good as a certificate IMHO!

What do you all think?

Kevin Ollivier

--------------------------------------------
Reply-To: <pobrien@orbtech.com>
From: "Patrick K. O'Brien" <pobrien@orbtech.com>
To: <tutor@python.org>
Cc: "Python Edu SIG" <Edu-sig@python.org>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 10:42:06 -0500
Subject: [Edu-sig] RE: [Tutor] a couple of ideas I've been bouncing around

I like both of these ideas. Maybe there is a way to combine them. Perhaps
the only difference is the Trivial Pursuit version gives the answer and the
Certification version withholds the answer. The pyDoc module shows what you
can do to make the python interpreter even more interactive in terms of
presenting a lot of text and responding to requests for information. Perhaps
we could piggyback that module and create an interactive
trivia/tutor/testing/certification module. I bet the Edu Sig folks might be
interested in this as well.

---
Patrick K. O'Brien
Orbtech
"I am, therefore I think."

-----Original Message-----
From: tutor-admin@python.org [mailto:tutor-admin@python.org]On Behalf Of Rob
Andrews
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 9:58 AM
To: tutor@python.org
Subject: [Tutor] a couple of ideas I've been bouncing around

In my ongoing quest for novel (twisted?) ways to add even more color to the
Python universe, I've come up with a few more ideas. I picked up Trivial
Pursuit Genus 5 the other day and thought it would be interesting to produce
a Python module for it, essentially a collection of questions and answers
about Python, broken down by general category (e.g., "Python Mythology",
"Data Structures", "Python History", etc.) using a color scheme compatible
with the one Trivial Pursuit uses. This could be printed up on some nice
card stock and actually used with the boxed game set.

The second idea is an actual test. Brainbench (http://www.brainbench.com)
offers a $19.95 certification in Python 1.5. With all the keen, experienced
minds and nearly inexhaustible number of questions archived on this list, we
should be able to come up with a nice test that generates a brief,
meaningful report on how one performed on it. """You were strong enough to
tutor another person in the areas of "strings" and "exception handling". You
seemed competent in "flow control" and "sockets". You should study more on
"OOP" and "embedding". You answered 87% correctly, soundly passing Python
Tutor Certification."""

I think anything we do along these general lines would help provide another
great learning tool and a healthy bit of fun all around.

Rob

"Perl is worse than Python because people wanted it worse." Larry Wall
(Creator of Perl), 14 Oct 1998
Useless Python: http://www.lowerstandard.com/python/


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