Re: [tlug] Making programming easier... or something like that

[nigel barker <nigel@example.com>]

On 27 October 2012 20:45, Attila Kinali <attila@example.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:01:31 +0900
> nigel barker <nigel@example.com> wrote:
>
>> Beginners of any aptitude are easily motivated by something visual,
>> even just easygui.py. I might even say they are de-motivated by
>> anything not visual. I think this is a sign of the times, because
>> "thrivers" used to love learning pascal many years ago.
>
> This sounds interesting. How many years have you been teaching?
> What did your early classes look like? How do you teach now?
> What made pascal better than other programming languages in your opinion?
> Why doesn't this hold true these days? What makes javascript more
> difficult than python?
>

I first taught Basic and Pascal in the 80s. I don't remember many
details now, but I do recall scouring print-outs looking for missing
semi-colons! I'm not saying Pascal was easier to teach or learn,
though it was of course better structured than Basic. In those days
programming was all text and no graphics.
There then followed a gap of many years (because I am really a
chemistry teacher). In recent years I have introduced Logo, Kturtle,
GvR, Scheme (using Dr. Scheme - mentioned elsewhere in the thread),
Python, Scratch and Javascript. Kids of all abilities are happy to get
started in anything graphical, but once programming concepts are
introduced (and I just mean branching and looping), then many of them
start to experience difficulty. Kids like Python because it is less
arcane and easier to remember than Javascript. Its also easier to read
sample code. I use Dr. Python with easygui, compared with the built-in
Javascript editor in Iceweasel.
Attempts to introduce programming via kwrite or bluefish and run in
konsole have not worked at all. Kids are not motivated by the
problem-solving logic alone like they used to be, it seems. Of course
this is a sweeping statement, and may even be based on faulty
reminiscence of the past.

How I teach now is by demo on the projector (something I could never
do before of course), followed by sample code and exercises to work
through. After about a dozen lessons, some kind of independent project
follows.

cheers
nigel