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Re: [PLUG] Educational Languages
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In the message dated: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:34:11 EDT,
The pithy ruminations from "paul shelton" on
<Re: [PLUG] Educational Languages> were:
=> Even after you decide on a language, you will have to select an
=> appropriate text or learning material for the students. The Open Book
Excellent point.
=> Project provides a text "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist". The
=> Python version was written by a teacher for students who are new to
=> programming. It may work nicely for both the audience and
=> instructor(s).
Oh, I wish I had that when I thrown into teaching "C".
=>
=> http://ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCS/python.php
=> http://ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCS/python/english2e/html/index.html
However, the original post from Matthew Rosewarne <mukidohime@case.edu>
was:
==> Can anyone recommend a good programming language for teaching beginners?
==> Currently my old school uses Pascal, but that's so unpopular that not many
==> bindings exist for it, limiting what students can do with it. Is there any
==> other language I might suggest they replace Pascal with that would be a
==> decent substitute?
It's all well and good for us to recommend various languages, and Paul's
suggestion above seems to be right on track in terms of going from a language
preference to actually teaching.
There's no information about what grade levels are involved here...and I'd give
very different recommendations for beginning programming in 7th grade vrs. 10th
grade vrs as a first-year college student.
My opinion is that learning programming is about learning paradigms, structured
ways of problem solving, and a new way of thinking, much more than learning the
syntax of specific languages.
I think that the best language for teaching beginners is one that the teacher
knows well and can express. It doesn't sound to me from the original post that
Matthew will be teaching himself. Perhaps he could help the students best by
supporting the existing teacher[s]--even mentoring them in learning a new
language.
Mark "much more appreciative of the difficulty in teaching programming after
having done it" Bergman
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