NECC 2007- CP4E - Computer Programming for Everybody

June 25, 2007- 11:00 Session- CP4E - Computer Programming for Everybody

Teaching Programming using Open Source computers and the free Python language.
I'm live blogging so please be kind.

This session is taking place in the open source lab. The 30 laptops here are 800 mhz P3 computers with no hard drives. They are thin clients to a $500 server. The computers seem very responsive. Impressive.

The instructor, Vern Ceder, believes that all students should learn programming techniques.
"Our workplaces and play spaces are often supported or depend upon software. Wouldn't it be great if we understood how it works?" Nice.

We were taken through a brief history of programming in US schools including Pascal, C, and others. The time allotted to programming was rapidly declining. Java wasn't really considered seriously, Ruby and Squeak were not quite a fit. Python seemed to be a perfect fit at first glance and after further investigation. The curriculum was re-written almost immediately.

A significant amount of time was dedicated to why Python is a good fit for schools.
Python is:
Free (as in speech (GPL)
Beautiful (depends upon indentation as part of syntax)
Readable
... worthless without engagement.

Some hands on:

• We launched a program called IDLE and were presented with a "shell".
• print "Hello World"
• 4*5 presents 20
• x =4, y = x*x, print y results in 16

The instructor was clear that boring tasks like these are presented quickly for awareness and are not used repeatedly like traditional programming course techniques.

Instructor ran through some turtle graphics techniques repeating code, turn 90 degrees, etc.
A "For loop" is used to repeat the process.

The house example asks students to use the "turtle" to draw a house using the learned commands. No hands on directions are being provided. It was my hope that we would get to try a few techniques. A little disappointed.

Instructor presented some examples of how students took a personal interest and extended their projects. Not what I expected but interesting nonetheless.

The instructor certainly was knowledgeable about Python and the Python open source project.
Go to the schools web page for additional information on Python.
Contact Vern Ceder
vceder [at] canterburyschool [dot] org

Tags: n07s600, NECC07, NECC2007