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<p class="MsoNormal">Python is a very nice first language, and very powerful too. I have been trialling
<a href="http://www.programarcadegames.com/">http://www.programarcadegames.com/</a> (an American college course) with a year 10 class. They like it and they get it. We’ve looked at codeacademy.com and a few others over the past couple of years and while they
are often very slick we’ve been unimpressed by either their pedagogy or suitability for secondary students.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This site presents a self-paced chapter by chapter program. Each chapter is supported by videos on Youtube and consists of a teaching block where students would do some copy and paste into IDLE, a set of multiple choice questions to test
understanding, a theory worksheet to reinforce, and finally a lab to apply. The labs are well structured and the students are guided through the structure and logic of a program without being able to copy and paste. I find it incorporates well into a classroom
where I can sit with individual kids and steer them in a useful direction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lesson one treats IPO by building little specialist calculators, and by lesson 4 the kids are writing a text based adventure game (based on an old BASIC game “Camel”). If a student perseveres (and they probably will because it’s fun) they
will have produced their own animated game, having explored arrays, iteration and classes along the way.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With WingIDE or Pycharm it’s a great combination.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> sofdev-bounces@edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces@edulists.com.au]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Carlos Santander<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, 26 November 2014 12:50 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> sofdev@edulists.com.au<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Year 12 SofDev] Programming Languages?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Hi everyone,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This will be my first year teaching SD, just wanted to know what programming languages everybody uses throughout the year?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I’m thinking that it might be good to use the Term break to set online tutorials for various programming languages or is best to focus on one?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Thanks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><img border="0" width="576" height="168" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.gif@01D0097C.60FD1DA0" alt="CSANTANDER"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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