[Yr7-10it] Re : .. Programming for all levels

[Peter Ruwoldt]

Copied other programs for a while.
Tried making some minor changes and as time went on bigger changes.
Mates help.
Then started to try to be creative from scratch.
Looked out for potential problems to solve.
Started teaching others - that's when the learning curve really started to
happen.
Peter


On 17/09/2007, Costello, Rob R <Costello.Rob.R at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>
>
>
> Following all these programming discussions with interest
>
> Here's a thought for you...
>
> How did you all learn programming?
>
> What role did formal school have, if any?
>
> How much personal time?
>
> I remember reading something David Perkins said - that in his
> observations - circa 1985 - none of the budding student programmers he
> observed had arrived at any competence without a huge personal
> investment of time
>
> I've gone into bat for Logo in school at times - along the lines of
> thinking "where is the DNA for a programming mindset for students,
> unless we offer something parallel to the BASIC language I learnt".
>
> But maybe its the lack of a "BASIC" that is the real problem - a generic
> (and fairly common) "Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code" on
> most computers  - and I guess that's whats under discussion in all these
> discussions - whats the best "BASIC" these days.
> Maybe we just need to put a few good tools in their hands and start them
> off - Alice, Scratch, Gamemaker, Squeak - whatever.
>
> Let those who like it, run with it
>
> Maybe not Javascript, C#, Java, Actionscript etc
>
> At least, not at first
>
> Harder to get to an independent / creative level there, I reckon
>
> (In spite of the prevalence of Javascript on the web, I think its pretty
> hard to deeply "get", without an OOP background)
>
> I like the visual drag and drop of GameMaker - although it's a pity it
> doesn't show the corresponding code when you drag in an "icon" - and I
> feel the pure coding side of GM is still quite tricky, a "curly bracket"
> language,  with events, object level scope etc - compared to the old
> procedural BASIC, its not easy.
> I know kids can dabble in a bit of code in GM, on top of their visual
> stuff, which is nice - but again how much are they "getting" in a
> transferable way.  I love its visual productivity - pity it doesn't show
> the code of their visual efforts - a little like recording a visual
> basic macro.
>
> I reckon VB is ok - if you can avoid the temptation to go GUI too early
> - but the language has got so cluttered its not as much of a beginners
> sand pit (.net even less so)
>
> Anyway
>
> How did you all learn programming?
>
> Cheers
>
> Rob
>
>
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-- 
Free and Open education for all

Peter Ruwoldt
Grant High School
Hosking Avenue
MOUNT GAMBIER  SA  5290

P. 08 87263107 (Do not leave voice mail)
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