[Yr7-10it] Request for opinions, help, comments or any other feedback

[victor rajewski]

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 10:52 AM, Kevork Krozian
<Kroset at novell1.fhc.vic.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>    I am at the horns of a dilemma ( sort of ) and need your help.
>
> I am taking a Yr10 Programming class in 4 weeks for Semester 2 and can't decide which language to use. I can count on 18 weeks at 3 periods of 72 min per week.
>
> My criteria are :
>  1. It has to be fun, exciting and addictive so the kids are hooked and want to follow through with more in senior level(s).

It's usually not the language that's fun/not-fun but what you do with
it. There are exceptions to this.

>  2. It has to be reasonably rigorous and not a wizard driven, micky mouse gimmicky all sugar and no educational nutrition type of experience.

I wouldn't dismiss more drag-and-drop type languages out of hand. If
the student/s have little of no experience of/interest in programming,
this can be a good way to get them engaged and experiencing success.
Examples include scratch, gamemaker, etoys.

>  3. It has to be educational with the teaching of correct programming techniques, and extendible skills into future programming and other languages

At a year 10 level? And fun? good luck with that...

Many university-type people prefer students not to be taught any
programming at high school as it usually involves bad programming
habits and no understanding of the underlying concepts. It's good that
you are trying not to let this happen, but I have encountered  very
few year 10 students who are capable of understanding the need for
correct techniques, and even fewer who actually adhere to them.

That said, I would lean towards python from those, not least because
at the very least they'll learn to properly indent code (and it's
proper OO, easy to write, quite popular, etc). There are also plenty
of extensions/libraries that can do whiz-bang stuff.

Other things to consider - have the students programmed in any
languages before (in semester 1)? Why not use the same language?

I think there will always be a trade-off between the goals of being
fun/engaging/accessible and rigorous.


vik