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

[Hubbard, Jenna J]

Hi Kevork,

At Cobram we have Year 10 Computer Programming which I am currently
teaching. 
It is a semester long subject and I started with Visual Basic which was
very hard as I had no prior knowledge so I just handed out workshops and
we are currently doing Game Maker 7 which they love.

Jenna Hubbard

-----Original Message-----
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Kevork Krozian
Sent: Wednesday, 21 May 2008 10:52 AM
To: yr7-10it at edulists.com.au
Cc: yr11it at edulists.com.au
Subject: [Yr7-10it] Request for opinions, help,comments or any other
feedback

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).
  2. It has to be reasonably rigorous and not a wizard driven, micky
mouse gimmicky all sugar and no educational nutrition type of
experience.
  3. It has to be educational with the teaching of correct programming
techniques, and extendible skills into future programming and other
languages
  4. It has to have some file storage capability and understanding of
input and output beyond only user generated input at runtime.

My choices are ( these are more than 2 horns I admit ) :

 1. VB.NET 
 2. Flash and Actionscript
 3. Python (we do this in Yr 11 )
 4. PHP and MySQL ( we do this in Yr 12 )
 5. Java ( too hard )
 6. C/C++ ( too hard )
 7. other 


    I am leaning towards Flash and Actionscript not least for its whiz
bang features and some OOP programming and object handling as well as
web based deployment and beautification of web applications.  


   Any feedback welcome 


Take Care



Kevork Krozian
IT Manager , Forest Hill College
k.krozian at fhc.vic.edu.au
http://www.fhc.vic.edu.au
Mobile: 0419 356 034


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