Re: [da Vinci] Re: Comp. Dev. Class
Budi Mulyo
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Contact us, so we can chat about scheduling something cool together.
Thanks!
I would like to speak with jerry as well. When can jerry meet with me. I have a dozen kids ready to for a program of some sort. We are eager to get going. Please email me as soon as you can and thanks..]
Ken
From: Budi Mulyo [mailto:celestia...@jigsawrenaissance.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 5:10 PM
To: Ken Treiger
Cc: Jerry McManus
Subject: Re: [da Vinci] Re: Comp. Dev. Class
Hi Ken,
I just spoke with Jerry McManus, and he would like to sit down with you to develop an educational strategy. Jerry is part of Jigsaw's robotics team who recently won 1st place in the SRS Robothon: Robo-Magellan Competition on self-navigating robot. He has more than 20 years of experience in programmings and Agile developments, and I think you both have a lot you can talk about.
In addition, these are list of people from Jigsaw who are highly qualified in teaching various programming courses as well as hands on electronics stuff such as Android development, soldering, and Robotics:
- Pat Tressel
- Paul Danset
- Brian Rice
- Shubham Shukla
- Trevor Schrock
- Joshua Madara
- Michael Park
- Jason Garland
My suggestion is that your daughter and friends could start following along programming courses from top notch University Professors at Udacity.com, a free online University. Also I would like to let you know that Udacity, is having a High School challenge: http://www.udacity.com/hschallenge
Winners get: all-expenses paid visit to Stanford University and a tour of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence lab, including the famed self-driving car. (And there might be a chance to ride in a self-driving car!). Professor Sebastian Thrun will be welcoming the winners personally and showing them around.
Best wishes,,
--
Budi Mulyo
On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Ken Treiger <k...@treiger.com> wrote:
Budi,
I cant seem to find the contact info from the gentlema n who called me and offered to help teach the programing class I am trying to start. Could you email it to me. thanks
From: Budi Mulyo [mailto:celestia...@jigsawrenaissance.org]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 9:59 AM
To: Ken Treiger
Subject: Fwd: [da Vinci] Re: Comp. Dev. Class
Hi Ken,
Brian and Pat are offering to TA programming courses. (I forwarded some discussions. Although I'm pretty sure that you're in da Vinci list already, so you should get it already). You're also welcome to join Learn@Jigsaw Forum
I'll be at Jigsaw later today. Let me know if you want to stop by and chat about scheduling something cool together.
Budi Mulyo
206.571.8430---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pat Tressel <ptre...@myuw.net>
Date: Thu, May 31, 2012 at 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: [da Vinci] Re: Comp. Dev. Class
To: David Betz-Zall <david.b...@gmail.com>
Cc: da Vinci <dav...@jigsawrenaissance.org>, Educational Initiative <le...@jigsawrenaissance.org>
David --Gravity ( udacity.com ) uses python and has a very good course structure.
Cool! I like the Udacity format a lot, and it seems very appropriate for kids too.
For those not familiar with Udacity, they use something close to a frame system -- very short "lectures" -- just a few minutes -- followed by a question to make sure one has understood the material. One can repeat the lessons as needed. (It does not look for specific wrong answers and offer additional help targeted to those specific mistakes, as some frame systems do. But this is still way better than one loooong lecture.)
(Hope it was ok to CC the lists -- your post looks like it got sent only to me.)
Ken --
This might be something to try out first -- see if it starts out at a reasonable level, and if your kids like it. Would be interested to hear how it goes. I wonder if the Udacity folks might be interested too -- I think their target audience is older.
-- Pat
--
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brian Rice <brian...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, May 31, 2012 at 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: [da Vinci] Re: Comp. Dev. Class
To: dav...@jigsawrenaissance.org
Cc: Educational Initiative <le...@jigsawrenaissance.org>
There are now even BYOB and Blockly, visual in-browser "dialects" of
Scratch which generate mostly idiomatic JavaScript:
http://byob.berkeley.edu/
http://code.google.com/p/google-blockly/
On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 5:15 PM, Brian Rice <brian...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Python, Scratch, and ALICE were all designed for educational purposes in the requested age group. Python descended from a particular educational language called ABC, which was directly intended to be educational.
>
> I could probably handle some teaching/tutoring of programming, as long as the students have goals in mind and are at least a little self-directed. Processing and LEGO Mindstorms aren't immediately familiar to me, but I can probably help them through it pretty quickly.
>
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 5:01 PM, Pat Tressel <ptre...@myuw.net> wrote:
>>
>> Ken, Budi --
>>
>>
>>>
>>> These are some suggestions of the programming options:
>>>
>>> Processing
>>> Javascript
>>> Scratch
>>> LEGO Mindstorm (Here's an article on The Best Programming Language)
>>> ALICE
>>> Arduino
>>>>
>>>> steeper learning curve than other options - but has the benefits of being a "real" language (effectively teaching them C) - and physical interaction. maybe in conjunction with some kind of "intro to robotics" kit
>>>
>>> Python (Here's an article talking about Programming Options for Kids)
>>>
>>> If you are interested, you're welcome to stop by at Jigsaw and perhaps we could develop a Summer Camp curriculum or something.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for reaching out. I am not aware of any local computer
>>>
>>> programming classes for children or adolescents, although I am sure
>>> they exist. Has she tried Scratch? It is a visual programming tool for
>>> kids and novices. There are books and online tutorials and lessons
>>> that teach programming concepts using Scratch.
>>>
>>> http://scratch.mit.edu/
>>
>>
>> A classic language for education is Logo (remember "turtle graphics"? ok, no, that was a while ago ;-). Its Wikipedia entry says it was an influence on Scratch.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)
>>
>> Another option might be a language that's been in the news lately -- Lua. It's regarded as relatively simple, and is commonly used for game development or for embedded systems. Just recently, it gained a bit of notoriety for being used in the Flame malware. From what little I've seen of it, though, it's not as clean as Python:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)
>>
>> I've only taught Java and HTML / Javascript (at the UW, as a TA), but it seems to me that Python would be a better first language. It requires much less boilerplate and frou frou, and the syntax is relatively unobtrusive. One drawback to Python as compared to Java is that Java has tons of support for graphics and GUIs. We had (college) students (in 2nd quarter Java) do a traffic simulation, complete with animated cars on roads. But if the aim is toward computer science -- how computers work, and the logic of programming -- then Python is probably better because there's less fuss in using the language itself, but it still exposes all the normal programming elements.
>> -- Pat
>>
>> --
>> da Vinci -- the Jigsaw Renaissance mailing list
>>
>> The da Vinci mailing list is for project / event proposal, and general Jigsaw announcements. You can also use our wiki at wiki.jigren.org for long-term planning and to see what we're up to. Small updates and general chatter should happen on IRC (freenode:jigsaw).
>>
>> dav...@jigsawrenaissance.org
>> http://groups.google.com/a/jigsawrenaissance.org/group/davinci
>>
>> To unsubscribe, email davinci+u...@jigsawrenaissance.org
>
>
>
>
> --
> -Brian T. Rice
--
-Brian T. Rice
--
da Vinci -- the Jigsaw Renaissance mailing list
The da Vinci mailing list is for project / event proposal, and general Jigsaw announcements. You can also use our wiki at wiki.jigren.org for long-term planning and to see what we're up to. Small updates and general chatter should happen on IRC (freenode:jigsaw).
dav...@jigsawrenaissance.org
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