On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Katie Cunningham
<
katie....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I admit, the first made me cringe when I read it. I really, really
> hate the idea of divorcing the theory from the tools. I've been in too
> many classes where 'examples' were deemed beneath the professor, and I
> found myself learning by googling the key terms from the lecture.
Interesting. I guess I really identified with the "try filling in data
randomly to get the right answer" example at the start. My experience
in CS classes has often been a "this is intuitive, have at it" rather
than explaining the logic behind function design.
Specifically, I was thinking about explaining loops - and how the way
that loops were explained in the particular lesson that was part of
the python workshop from Boston didn't include a visualization of
intermediate state. Just the output from a function.
Recursion examples will show the stack (sometimes), but there's often
just a focus on what comes out at the end. So, what I observed in
trying to teach this was that several people thought that the computer
was doing some kind of complicated magic *at the end* of the loop.
They had no idea what the intermediate values were and thought that
the whole thing was a lot more complex than it actually was.
I still need to digest his examples a bit more -- but to me, the
interesting bits of his critique were about *how* we present "behind
the scenes" state, and that a small difference in the code results in
a lot more comprehension for the student.
> True, the author puts forth a theoretical programming machine, but I
> found myself looking at it and just being bored.
>
> It also seems really silly to divorce programming from the real world
> when we're surrounded by technology! So many examples can come from
> real life. You can explain a for loop with a timer, or a conditional
> with an alarm clock.
>
> I understand teaching the theory of programming, but I think it's best
> learned next to some practical tools. After all, how much would you
> trust a mechanic who knew, in theory, how a combustion engine worked,
> but couldn't tell you which of those shiny silver things was a wrench?
Ahh, I missed the part where he talked about divorcing programming
from the real world. Can you point me to a section I should re-read?
> As for the second link, I'd be curious as to what, exactly Microsoft
> is teaching in the classrooms. I admit, i'm a bit of a cynic when it
> comes to MS, especially after they basically steamrollered my school
> district into going 100% MS.
I think Max is going to find out. I'll invite him here to share. :)