[IAEP] [squeakland] What makes examples good for novices? and How do we tell if an example is good for novices?

[Steve Thomas]

Lawson,

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:16 PM, Lawson English <lenglish5 at cox.net> wrote:

>  I can't give you any stats other than positive feedback I have gotten,
> but the Salman Khan style of video teaching seems to work well for
> programming as well as for math.
>
I generally like the Salman Khan video's and think they have their place
(flame away folks :).  The ability to watch at my your pace and on your own
time is a big plus and my kids use them sometimes when they are struggling
with a concept.  While it is preferable to struggle with the concepts
ourselves, who has the time (or the ability) to re-construct all that
knowledge. So, I think there is a role for a "good explanation."  Of
course, it would be nice if he had more "Sugar" like artifacts to play and
learn with.

That said I really didn't like his Programming videos.  Programming, I
believe, is much better if taught with lots of hands on opportunities and
problems.  Videos could be used after the learner has a chance to work on a
problem. Perhaps to show different ways to solve a problem and/or Providing
a Guided Tour through "good literature" (well written code) and perhaps bad
as well or something like Java Puzzlers, to let kids learn where the
pitfalls are and get a better understanding of how things work.


> My video series, Squeak from the very start, is a very conscious effort to
> duplicate his style:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6601A198DF14788D&feature=view_all
>
> Friends characterize my video style as being like a mentor in a
> pair-programming session.
>

I like the idea of kids pair-programming although I would think you would
need to set some ground rules like (the "advanced" kid can't touch the
keyboard).

FYI, I like your videos and have used them for myself.

Thanks,
Stephen


>
> On 2/2/12 5:56 PM, Steve Thomas wrote:
>
> So I am taking a P2PU course On How to Teach Web Programmin to Free Range
> Learners<http://p2pu.org/en/groups/how-to-teach-webcraft-and-programming-to-free-range-students/>and a couple of questions came up:
>
> So I pose them to the community:
>
>    1. What makes examples good for novices?
>    2. How do we tell if an example is good for novices?
>
> Also where can I find a good set of examples for learning programming?
>
> It would be nice to have a curated set of "Great literature".
>
> Pointers to any research on the topic would be appreciated.
>
> Stephen
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> squeakland mailing listsqueakland at squeakland.orghttp://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> squeakland mailing list
> squeakland at squeakland.org
> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20120203/18410339/attachment.html>