When I teach (typically in an R/RStudio context), I try to slow my typing
by doing it all "out-loud", speaking the portions of the commands I type
them. ("I call the the 'apply' function, enter 'mylist' as the "X"
argument...")
While I avoid copy and pasting, I do make heavy use of tab-completion while
live coding. I try to avoid making this "magic" but instead try to do it
out-loud as well ("I start typing 'ap', hit TAB and select the 'apply'
function, hit TAB again to auto-fill the first argument as X, then start
typing 'myli' and hit TAB to autocomplete "mylist"). In this way the tab
completion barely makes the typing any faster, but it does reduce both my
and the students' typos, and gets them in the habit of using it.
Re: Pete's copy-paste alternative, I also use the tip, often discussed
here, of having a live Dropbox link of the script I am writing or my bash
history so students can copy from that if they fall behind. (
https://software-carpentry.org/blog/2015/05/instructor-debriefing-2015-04-28.html
)
On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 3:03 PM Peter Hoyt <[email protected]> wrote:
> This is an important problem. From my experience working within
> Carpentries Workshops and workshops in general, the single most frustrating
> part of workshops can be an instructor that types fast. When this occurs,
> the learner is focused on trying to keep up, trying to scan for errors, or
> evaluating error messages, and is NOT focused on the logic, significance,
> or elegance of a piece of code. They are focused on getting (only) the same
> screen outputs.
>
> Even if an instructor takes the time to go over the line of code,
> describing what the code is doing (which is great), it is likely the slow
> typist is glancing from screen to keyboard during this time, and misses the
> discussion. This also means the green and red "stickies" don't work well
> for slow typists because the slow typist doesn't know if their new line of
> code is working until they finish it. By then the instructor may have moved
> on.
>
> The problem is exacerbated if the instructor uses his own command history
> to overwrite or edit new commands for example going back in an iPython
> notebook and editing a previous cell. Then the original line of code is
> effectively lost.
>
> If the instructor cannot go slower (usually bad, as our lessons are
> timed), then we provide a copy-paste alternative at Oklahoma State using a
> "live" etherpad and a talented volunteer/helper. This lets the learner "get
> caught up" with the instructor, and they can go back later to figure out
> what was causing the problem.
>
> -peter
>
> On 07/16/2018 11:55 AM, C. Titus Brown wrote:
>
> Great discussion!
>
> A few comments from our experience doing copy-paste during our two week
> sequence analysis workshop for the last 9 years. (Materials here:
> angus.readthedocs.io/en/2018)
>
> * retention of commands after copy-paste is poor, and people get into the
> habit of expecting things to work (and you don’t get to see the instructor
> screw stuff up, either).
>
> * copy-paste makes the materials more useful when people revisit the web site
> later.
>
> * for true beginners, copy-paste gets them to the “ok I can see why this is
> useful” stage faster and is thus more motivating (in my opinion).
>
> So, we have chosen to move to a two-tier model, where we first introduce
> topics through copy-paste. Then, after a few days, we start introducing
> challenges where they are asked to e.g. execute the same pipeline on novel
> data, or adjust plots, or whatever - basically, edit the commands
> appropriately.
>
> Since I spend a lot of my time copy-pasting from stack overflow, Python
> documentation, R docs, etc. and then editing, I feel like this last approach
> approximates the approach to learning that I use on a ~daily basis (and that
> I see most people in my lab using).
>
> best,
> —titus
>
> On Jul 16, 2018, at 9:30 AM, Hao Ye <[email protected]>
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> And it's definitely the case that copy-and-paste can be faster -- especially
> if you don't type so much that you're super fast at it.
>
> Completely agree! Workshop attendees may be infrequently at a computer
> (perhaps they are bench or field scientists), so keeping up with the typing
> speed of instructors can be challenging. It's useful to keep this in mind for
> coding demos (and to regularly remind folks about tab-autocompletion).
>
> Best,
> --
> Hao [email protected]
>
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 11:53 AM, Henry Neeman <[email protected]>
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> This is a great question!
>
> And I've had similar experiences with typing
> things in and then retaining them better.
>
> (For me, it works with people's names, too --
> if I type in your name, I'm vastly more
> likely to remember it than if you say it to me.)
>
> The thing to bear in mind is that we, being
> in the business, have vastly more experience
> with command line than most of the researchers
> we teach and serve.
>
> So what's obvious to us -- for example, that
> many of us retain commands much better if we
> type them out -- isn't obvious to them,
> because they haven't had enough experience
> with memorizing commands to realize that.
>
> And it's definitely the case that
> copy-and-paste can be faster -- especially if
> you don't type so much that you're super fast
> at it.
>
> ---
>
> Henry Neeman ([email protected])
> Assistant Vice President, Information Technology - Research Strategy Advisor
> Director, OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER)
> Associate Professor, Gallogly College of Engineering
> Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Computer Science
> The University of Oklahoma
>
> 3200 Marshall Avenue Suite 130, Norman OK 73019405-325-5386
> <(405)%20325-5386> (office), 405-325-5486 <(405)%20325-5486> (fax),
> 405-245-3823 <(405)%20245-3823> (cell),[email protected] (to e-mail me a
> text message)http://www.oscer.ou.edu/
>
> ----------
>
> On Mon, 16 Jul 2018, Purwanto, Wirawan wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I am new to Carpentry community so please
> bear with me if this is a stupid question,
> or not related to Carpentry. I have been
> facilitating people on my campus to use HPC
> and research computing resources in general.
>
> One thing I see with many folks learning new
> computing stuff is that they are lazy at
> typing even simple commands. Instead, they
> rely on cut and paste operation. I believe
> there is something done on your brain if you
> actually type or write things down, instead
> of merely staring at words and do "passive"
> copy-and-paste operation. I still
> intentionally type commands (even if they
> are somewhat long) just to get it written on
> my brain. Anyone having similar observation?
> If so, how will you encourage them to be
> "active" in typing rather than just do the
> most convenient thing?
>
> Wirawan Purwanto
> Computational Scientist, Research Computing Group
> Information Technology Services
> Old Dominion University
> Norfolk, VA 23529
>
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> The Carpentries / discuss / see discussions + participants + delivery options
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