Jan, One of the things we've found is that you can't easily separate the idea of using programming as a *tool* and learning to program *just* for the purpose of learning to program. For example, consider Starlogo, a Logo based multi-agent environment/language that draws its power from:
1. abstracting away the execution loop and "time loop" over all agents, essentially abstracting most looping needs from the programming language (although not all - agents can still use "local" loops for individual but complex single model steps) 3. providing a nice 2-D world (with agent Logo-turtle geometry) with visual agent properties 4. providing nice agent aggregation/reporting facilities to monitor population changes We've seen that students learn programming as an exercise in modeling agent behavior, whether it be modeling bird flocking or molecule movement or bee swarming, etc, etc... BUT, isn't this "modeling" approach also used in OO design approaches to building software? Incidently, am I wrong or didn't the whole OOP thing come out of the Smalltalk environment, originally CONCEIVED for K-12 programming (and continued nicely in Kay's Squeek environment). L. Jan Erik Mostr�m <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >On 2004-10-08 20:58, Larry Latour <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> to help students bring a variety of their >> subjects "to life". > >So here you're using programming as a *tool* for learning something else, I >can accept this (Does it improve the students learning of whatever they are >learning?) > >Learning to program just for the purpose of learning to program I'm more >doubtful and I think the time can be spent better. > > jem >-- >Jan Erik Mostr�m www.mostrom.pp.se > ------------------------------------------- Larry Latour Associate Professor of Computer Science University of Maine Tel: 207 581 3523, Fax: 207 581 4977 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
