|
Thank you Jeff for your thoughtful reply. Below is my information. I am starting a computer programming sequence at an inner city public high school in Chicago. Last year was the first year. I started with Java however, the book I picked and the language itself were much too difficult. Note that I am an old procedural programmer (started with Fortran in the 60s and COBOL in 1979). I was learning OOP and Java just ahead of my students. After one semester I discovered ALICE from Carneige Mellon University. My students are doing very well with it. It teaches the concepts of OOP through animation. Syntax is not a problem because you drag tiles. It is free and it is good. I use a book by Wanda Dann. This year 4 of those students are studying Python, pretty much on their own. They are mixed in my other classes, so I don't have much time to help them. We are using Michael Dawson's book. It is working well for them. Again, I am learning it just ahead of my students! These four students have been in my various computer classes for four years. My plan was to take them on a field trip on one of the conference days. So a weekday is fine. I did not see the cost of the conference. Since it would come out of my pocket I'm starting to get concerned. Of more concern is appropriate sessions, I only saw a few. As someone said, "beginner" means new to a topic but with experience in Python. I would sure like some real beginner courses. Dawson starts off with procedural concepts. We may not even get to objects by the time of the conference and certainly not GUI material. A session on creating simple programs involving GUI would be great and probably catch their interest. Especially if there were some handouts showing them what they could quickly do when they got back to school or home. So, I would bring myself and 4 senior high school students. I am willing to pay something for each, hopefully it would be a reduced price (free is always acceptable :-) ). We are all beginners. We can miss one day of school. If the conference continues on the weekend could that day(s) be free for them? We could register in advance if the schedule is published. Thanks, Earl Strassberger Senn High School Jeff Rush <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Andrew Harrington wrote: > Earl, I have already asked about taking my students. > > There are likely to be a number of beginner tutorials on Thursday, but > they cost a substantial amount of money. > > There are a number of talks classified as "beginner", but that > generally means beginner at some module, not total beginner at Python. > > On Dec 18, 2007 9:31 AM, Earl Strassberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I looked over the conference schedule for Pycon 2008 in Chicago. I am >> considering taking my few high school students to the conference but I did >> not see many sessions appropriate for people new to Python. Can I expect >> more sessions to be added? Also, I did not see the cost and I wonder what >> it is. Let's not drop this matter. In my involvement with PyCon over the years, there has been a wish to involve students but the approach has not been clear, so no one tackles it. Each year there is a bit of discussion -- are students welcome? should we offer total beginner talks? if we did would enough people come to justify it? enough didn't come last year so why offer them now? what if we offer them and just 3 people show up? Generally the PyCon organizers don't get a lot of involvement in planning from those who have the necessary contacts with the public and university school systems, so we don't know -how- to attract that student audience. Just offering novice classes doesn't cause them to attend. That audience has special needs re scheduling (can they attend weekdays?), money (can they afford a 3-day ticket?) and topics (are they totally new to Python or just at a novice level?) >From the educators here, please give us more information about your needs. 1. What audience are you representing ('students' may mean K-12, 9-12 or university) each with their own issues. 2. In your opinion, can your students attend on weekends or weekdays? 3. Are your students able to afford any amount whatsoever? Must it be free? 4. Are you wanting to bring your more advanced students or trying to get non-programmers interested in how cool Python is? The former can attend existing talks but may need financial support, while the latter need custom presentation content not normally at PyCon. 5. How many students (min and expected#) do you think you can motivate to attend? 6. Will students register in advance or must we play it loose and let those who walk in the door attend? And to those qualified to -teach- total non-Python programmers, would you be willing to prepare a free class? How about if the PSF paid for your class on behalf of the students? Would you be willing to put forth serious effort and come up with a professional course, with handouts and exercises? And freely share your materials with other teachers afterward so it can be replicated worldwide? Would it be a half-day, full-day or series of mini topics? For what age groups? Personally I'd really like to see more students at PyCon. But I don't have kids nor am I affiliated with a university in any way so I lack the contacts to make it happen. We need one or more leaders to come forward and represent the interests of the students, and I believe such would be welcomed with open arms by the PyCon and PSF staff. -Jeff _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig |
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
