Thanks for your insight with fresh eyes Jon.
I agree that the pictures can be worth a thousand words, the trick is to select
them so they trigger the most useful thousand words for the learner.
I recently looked at this paper with an empirical approach to language
interface design and this might be extended to choosing teaching materials as
well.
• Andreas Stefik and Susanna Siebert. 2013. An Empirical Investigation
into Programming Language Syntax. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 13,
4, Article 19 (November 2013), 40 pages.
http://dl.acm.org/authorize?6968137
The link will redirect from ACM Portal if you wait 10 seconds.
cheers, bob
ps. I am cross posting to chat where discussion of educational materials feels
more appropriate.
On Jun 9, 2014, at 6:56 PM, Jon Hough <[email protected]> wrote:
> I would just like to share a thought for anyone making material for beginners
> in J.
> I know that the NuVoc has been recently implemented and I find myself always
> referring to it. For a J beginner like myself it is indispensable. And the J
> reference card (which I printed out and often browse) is also a great help.
>
> But a quick suggestion to anyone who is continuing to make material:
> This brief introduction
>
> www.jsoftware.com/books/pdf/brief.pdf
> has several great diagrams (page 17). I found this PDF a couple of weeks ago,
> and just looking at those diagrams it all clicked, in the sense that I pretty
> much instantly understood how J function composition works, in general. I
> wish I had found them earlier, and also wish these diagrams figured more
> prominently in material. (I now the ref card has diagrams for hooks and forks)
> This is just an observation that might help.
> Regards.
>
>
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