Hi, Thanks for the replies everyone!
Paul, thanks a lot for sharing your perspective and references from other Universities, it makes me happy to know there are lecturers like you out there :-) On 8 January 2011 12:50, Paul Barry <[email protected]> wrote: > Most of my co-workers think I'm quite mad... and they then struggle to > teach Java (and its like) to 1st years, while constantly wondering why > doing so turns over 50% of 1st years off programming for life... so > figure! This is huge problem. I've met many students scarred the same after learning how to program with C++ and although some were still pursuing their CS degree, programming was this dreadful thing they hoped never to have to do again. I wonder if it could be that some of these were meant to be "weeding out" modules. I'm not convinced that it's (ever) the best way to teach and keep the spark of interest alive, though... On 8 January 2011 14:13, Barry Hurley <[email protected]> wrote: > I would be interested in this discussion also, and to bring a student's > point of view. Unfortunately, since I am in Cork, I can't make the Dublin > meetups, sorry. I didn't mean to exclude anyone from the conversation and limit it to Dublin, sorry! I only remembered people talking about it IRL, but I am more than happy to discuss and plot on the mailing list :) On 8 January 2011 16:28, Harry Van Haaren <[email protected]> wrote: > Harry van Haaren here, currently a 2nd year "music media & performance > tech" student, UL. > I got into a little Python before I went into college, was an enormous > help with the Java modules int 1st year. Thanks, this is something I suspected, that a dose of a saner programming language/Python to get used to concepts before starting college might be helpful. After I taught my first beginner programming course (with Python), a friend of mine suggested I consider offering the same type of short course to CS students before the start of their first year, and especially targeting minorities in CS who are more likely to drop out if they don't "get it" as quickly as other classmates. Your experience seems to confirm that this would help... On 9 January 2011 03:32, Daniel Kersten <[email protected]> wrote: > Myself, Alan Kennedy and Diarmuid Bourke chatted about this after > Pycon Ireland. I also emailed one of the lecturers in DCU about it (he > teaches the first year programming course there) and he was generally > positive about the idea and highlighted some of the difficulties with > persuading universities' management of the benefits of using Python > for the introductory programming lessons. This was a few months back > now. I haven't been at any meetups recently though and don't know if > anybody else has discussed the idea any further. As far as I'm aware, > this is as far as we got. Thanks for the additional info Daniel. Do you remember more details about the difficulties he mentioned? Is it something we can help with? If the general plan was to convince lecturers to switch language for their introductory courses I'm uncertain if I have the necessary people skills and selling skills to help (though I'd be tremendously interested in hearing about any effort going on in that area!), although I'm always more than happy to show and demo and explain to anyone with a modicum of interest. As a side-note, what prompted me to ping about this is that I will be giving another Python introduction course to a group of political sciences students later on this month. They use R for their simulations, and are encouraged to look up Python for the next level/module... It doesn't quite fit what's been brought up so far, but still it seems part of "Python at the third level" :) All the best, Julie -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Python Ireland" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pythonireland?hl=en.
