David MacQuigg
Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:30:07 -0800
kirby urner wrote:
At issue is whether try-over-the-web is a way you need to go, granted other language communities are trying it. You've got Python out of the box if you're a Linux user, and so the question is, if you're not a Linux user, do you even matter? When it comes to server side architectures, probably not.
The big difference between doing it "in the cloud" and doing it with a downloadable app on the student's computer is teacher interaction. Sure, you could do even that with the right kind of networking, but we will still need a central server if we want instructors to have a "wide and deep" view of the students work in progress, not just a clipping sent in an email. The immediate problem might be difficulties with recursion, but if the teacher drills down into the lesson on for-loops and sees some misunderstanding there, she might suggest that the student do a few more problems in that area first.
Here's another scenario. Imagine a diverse set of students, with an equally diverse collection of laptops, desktops, OS's, whatever. When a student has some difficulty with his homework, he presses the HELP button, and within minutes a "black belt" PyKata instructor is looking at the student's work, and offering advice. These instructors could be former students making a little money as tutors, or just doing it as a favor for their younger classmates, or maybe helping the sophomore team get ready for a competition.
I'm not seeing much downside to doing this as a web app, so I haven't given much thought to making it a self-contained downloadable app.
-- Dave ************************************************************ * * David MacQuigg, PhD email: macquigg at ece.arizona.edu * * * Research Associate phone: USA 520-721-4583 * * * * ECE Department, University of Arizona * * * * 9320 East Mikelyn Lane * * * * http://purl.net/macquigg Tucson, Arizona 85710 * ************************************************************ * _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig