As far as python goes, this has a quick sense of pacing, and has a lot of interactive exercises, while building something pretty useful in the end.
https://www.udacity.com/ (CS101) It goes into a little bit more theory then I think is useful for some folks, but it's still a great resource. On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Karen Coyle <li...@kcoyle.net> wrote: > On 2/18/13 12:53 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > >> On 2/18/2013 2:04 PM, Jason Stirnaman wrote: >> >>> I've been thinking alot about how to introduce not only my kids, but >>> some of our cataloging/technical staff to thinking "programmatically" >>> or "computationally"[1] or whatever you want to call it. >>> >> >> Do you have an opinion of the google 'computational thinking' curriculum >> pieces linked off of that page you cite? For instance, at: >> >> http://www.google.com/edu/**computational-thinking/**lessons.html<http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/lessons.html> >> > > I looked at the "Beginning Python" one[1], and I have to say that any > intro to programming that begins with a giant table of mathematical > functions is a #FAIL. Wow - how wrong can you get it? > > On the other hand, I've been going through the Google online python class > [2] and have found it very easy to follow (it's youtubed), and the > exercises are interesting. What I want next is more exercises, and someone > to talk to about any difficulties I run into. I want a hands-on hacker > space learning environment that has a live expert (and you wouldn't have to > be terribly expert to answer a beginner's questions). It's very hard to > learn programming alone because there are always multiple ways to solve a > problem, and an infinite number of places to get stuck. > > kc > [1] http://tinyurl.com/bcj894s > [2] > https://developers.google.com/**edu/python/<https://developers.google.com/edu/python/> > >> >> Or at: >> >> http://www.iste.org/learn/**computational-thinking/ct-**toolkit<http://www.iste.org/learn/computational-thinking/ct-toolkit> >> > > -- > Karen Coyle > kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net > ph: 1-510-540-7596 > m: 1-510-435-8234 > skype: kcoylenet >