On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 12:23 PM, David MacQuigg <[email protected]> wrote: > At 04:58 PM 3/3/2009 -0800, kirby urner wrote: > >>I also invite visitors to my Oregon Curriculum Network site: >> >>http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html >> >>The Pythonic Math at this site is better than anything else on the Web >>as of March, 2009, bar none. > > We're looking for something more interactive. The storyboard stuff is cool. > Videos take too much bandwidth. >
Yeah, might not be suitable for all audiences. Bandwidth not a problem where I teach, interactivity is provided by one desktop per student, Python + VPython, Python + POV-Ray etc., many write-ups in my blogs (the most advanced Pythonic Math course anywhere in the nation, bar none -- yay Saturday Academy -- partly because of the new kind of geometry we're doing (per math-thinking-l etc.)): http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-wings.html http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2008/04/sa-classnotes-2008419.html http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2008/06/open-house.html > I've always thought lectures are a terrible way to teach technical subjects, > but I can see the advantage of having audio to supplement a sequence of > slides, and avoid taking your eyes off where they should be focused. Bruce > Eckel's Thinking in (Java, C++, Python) series is excellent, but he never > finished the Python version http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIPython. There is > a great opportunity here for a good teacher. The distance learning resources provided via Oregon Curriculum Network may not be what we use in class, e.g. we use physical models sometimes, given the emphasis on Geometry. Doing Python without geometry (e.g. VPython) is probably a waste of time if this is really intro mathematics and not just some low level computer science class from like the FORTRAN era (boring). Given we compete in the open market, we're not allowed to be boring. No "required courses" like some universities have (easy to cheat when you have a captive audience eh?). > > Some thoughts on how we might expand on this: > > We need a complete online course in Python, including PyWhip, Lectures in > Python (slides with audio), and a forum where students could get questions > answered, like comp.lang.python, but something more private, where students > won't feel shy about asking dumb questions, and more focused, where we can > have a lot of discussion on a narrow topic. The topic this week is strings. > I think various institutions have different solutions for this. >From what I've seen so far, Saturday Academy does a better job in terms of teaching *mathematics* than anything else on the web using Python, thanks in part to Silicon Forest and our Oregon Curriculum Network. That's why I'm going to Chicago to stage 'Python for Teachers', to show off how we do things. Others could learn from us. We're waaaaay ahead of the pack (especially given our sophisticate geometry based on an MVC approach -- most colleges can't hold a candle, yet these are high school kids!). > This could be a "service course" for non-CS technical professionals or > students who could take it as a pre-requisite for engineering and science > classes. The costs of production and delivery would be very low, mainly > paying teachers to participate in regularly scheduled online "classes". I > can imagine a class of 200 students with two or three teachers, so questions > could be answered typically within a few hours. > Looking forward to competing. Our source code is also available, so in terms of interactivity, it's all there. This idea of "running Python over the web" doesn't seem necessary to me, not sure why people think that's so important. You've got an interpreter right there in front of your nose, no? What you need is scaffolding, running source code like stickworks.py, rbf.py etc. > I tried to do this with a class in C, but we had to use the University's > cumbersome, officially-approved teacher-support software - no email > notifications when a question is posted. That was a real problem leading to > sometimes a day of delay before I could check to see if there were any > questions. The login procedure was a pain. Google forums are all we need. > > -- Dave Yeah, most universities are trapped in stultifying bureaucracy, have no nimbleness or dexterity, kind of like Shrek after a few cases of beer. Makes it easy to out-perform them. Lower 48 is mostly offering no competition whatsoever, especially when it comes to using VPython to do some serious geometry (we also have a GIS component, have used generators for sequences for many years, per my Winterhaven write-up (geek hogwarts, Portland Public)). I'm glad the Obama administration is looking to Portland (FOSS capital) for leadership. We're simply better prepared, have a track record to prove it. That's why (some) Alaska charters are looking to us, not U. Mich or someplace more behind the times (lots more on Math Forum -- mostly don't compete with math teachers on edu-sig as this has mostly been a list for computer science teachers, not math teachers, with me 'n Arthur two obvious exceptions). I've been urging ISEPP president T. Bristol to get in touch with those in charge of IB math with our suggestions about phasing in more SQL, also a focus on RSA. I'm representing ISEPP in Chicago (what'll be on my nametag). The precalc-calc "math track" (so-called) isn't that productive a use of students' time in most cases. All that kow-towing to Texas Instruments, all that bait and switch (promising "technology in the classroom" but not delivering with beans). As geeks, we'd like to rescue our younger peers from such a stultifying and worthless pipeline, which everyone seems to agree is a huge turn-off, part of the problem, not part of the solution. Python, on the other hand, is part of the solution. Anyway, best wishes on catching up in Arizona. Someday you'll be in the same league as Oregon! Something to look forward to. Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
