On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Phil Wagner <philhwag...@gmail.com> wrote:
... > If you are interested in working on such a project, send me an email at > philhwag...@gmail.com. After the initial setup is complete we can open it up > to the larger Python community and even perhaps broaden the scope to include > Geogebra and others. The information and materials are out there but spread > out. > > Phil > Hi Phil I'll say up front that this is the kind of project we're hoping to see a lot more of, i.e. groups of teachers spontaneously creating open source curriculum materials. I just wanted to suggest / mention Wikieducator as a possible outlet / platform for this work. The context is already established: teachers freely share material in a copyleft manner, welcoming collaboration. Teachers certify they have the necessary permissions to copyleft what they're sharing, which means browsers don't have to keep checking the licenses on every picture or paragraph. Lowering the red tape factor is a prerequisite for liberal arts culture (copyleft doesn't mean unattributed or uncredited as we all know -- citing sources is part of the drill). Python has a tiny footprint here Wikieducator, a page started by a faculty member in India and added to by moi. It's easy to get on, and when you're ready to get certified as a "wikibuddy" or one of those (they have a ranking system), that's not so hard either.[0] I wouldn't suggest expanding this page necessarily, but it'd be easy to do lots of internal links. FYI, I've already dumped a ton of Python-related math stuff on the web for free and have encouraged wide-spread copying. The stuff is somewhat esoteric, I like to think ahead of its time. Help yourself to what's there.[1] On the basis of these many math pages, the first using Python, I got to be a star of the show, was privileged to promulgate this material directly to assembled geeks at many a Pythonic event. Pycon and Europython going geeks aren't usually high school teachers though (Jeff Elkner an exception), and most attendees were too young to have high school aged kids of their own (or at least that used to be true -- Python itself is a fairly recent invention, it pays to remember). Are we entering a new chapter? Different parts of the world are responding differently. I'm hardly a know-it-all. We all have our anecdotal evidence for this and that. I'm up to comparing notes -- edu-sig has been good for that (lots of notes in the archives). This recent Educon in Philadelphia, with its ambitious use of networking tools, is at least keeping the flame alive.[2]. At the end of the day I see this as a student-driven trend. Having students work together on the content, with teacher supervision, is maybe where we should be going with this (thinking of Vern's question about not getting virtual posters to Pycon -- perhaps collaborating on curriculum materials is a more productive way to channel the same energy?). Having a whole class collaborate on an open source project on Wikieducator (or wherever), aimed at sharing about some topic, using Python turtle or whatever, would be an excellent way for a teacher to role model a shared workflow. Students would have something to look back on, as each build a portfolio. I hope we discuss this strategy here on edu-sig, think about how to consolidate efforts. We already have PyWhip and Crunchy Frog going, other experimental initiatives... Turtle Art... OLPC. Lots of great Python tutorials of a generic "learn the language" nature are already out there, starting with what's in the Python docs, some of them already translated into multiple languages. In starting some new project, we don't want to reinvent what's already out there. What would an outline look like? Kirby [0] http://wikieducator.org/PYTHON_TUTORIALS [1] http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/numeracy0.html is a good starting point -- an old page though, so I guarantee broken links at the bottom. This is one of four pages, touching on a variety of math topics (some of the same ones as in MFDA e.g. Fibonacci numbers). I give a lot of simple functions here, don't do any "objects first" or whatever (that thinking came later, after limited field testing, some successes). I'm big into "right brain" visuals (lots of geometry), trying to balance the very "left brain" lexical activity that is computer programming (it's not going to be all "point and click" -- we should be honest about that, even though Scratch is a great way to get into it). [2] http://educon22.org/conversations/Papert_Matters_Thinking_About_Children_Computers_and_Powerful_Ideas _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
