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Don,
If you're focused on teaching mathematics using J, I have a few ideas:
- - What about applying action research to the problem? (Too) briefly,
try it, observe what happens, reflect, plan a new approach, and try
again. I believe someone already suggested that. You might not have
as much difficulty as you think -- or, then again, you might, but
you'd at least have evidence.
- - When / if you do that, I'd encourage you strongly to stick with J as
it exists. I've been through the different incompatible Algols and
Pascals, and it was no fun. (It's not even fun making the switch from
x. to x ! :-)
- - Check into "peer instruction" as practiced and taught by Eric Mazur,
Richard Hake, and others. It's been tested as an approach at the
college and community college levels; I don't know if it's been tested
at lower grades. Testing it at lower grade levels could make a
valuable contribution to pedagogy.
- - Check out some of the teaching books Ken and others have produced.
For example, I have a copy of Ken's Arithemetic and his Tangible Math.
I might think that Arithemetic would be usable for advanced middle
school students and high school students. There are probably others I
don't have.
NB: Those two were published in 1991 and use an earlier form of J.
You'd probably have to encourage J Software to produce updated
versions or get their permission to revise them yourself.
Just a few thoughts.
Bill
PS: One problem with pure ASCII: emoticons. My email client, Gnus,
kindly puts in smiley faces instead of emoticons -- or, for that matter,
instead of the :) in the J fragment {:) . Does anyone here use Gnus and
know a "washing" option to have it show the plain ASCII? I just edit
the email to see the J.
- --
Bill Harris http://facilitatedsystems.com/weblog/
Facilitated Systems Everett, WA 98208 USA
http://facilitatedsystems.com/ phone: +1 425 337-5541
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