I have some real concerns about the software that comes with the new
kit. I've put a lot of kits (>200) into schools here in Kansas and I
much prefer RIS to Robolab. There are 2 reasons for my preference.
First, the training missions that come with RIS force the kids to touch
every piece of the kit. By the time that the missions are completed, the
kids know a lot about how to use everything in the kit. But I also
require the teachers to do the training missions, which is the critical
point. After going through the training missions, the teachers are
comfortable with the kits and with the kids using them (although most
still are NOT comfortable leading the class; they tend to let kids teach
other kids). The Robolab training missions just aren't warm and fuzzy.
Robolab requires a lot more commitment from teachers and I'm not sure if
we can do that.
Second, RIS is object-oriented, Robolab is not. Since the new stuff is
based upon Labview, just like Robolab, I am concerned. For the past
three summers, I've been taking in-service teachers and teaching them
Java using LeJOS (and my unpublished book). We start with RIS and move
on to Java. In RIS, we have all the concepts of Java. There is
composition, where a Roverbot is composed of two motor objects. The
sensor listeners are event handlers. We get into the behavior model by
adding sensor listeners and then comparing the RIS code to Java. The
basic idea is to separate the learning of the content of Java from the
learning of the syntax and tools of Java. Because of the object-oriented
nature of RIS, these teachers already knew what they wanted to do with
the robot, they just needed to learn how to say it in Java. And, it
worked. At the end of two weeks, I had a bunch of teachers that were
better coders than some of the masters students I have working for me.
My basic concern is that nxt will have us training kids in a first
programming language that's worst than useless. One of the engineering
deans here has said that kids coming in knowing how to program in Basic
or C have to take a semester to unlearn all the bad habits before they
can start learning OO programming. Given my experience, 25 years of
programming starting with an engineering degree from MIT, I agree with
him. That's why I think that it is really important to have Java
available ASAP, perhaps with a GUI interface that mimics, to some
extent, RIS.
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