Hi, We recently had to pick a beginner-friendly python editor for our Invent to Learn summer program. We also teach a lot of Raspberry Pi based Intro to Python workshops for kids and adults alike. In addition to editor/IDE, there’s another category to consider - specialized education platform - For instance, EarSketch <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarSketch> is a programming environment made specifically to teach coding through sound mixing.
Over the years we tried Trinket.io, PyCharm Edu, Visual Studio Code, Mu, iPythonNotebooks, Earsketch, Processing in Python mode, Thonny, IDLE + some I don’t remember. For us, it’s about prioritizing specific goals for our students and our program. For the summer program we are working with FabLab Houston to equip students with both maker skills and programming skills. They will learn Python with the Raspberry Pi with first the Minecraft Pi api, then sensor stuffs with Circuit Python on Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Learning Express, then Processing in Python mode to visualize some data with neopixels. For Fab Lab our goal is also to 1. train FabLab staff members with enough programming skills so they can deliver the Invent to Learn program without us, 2. produce open source curriculum from this program for other makerspaces. Ultimately, I think it should be up to the specific teacher to pick out features - as programmers we tend to look at specs and numbers, but we must also prioritize setting up educators for success - they are the frontline workers delivering the service. For instance, trinket.io is our go-to because a lot of educator’s don’t have admin access to their computers, so web-based editor that is easy to use and specifically made for education is great. However we do recognize the value in exposing our students to tools that developers use - like PyCharm. This is our pro and cons list off of the top of my head for choosing an editor for different partners and educators that we work with: - *Platform* - can we do things in command line on the computer that is available to us, whether that’s a raspberry pi, mac, or pc? Trinket.io is a great web-based solution if that’s an issue. - Existing *resources and community* - are there educator resources? Is this random IDE made by one person as a marketing exercise? if open source, when is the projects' last pull request? The Thonny Editor is awesome because there are a lot of high quality curriculum from https://projects.raspberrypi.org/ Same goes for Trinket.io. - Learning Curve for *educator *- If a teacher is teaching this and not a developer, are they able to successfully use this tool? Do we expect them to learn to use the terminal? Again, Trinket.io is a great starting point. - Learning Curve for *student *- Does the IDE/Editor have too many options? Not enough? What is the cognitive load for the student. *- Utility for student* - Do we want to provide a real world developer experience for our students? Or is our goal to have them build something as to inspire. Is this a long term program or a short term project? Do we want learners to quickly go through turtles (trinket.io) or be exposed to developer tools (pycharm)? After much consideration, we chose Thonny and also Python mode in the Processing IDE for our three week program. Hope this helps. Best, Wanjun Zhang codeparkhouston.org On July 3, 2018 at 10:06:00 AM, edu-sig-requ...@python.org ( edu-sig-requ...@python.org) wrote: Send Edu-sig mailing list submissions to edu-sig@python.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to edu-sig-requ...@python.org You can reach the person managing the list at edu-sig-ow...@python.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Edu-sig digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: turtle coordinates: Y increase downards - as in most graphics API? (kirby urner) 2. Editors/IDEs for teaching (Andre Roberge) 3. Re: Editors/IDEs for teaching (Nicholas H.Tollervey) 4. Re: Editors/IDEs for teaching (Andre Roberge) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2018 09:32:44 -0700 From: kirby urner <kirby.ur...@gmail.com> To: "edu-sig@python.org" <edu-sig@python.org> Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] turtle coordinates: Y increase downards - as in most graphics API? Message-ID: <CAPJgG3QfGJ4rf3BHP1AmZf+DMCo=olwjcppbnnuvsaew5ka...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Thanks for your persistence on this Andre. I agree with you that this is a serious bug. Curriculum writers down the road will steer clear of Python's turtle if it's not up to responding sanely to left and right. Our loyalty should be to teachers and teaching material developers in the future, not as much to prior editions with unfortunate workarounds. Kirby On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 6:29 PM, Andre Roberge <andre.robe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 1:50 PM Jurgis Pralgauskis < > jurgis.pralgaus...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Ok, I could test it :) >> >> >> Should I wait for some commit and comment results on the issues site or >> how...? >> > > ?Jurgis: Could you just apply the patch I submitted locally and test it? > > Or would anyone else volunteer to test it? Obviously, I can provide an > independent test of my own contribution. :-)? > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20180702/f4ad062f/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2018 11:27:05 -0300 From: Andre Roberge <andre.robe...@gmail.com> To: "edu-sig@python.org" <edu-sig@python.org> Subject: [Edu-sig] Editors/IDEs for teaching Message-ID: <CAGMu_=r25rqtagg8-myqx4pc3uhnihc27nemzegblim2qty...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi everyone, I'm compiling a list of available editors for Python designed specifically for teaching, with information about the primary targeted audiences and would welcome your comments and/or suggestions for additions or corrections. So far, I have Target audience (my own draft definition; feel free to improve upon this): * young learners (elementary and high school students) * hobbyists - beginners of all ages learning on their own * CS 100 course: elective course targeted at non CS (or even non STEM) students. The focus is more on concepts, using Python as the practical tool to learn these concepts, rather than learning the Pythonic idioms or learning the effectiveness of various algorithms. For example, list comprehensions would likely not be covered in such a course as it does not add anything conceptually to an explicit for loop. * CS 101 course: core course in CS meant as a requirement for future courses. Some pythonic idioms and details about algorithms would likely be covered. Editors / IDEs : * IDLE: included with Python. Intended for everyone. * Mu (https://codewith.mu/). Primarily intended for young learners and hobbyists. * Thonny. (http://thonny.org/) I am guessing that it is primarily intended for CS 101. * Wing 101 (https://wingware.com/downloads/wingide-101) Primarily intended for CS 101. * PyCharm Edu (https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm-edu/) Primarily intended for CS 101. I am not looking for web-based solutions [otherwise, I would have had included Reeborg's World ;-)] and do not want to include obsolete or no longer maintained software (like rur-ple, the precursor to Reeborg's World.) Best, Andr? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20180703/ae43b88d/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2018 15:48:52 +0100 From: "Nicholas H.Tollervey" <nt...@ntoll.org> To: edu-sig@python.org Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Editors/IDEs for teaching Message-ID: <1180cbb5-e461-84a6-f634-c0c5e2889...@ntoll.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 03/07/18 15:27, Andre Roberge wrote: > * Mu (https://codewith.mu/). Primarily intended for young learners and > hobbyists. Nope. I'm the author of Mu. It's for beginner programmers of all levels (as it says so on the website). Beginner programmer is a "stage" not an age. ;-) The design reflects feedback given to the Raspberry Pi Foundation's education team, extensive UX and feedback from both beginner programmers and teachers. Thanks, N. ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2018 12:04:29 -0300 From: Andre Roberge <andre.robe...@gmail.com> To: nt...@ntoll.org Cc: "edu-sig@python.org" <edu-sig@python.org> Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Editors/IDEs for teaching Message-ID: <CAGMu_=ofoi8hzkwjtzjjvaeprrzy9hm38thca0iqgwbdg4x...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 11:52 AM Nicholas H.Tollervey <nt...@ntoll.org> wrote: > On 03/07/18 15:27, Andre Roberge wrote: > > * Mu (https://codewith.mu/). Primarily intended for young learners and > > hobbyists. > > Nope. > > ?Thanks!? > I'm the author of Mu. It's for beginner programmers of all levels (as it > says so on the website). Beginner programmer is a "stage" not an age. ;-) > ?I do agree with what you write ... but, at the same time, I've been struggling to define appropriate categories. Some software can be designed for use by (young) adult beginners but not for young children. (For example: anything that will rely heavily on word menus ... say, like Microsoft Word.) I'm using the term hobbyists for this category. Other software can be designed to be used by young children. I did not see Mu being designed to be used in a CS 101 type of course. Perhaps I am wrong and should simply think of the target audience as "everyone" like I did for IDLE.... ? Andr? > > The design reflects feedback given to the Raspberry Pi Foundation's > education team, extensive UX and feedback from both beginner programmers > and teachers. > > ? > Thanks, > > N. > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20180703/0ef2a791/attachment.html> ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig ------------------------------ End of Edu-sig Digest, Vol 179, Issue 1 ***************************************
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