[REBOL] Re: teaching rebol
From: Mike:withforesight at: 31-Mar-2003 23:07
Can I add my 2 cents to this thread ...
My son is 9 and has shown an interest in learning something about
programming.
We spent some time playing around with REBOL but quickly came to the
conclusion it would take a great deal of work to get him to the point where
he could actually do "fun' things.
Turns out there are lots of academic folks working in this area and a few
good commercial products.
On the academic side see, for example John Pane's work at Carnegie Mellon
University
The Snip below is from http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~NatProg/index.html
HANDS: Programming for Children:
HANDS is a new programming system for children. HANDS provides a concrete
model for computation as an alternative to requiring beginners to learn a
whole new set of programming concepts like procedures, variables,
parameters, scoping, flow of control, etc. In HANDS, the computation is
represented by a character sitting at a table, reacting to events and
manipulating cards that contain all of the program's data. ...
On the commercial side there is Agentsheets (an outgrowth of work done at
University of Colorado) see: http://agentsheets.com/products/index.html
(free time delimited demo or $120 to purchase) Snippet ...
Agentsheets is a revolutionary authoring tool that allows non-programmers to
create agents with behaviors and missions, teach agents to react to
information and process it in personalized ways, and combine agents to
create sophisticated interactive simulations and models....
Nice set of sample apps for kids to play with but, IMHO, it lacks a good
tutorial and is probably suitable for older kids (14 & up).
My son and I have used Stagecast ( see http://www.stagecast.com/ from
which the following is snipped.
In the classroom, Creator gives you and your students the power to create
lively interactive simulations for math, reading, science and more. Creator
can be used for any subject, for any grade level, by both boys and girls,
and by students with a wide variety of learning styles. Children learn by
building things.
It offers a 3 month free trial and the purchase price is $49.95 USD
Stagecraft has a great tutorial and kids are "up and running" in minutes...
really remarkable. Notice the end sentence: "Children learn by building
things." Perhaps this rule also applies to adults (especially those wanting
to learn REBOL).
I think it would be great if we could duplicate the stagecraft tutorial
using REBOL (View -- no doubt). Something well beyond my ability with
REBOL.
Make something so that REBOL becomes the language of choice for teaching
programming in high school... (where have I seen that strategy before...)
thanks for reading this far...
Mike Behar
[rebolite--withforesight--com]
