b-man

Scratch, Squeak and other similar environments follow the leading of Seymour Papert and his Logo language:

low threshold and no ceiling

For that they are different, and for that they are interesting.

The little beast looks like a virus. Hmmmm...

Have you ever consider creating your own way, as in, researching a path for yourself, away from formal education?

Won't earn you a degree, but it is a path that perhaps would be more enjoyable. It certainly was/is for me.

Well, it is probably a joke, but anyone familiar with Engelbart's mother of all demos would certanly see a vague similarity ...

I think the author needs to keep in mind the audience of HTDP:

"everyone should learn how to design programs."[1]

It is a book for a first semester not only for a CS curriculum, but for several other courses and styles.

"So why should anyone learn to program?

The answer consists of two parts. First, it is indeed true that traditional forms of programming are useful for just a few people. But, programming as we the authors understand it is useful for everyone: the administrative secretary who uses spreadsheets as well as the high-tech programmer. In other words, we have a broader notion of programming in mind than the traditional one. We explain our notion in a moment. Second, we teach our idea of programming with a technology that is based on the principle of minimal intrusion. Hence our notion of programming teaches problem-analysis and problem-solving skills without imposing the overhead of traditional programming notations and tools."[1]

If you are already a programmer, there is a commentary from Matthias Falleisen about how you should read the book:

"If you are an experienced programmer, you should read HtDP like this:

  -- read the sections whose title starts with "Designing ...."
  -- also read the "iterative refinement" sections
  -- pick five exercises in the preceding and/or follow-up sections  

and solve them according to the recipe -- unless you're stuck move forward -- try to understand the "symmetry" between data definitions and templates

I expect that somewhere around late part II, you will slow down. You may pick up real reading as of part III, though some may make it thru III and only "stutter" in IV.

Also:

  -- use check-expect to express your examples/tests
  -- avoid draw.ss exercises, replace them with world.ss but that's a  

non-trivial switch " [2]

[1] http://htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/curriculum-Z-H-2.html

[2]http://groups.google.com/group/plt-scheme/browse_thread/thre...

In the same spirit I would recommend that you try section 2.2.4[1] of the SICP textbook using The SICP Picture Language [2] which can be found here [3].

That section is based on the same original paper, and it is very nice to check on the book's explanation using a modern environment such as DrScheme.

[1] http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-15.html...

[2] http://planet.plt-scheme.org/package-source/soegaard/sicp.pl...

[3] http://planet.plt-scheme.org/display.ss?package=sicp.plt&...

I don't even know my Gmail password. I do know my KeePassX password though. It knows my 25 char passwords

Meet with friends, some scheme coding, little running, sometimes surfing, beer, stoned gaming, judo/jiujitsu. Oh, and

if has-girlfriend

  girlfriend pleasing

else

  girl hunting

end

There is more info about that here http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/stories/2003/02/17/aPrescript...

On the same note, queen's guitar player, Brian May, is also an astrophysicist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#As_an_astrophysicist

Yeah, you could go for SICP too, or as the commenter above mentioned, the HTDP.

Both HTDP and conabs inherit their methodologies from SICP. (in htdp you could even look at The Structure and Interpretation of the Computer Science Curriculum here http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/ff...)

But it is worth to look at the same thing from different points of view. As Alan Kay says, it is worth 80 IQ points :)

Yeah, this is fascism in miniature. Imagine a large scale experiment on that philosophy. Welcome to Italy, circa 1919.

Hey, thanks for the pointing out. Very nice bib there.

Keep on the good efforts man, I think the immensity of JS will eventually spill out some deserved attention to Self.

In case anyone is curious, there are proposals for systems that respect the individual, are libertarian and are passive in the sense that the individual is the active part, choosing when, how, and what he will learn.

Take a look at this article of mine for instance http://cnxs.com.br/posts/an-emergent-participatory-design-fr... .

Florianópolis, Brazil

If anyone is interested in more details, I've just posted an interview here with the same guy. Worths the check.

http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/10041/...

"The only concern I have with giving programming puzzles for hiring"

That is really not what the author is advocating. A paid trial period is more in line with his approach. I can personally vouch for its efficacy.

There are others, freer markets, where you don't have to submit to a faceless master that uses his definition of hygiene and beauty to control what can and cannot be done.

Heck, you could even, I don't know, sell your software on the internet, by creating a page for it.

Seriously, I'm a libertarian, and apple's policies, specially in this area, bugs the hell out of me.

It boggles me as to why a programmer would willingly submit to a fascist scheme like app store.

I wonder if it is something in human nature, where the presence of a big brother makes you feel secure.

I think most people are missing the point here. What he is saying is that CS (and the university model itself) has stopped being a correct vehicle for preparing students for a technical society.

I happen to agree with the guy. The model is broken, and we should move on to something much more libertarian, where the individual is in control of its own learning.

Did you ever tried meditation (I recommend zen style sitting, aka zazen)?

There is some nice, simple and to the point books about it, and for me it is something that really helps with concentration, sadness and focus.

list of good books

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Training-Philosophy-Shambhala-Clas...

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Brain-Understanding-Meditation-Con...

http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Updated-Expa...

The misconception is about education itself, and not just CS. There is an overconfidence in instructionist educational systems(which means, an overemphasis in teaching), as opposed to a focus on learning.

Learning can take many, many forms, in all kinds of different backgrounds, because it is constructed by the individual attaching meaning to his experiences.

It is unfortunate that this happens, but projects like the OLPC is bringing constructionism(Seymour Papert's theory, based on constructivism). Lets hope we move to a deschooled society sooner than later.

But you can't open source anytime :)

Sorry man, but I completely disagree with your assumption that this is being tried everywhere in the US. Perhaps what is being tried in some places is scientific approach to teaching, but never to learning.

Plus, it is also a problem of paradigms, in the Kuhniam sense. People are stuck with the instructionist paradigm, and with the implementation of that model, that was built with old media as a vehicle.

Dr. Carl Wieman words are a nice way to see that (here is a presentation of the same material http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/560). You could also check out Alan Kay's, Jerome Bruner's and others, specially Seymour Papert (like this for example http://www.papert.org/articles/const_inst/const_inst1.html)

Again, the paradigm of most people who are doing science in education is not adequate and leads to apathy, evasion and several other problems we see today.

The framework he's talking about is mostly guided to education withing the current scientific establishment.

But if you look deeper, he's providing a great framework for all mass education, whenever it is scientific or any other.

Btw, just out of curiosity, what do you mean by "all education"?

I don't think the journalist did a good job when he took his conclusions as:

"Depression may turn out to be an inevitable price of living in a dynamic society."

That amounts to, Hey, we are doing something that hurt us as a society, but what the heck, lets all take the symptom of our mistake as a 'price' for our 'correct' path.

The blind leading the wounded.

Just a question, does anyone know how to download these videos to watch offline?

May I suggest a couple of books?

How to Solve It by George Pólya's 1945 http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Aspect-Mathematical-Method/d...

and

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Learning to Learn by Richard W.Hamming http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9056995014/ref=olp_product_...

Great books, and they will introduce you to learn the mathematical thinking, so you can deduce the patterns yourself. Great for math and hack I think.

I think it is funny that the guy went and said something correct like this:

"In an ideal world, high-level languages like Python would replace all other programming languages."

That includes smalltalk, scheme, clisp, and every marvelous language not yet invented.

But then he goes on and says something very closed minded like

"Someday we will all program in python."

As if python got everything correct, and we have a perfect map of how humans think with it. The arrogance.

If you want an advice, read Seymour Papert's articles and books (http://www.papert.org/works.html, also take a look at http://learning.media.mit.edu/content/publications/EA.Piaget...)

Papert's style is very accessible, and he was, at least in my view (and in Piaget's view) the guy who grok his ideas the most.