I took CS in high school and was first taught pascal, then c++. No complaints with either. However, I got the most practice on my TI-83, seriously. I wrote a tone of games – tic-tac-toe, a bowling game (with graphics), and all sorts of puzzles & mazes. Everyone had mario which was being passed around as a binary, but I liked my games, and I probably got more experience there than in pascal or c++.

I’ve recently started playing around with something I find just as great. Robocode. I’ve never wanted to pick up java before, but I’m getting quite good. It is fun, engaging, and with examples it is simple enough to be doable but can be complex enough to really learn. Check it out: http://robocode.sourceforge.net/

Yeah, I know. I should develop thicker skin, and just let them screw themselves over if they insist on it. Then again, when I think back to some of the ultra-boring Gen-Ed classes I took in college I can sort of relate to them.

But yeah, I’m way to nice. :P

Wow, your going to work with them to help them get their tests in?
Your a nice guy, I would be like FAIL! (maybe I would be a little more compassionate but not much)

Okay, as a new guy… and only breifly looking at the wiki for both… I am going to say Allice because it looks a little more new, edgy, and fun… (mind you when you first mentioned it, i thought we were talking about the AI)… However it kinda also looks like the Ruby on Rails of coding, something thats cool but not going to practically carry over to anything else. Like if you learn JavaScript you can still apply those fundamental skills to PHP

I totally agree with both of you. Students must realize on their own how to solve their problems not only content-wise but with such proceedings and other related issues of time and task management.

The professor is there to help but not to please the student, fulfilling his/hers wishes. They must learn how to fight for that.

regarding your foolish student, an answer you can put into programming terms:

“It’s very simple: you have a scheduling conflict. Resolve it”

When I was younger I would have argued for leniency, but keeping tabs with old lecturers still in academia, they lament the significant drop in quality of the students over the past 10 years. For example, I finished my course in the mid-90s. For us, applying for ‘special consideration’ meant “I am pregnant”, “my parent died” or “my girlfriend has cancer” sort of thing. Talking to one of the lecturers two Christmasses ago, he said that over half the class had applied for special consideration, and it was typical of classes in general these days. He used to be a guy that lived with an incredible passion for educating people, and he was haggard with exhaustion and frustration.

I support you in not moving the exam – he’s the one who organised a trip without bothering to do a sanity check. Let him do the work of rearranging timetables, not you. It’ll be a nice life lesson. I mean, if it’s no effort to change to an earlier slot, sure, do that, but if you have to make two exams or fight redtape to do it, fuck ’em. I mean, teaching is a job you do for the love of teaching, but if your students aren’t learning for the love of it, don’t bend over backwards for them. Otherwise he just gets it reinforced that he can get things changed to suit him.

/curmudgeon

[quote post=”2383″]I think in Brazil they would get offended once they realize this stuff is for children.[/quote]

Well, it’s not really just for children. It is a generic teaching language and Tortue doesn’t really have an appearance of a kids application (ie no silly turtle or anything like that).

Anyways, this was recommended in the course materials posted on the online portal for CMPT 109 teachers at my school – so whoever was putting together that collection figured it was a good idea to use it. :P

Wow, logo!! That surely does bring back memories, as Starhawk mentioned.

I remember learning it for the first time when I was 9-10 years old. Many years later, I also wrote a Logo Interpretor.

So, my point is going to be essentially the same of Starhawk: Isn’t it to simple? I think in Brazil they would get offended once they realize this stuff is for children.

[quote post=”2383″]Just joking but Logo is kind of a kids language so the question for me would be how much time do you get to spend on introducing a toy language? And would the adults get offended at what is obviously even a dumb downed version of Logo?[/quote]

Well… My class consists mostly of dance, music, drama, telecommunications and phys-ed majors. I was actually thinking Logo might be too difficult for them. Anything with a higher degree of complexity might be too much. :P

Btw I just looked at Context Frees web site and I think they have a stand alone version of the program for windows. I haven’t tried the Linux version of the program tho.

Wow Logo that brings back memories :) About every programmer of my generation wrote a Logo Interpretor in one language or another in the stone ages prior to the MS/Dos Era.

How about giving your students K&R’s book on C and have them write there own Logo like language? Wouldn’t that be fun ;)

Just joking but Logo is kind of a kids language so the question for me would be how much time do you get to spend on introducing a toy language? And would the adults get offended at what is obviously even a dumb downed version of Logo? But Logo can be great fun for some so that counts for something.

I looked at Alice before but I didn’t download it and play with it. It does seem a bit complex for your needs. I would think you need something kind of in between. Have you ever looked at Context Free before? The language for it is C like and formally is a context free grammar hence its name. Like Logo it draws graphic images but unlike Logo it is easy to draw wild looking fractals and stuff like that. I think it is pretty cool but I think it requires installation.