[p2pu-webcraft] What Languages Should Be Taught?

Tue Jul 5 00:14:51 UTC 2011

I'd start off with having a mailing list which lets tech group participants
and organisers meet and talk with each other.  If you ask John Britton
(P2PU's Product Manager) he might be able to setup a P2PU account. Otherwise
I'd suggest using Google Groups and letting the P2PU community know about
it.

You're going to need that list (and community) once there's a more formal
school structure, so I'd focus on that first before making an application
for school status. Besides having a content focus and a name you can tag a
group with, a school primarily acts as a forum and framing within which to
discuss and collaborate on each others groups and help each other out.

Having an active list will support a future application as you'll show that
there's both need and support for a general technology school

Before Mozilla formally became involved and brought me into the picture
there was a much more informal grouping of people talking about open web
development on a list. That initial set of discussions gave me / us the
beginning of a community to work with as we became more "School" like.

Both School of Math Futures and School of Social Innovation also evolved out
of existing communities (online and offline) and then progressed to P2PU and
schoolness.

To be honest, getting a school started and running it isn't like flicking on
a switch.  It's something I'm still learning how to do (as one of many
people involved) and there's a million ways I can improve what I'm doing.

P*

On 5 July 2011 09:22, Wesley Pennock <wesleymarkpennock at gmail.com> wrote:

> I love the way you are thinking man and I agree. Currently I am going to
> write up the paper work to get a school officially started but I need more
> courses on non web based languages like Lisp,C++, or even Fortran. How do
> you think it would evolve organically though?
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 6:38 PM, Pippa Buchanan <Pippa.Buchanan at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hey Parag, Wesley et al,
>>
>> It's really difficult to draw the line at what is general tech skills and
>> what is very Webcraft specific. From a Webcraft perspective a general
>> programming course would be better presented with Processing.js<http://processingjs.org/>as it will improve Javascript skills and can be viewed easily on the web.
>>
>> Mozilla's also working on Hackasaurus <http://hackasaurus.org/> which is
>> about introducing kids (and anyone really) to web hacking basics in a very
>> fun way.
>>
>> Languages like Lua, Fortran :-), Lisp or C++, while useful, just aren't
>> the type of things that School of Webcraft can officially support as they're
>> not web focussed.
>>
>> Once again, it raises the issue of how to support a more general
>> technology focussed school within P2PU that overlaps nicely with School of
>> Webcraft.  I think that this is something that will evolve organically from
>> existing tech courses and groups.
>>
>> P*
>>
>>
>>
>> On 3 July 2011 21:32, Parag Shah <adaptives at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Scratch (from what I understand) is a great way to learn the basics of
>>> programming in a visual way. It might be a nice way to introduce an HTML/CSS
>>> designer to programming concepts. It also may be a very good way of
>>> introducing school children to the concepts of programming (if SoW plans on
>>> working with that audience).
>>>
>>> Lua according to the Tiobe index is one of the fastest growing languages
>>> in adoption. It is also one of the most popular languages for game
>>> programming. I think game programming is a very nice way to learn computing
>>> concepts.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Thanks & Regards
>>> Parag Shah
>>> http://blog.adaptivesoftware.biz
>>> http://diycomputerscience.com
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 8:09 PM, Wesley Pennock <
>>> wesleymarkpennock at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> PHP,Python,and Javascript are currently covered but I would like to know
>>>> more about Lua and scratch. Care to elaborate on why you think they should
>>>> be taught?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 1:17 AM, Parag Shah <adaptives at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I am assuming this is in the context of web programming.
>>>>>
>>>>> Javascript, Python, PHP, Ruby, Scheme, Coffee Script, HTML-5, Lua,
>>>>> scratch
>>>>>
>>>>> I have included Lua purely because it is a very popular language for
>>>>> game programming, and that is an area which seems to be increasing in
>>>>> popularity.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am including Scratch because it *may* be a good first language.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Thanks & Regards
>>>>> Parag Shah
>>>>> http://diycomputerscience.com
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 10:30 PM, Wesley Pennock <
>>>>> wesleymarkpennock at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Fortran seriously man I need actual languages that are not dead. Maybe
>>>>>> common Lisp or Ruby, any thoughts?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 10:15 AM, paulbooker.me at gmail.com <
>>>>>> paulbooker.me at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> **
>>>>>>> Fortran 77 :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 30/06/2011 18:03, Wesley Pennock wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I was wondering what languages you guys think should be taught, I
>>>>>>> know HTML-5,PHP, and Python are being taught but not much more. Any language
>>>>>>> course suggestions guys?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>>> Wesley Pennock
>>>>>>> Check Out The Techie School
>>>>>>> http://techieschool.blogspot.com/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> p2pu-webcraft mailing listp2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.orghttp://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Best, Paul
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ----
>>>>>>> Paul Booker
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Twitter: @paulbooker
>>>>>>> Drupal:  http://drupal.org/user/25892
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>> Wesley Pennock
>>>>>> Check Out The Techie School
>>>>>> http://techieschool.blogspot.com/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
>>>>>> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
>>>>>> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Thanks & Regards
>>>>> Parag Shah
>>>>> http://blog.adaptivesoftware.biz
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
>>>>> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
>>>>> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Sincerely,
>>>> Wesley Pennock
>>>> Check Out The Techie School
>>>> http://techieschool.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
>>>> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
>>>> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
>>> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
>>> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
>> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
>> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Wesley Pennock
> Check Out The Techie School
> http://techieschool.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> p2pu-webcraft mailing list
> p2pu-webcraft at lists.p2pu.org
> http://lists.p2pu.org/mailman/listinfo/p2pu-webcraft
>
>
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