pouët.net

Java tutorial for elementary school students

category: general [glöplog]
yeah you could end up in jail..
added on the 2008-02-08 18:50:34 by Navis Navis
*chomp* *chomp*

This is the sad moment, when girls cry, and boys try not to. Adok is in danger because of the evil cop Yright. Still, he will fight till the end for justice, and the safety of puppies, and Christmas...

*take a nervous sip of coke*
added on the 2008-02-08 19:00:52 by TomS4wy3R TomS4wy3R
I'm testing Creative Basic. It is not fully compatible with QBasic, but it's free. http://www.ionicwind.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=6&Itemid=45

What's better? Redesigning the QBasic tutorial so that it's compatible with Creative Basic or continuing to write the Java tutorial?
added on the 2008-02-08 19:07:39 by Adok Adok
Quote:
What's better? Redesigning the QBasic tutorial so that it's compatible with Creative Basic or continuing to write the Java tutorial?

are you serious? how many times should everybody repeat for you, that Java is most definitely NOT compatible with children? (actually, i think it's not compatible with adults either, but that's not the point here). stick with basic if these are the possible choices.
added on the 2008-02-08 19:27:18 by blala blala
blala, he's not interested in anyone's opinion, he just wants some attention! Bless!
for such youngsters i still think an instant visual feedback is necessary like the LOGO turtle (hell even at engineering school and uni we were given visual classes to represent the result of the algos we had to code), and imho games are the perfect door for programming teaching : i remember a not so recent educational game called MindRover: the Europa Project where you program the AI of some battle robots through a wiring interface. Quite cunning :)

added on the 2008-02-08 19:33:15 by Zest Zest
btw why do we love demos ? because they are instantly & visually apprehendable representations of complex abtract algorithms.
added on the 2008-02-08 19:40:06 by Zest Zest
blala: OK, I've started translating my QBasic tutorial to Creative Basic. I wrote the QBasic tutorial when I was 12 years old and maybe that makes it good for elementary school pupils. Currently I'm working on the German version, but I'll translate it to English.

parapete: You've got a wrong impression of me. It's my honest aim to create a good tutorial for elementary school pupils.

Zest: Maybe somebody could also create a little demo with Creative Basic. That would perhaps be an incentive for young readers to join the demo community.
added on the 2008-02-08 20:19:44 by Adok Adok
Quote:

parapete: You've got a wrong impression of me. It's my honest aim to create a good tutorial for elementary school pupils.


If that is the case, why do you ignore feedback and not respond to it or even take it into consideration?
added on the 2008-02-08 20:31:00 by Preacher Preacher
Maybe you could tell us a few more times how you wrote a QBasic tutorial when you were 12 years old? Don't be so modest!
added on the 2008-02-08 20:42:29 by syphus syphus
for (i=1; i < 1000; i++) {
System.out.println("I did a QBasic tutorial when I was 12 years old!");
}


If I'd learnt Java as a child, maybe this wouldn't be the sum total of my abilities!
added on the 2008-02-08 20:48:13 by syphus syphus
and you'd still want to be a fireman.
added on the 2008-02-08 20:56:50 by Gargaj Gargaj
You could have been a demo coder!
added on the 2008-02-08 20:57:19 by doomdoom doomdoom
when i was 12 year old i was searching for all the sexual words in the dictionary.
added on the 2008-02-08 20:59:49 by Zest Zest
LOGO FTW!!1

BB Image

(:
added on the 2008-02-08 21:40:54 by bdk bdk
BB Image
added on the 2008-02-08 21:44:14 by bdk bdk
Quote:
The problem with using the QBasic tutorial is that QBasic isn't included in current operating systems. QBasic was a part of MS-DOS 5.0 and higher. If I used the QBasic tutorial the users would have the problem of obtaining QBasic.

So you have absolutely no idea that Java isn't bundled with Windows either. :)

Quote:
I wrote the QBasic tutorial when I was 12 years old and maybe that makes it good for elementary school pupils.

I really doubt it.
added on the 2008-02-08 22:05:16 by waffle waffle
Pascal like some have mentioned, it's what i was taught when studying. From my understanding they mainly use it because it teaches you structure. It's also very easy to pickup. Later on we learnt COBOL...and i LOVED it, such a fun language.
Even projects aimed at students with regards to Java like Robocode are aimed at older children, not the ages you are talking about. Java is just not fun enough and engaging to keep them occupied. They like to see stuff happening on screen with minimal effort, ie see instant returns for their time to keep their interest or they'll get bored and pissy.
I haven't looked much at Processing, but maybe that is a good choice, certainly a million times better than Java.
added on the 2008-02-08 22:12:50 by Intrinsic Intrinsic
Oh and to add something i forgot within Robocode there is now a JuniorRobot class which is much simpler to use and is better aimed at your target audience like shown here: http://cubiccreative.org/robocodecamp1/#jr
added on the 2008-02-08 22:23:30 by Intrinsic Intrinsic
Like Preacher said, scratch is a proper approach, not Java.
added on the 2008-02-09 00:00:13 by auld auld
I've finished converting my QBasic tutorial into a Creative Basic tutorial, it's now available at:

http://www.students.meduniwien.ac.at/~n0102122/index_computer.htm

It's in German. I'll translate it to English. Maybe somebody also wants to translate it to other languages?

Send me feedback if it's adequate for elementary school kids.
added on the 2008-02-10 14:26:12 by Adok Adok
It would be good to have some sources of demos in Creative Basic.

I'd also be happy if elementary school teachers could spread the tutorial in their classes. It's not work for you and it's all free, both the tutorial and the interpreter.
added on the 2008-02-10 14:27:44 by Adok Adok
the REAL adok's way!
added on the 2008-02-10 14:43:17 by Gargaj Gargaj
How about: "Translated to the Hungarian language by the REAL Gargaj"?
added on the 2008-02-10 14:47:16 by Adok Adok
Adok: I read your Java tutorial's first chapter it had incredible amounts of nonsense words that are needless to tell to a someone and are most likely very hard for a 6-10 year old kid to comprehend.

Your sentences contain very academic type of speech from which I can conclude that you really don't have that much qualification to try to teach that work-in-progress chapter at least.

You also use words that a young reader probably don't have a clue about and you don't explain them, for example "function".

Also you have erroneous information in your education text so you probably really aren't qualified to teach Java to anyone. After you actually start answering constructive criticism I'm willing to tell the errors you made if you're really interested anyway.

Conclusion: Cut the nonsense and teach only the essential things. For example telling someone that Java is object orientated doesn't tell really anything. Especially when considering people who haven't programmed before and who yet can't grasp large and hard contexts on their own.
added on the 2008-02-10 15:02:45 by waffle waffle

login