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Khan Academy: Computer Science

khanacademy.org

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Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#81

Post by teach »

Tichy wrote: post #77
teach wrote: post #69

High school CS teacher here. I really hate taking shots at Khan Academy, because I love what they do and his other videos have really helped a lot of my students in chemistry, economics, etc. However, he's moving through the material MUCH more quickly than I've ever been able to do as a teacher. And I get nearly 5 hours a week of face time with my students. For example, his third lecture is on for loops. My students,…

I guess that I taught myself programming from a book makes me a kind of super genius? Or maybe frontal teaching simply is not the right way to teach programming?

I taught myself programming from a book, too. We're super geniuses, yes.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#82

Post by nickik »

thinkbohemian wrote: post #57

Does anyone know how you can become a video contributor to khan? I have several years of teaching experience, two of them with online learning models and have worked with the University of Texas. I've attempted to contact them and offer my free services, but haven't heard anything back. Not even a 'no thank you'.

The other comments are wrong. Khan talks about it in his talk at linkedin and his talks at google. They want to add more teachers in the long run. If you really want to do this you have to take a subject you know well an make a small set of lectures on it and send that in. If they like it, then you have a change.

Khan does not like all this meetings and talk stuff. He want people to do the same thing he did. Just start and talk later.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#83

Post by teach »

kenjackson wrote: post #71
teach wrote: post #69

High school CS teacher here. I really hate taking shots at Khan Academy, because I love what they do and his other videos have really helped a lot of my students in chemistry, economics, etc. However, he's moving through the material MUCH more quickly than I've ever been able to do as a teacher. And I get nearly 5 hours a week of face time with my students. For example, his third lecture is on for loops. My students,…

My students, on the other hand, complete literally 80 assignments before beginning for loops. 80 assignments? What are these assignments? Are you teaching them how to use recursion before looping in Java? I get that Java has some ceremony, but not 70 assignments worth. The first day I learned to program (with BASIC) I learned looping. I didn't know the details of it (like there was an index variable I could access),…

How to use a compiler. Basic shell of a Java program. That statements occur in a sequence. Practice with getting details right. Mathematical expressions. What variables are, and how assignments to expressions differ from formulas (in Excel, say). If statements and conditions. The concept of "incrementing" a variable or accumulators in general. Loops in general.

See for yourself: http://cs.leanderisd.org/current/cs1/assignments.html

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#85

Post by teach »

TreesCanCode wrote: post #80
teach wrote: post #69

High school CS teacher here. I really hate taking shots at Khan Academy, because I love what they do and his other videos have really helped a lot of my students in chemistry, economics, etc. However, he's moving through the material MUCH more quickly than I've ever been able to do as a teacher. And I get nearly 5 hours a week of face time with my students. For example, his third lecture is on for loops. My students,…

I think there is a world of difference in the "average total beginner" high school students taking a class to meet a district mandate, and the "average total beginner" self-motivated learners actually interested in computer science.

My class is an honors elective, fulfills no state requirements, and there's a waiting list to get in. My kids are already pretty motivated.

You really, really have no idea how difficult precise logical thinking is for an average person.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#86

Post by rudiger »

kenjackson wrote: post #71
teach wrote: post #69

High school CS teacher here. I really hate taking shots at Khan Academy, because I love what they do and his other videos have really helped a lot of my students in chemistry, economics, etc. However, he's moving through the material MUCH more quickly than I've ever been able to do as a teacher. And I get nearly 5 hours a week of face time with my students. For example, his third lecture is on for loops. My students,…

My students, on the other hand, complete literally 80 assignments before beginning for loops. 80 assignments? What are these assignments? Are you teaching them how to use recursion before looping in Java? I get that Java has some ceremony, but not 70 assignments worth. The first day I learned to program (with BASIC) I learned looping. I didn't know the details of it (like there was an index variable I could access),…

SICP doesn't introduce assignment until two hundred pages in.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#87

Post by kenjackson »

teach wrote: post #83
kenjackson wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My students, on the other hand, complete literally 80 assignments before beginning for loops. 80 assignments? What are these assignments? Are you teaching them how to use recursion before looping in Java? I get that Java has some ceremony, but not 70 assignments worth. The first day I learned to program (with BASIC) I learned looping. I didn't know the details of it (like there was an index variable I could access),…

How to use a compiler. Basic shell of a Java program. That statements occur in a sequence. Practice with getting details right. Mathematical expressions. What variables are, and how assignments to expressions differ from formulas (in Excel, say). If statements and conditions. The concept of "incrementing" a variable or accumulators in general. Loops in general. See for yourself: http://cs.leanderisd.org/current/cs1/a…

Wow. Not quite 80, but still an order of magnitude more than I would have expected. Interesting they learn Swing before loops. For me, the first thing I learned was printing, then goto, then for-loop. Maybe just a function of language you learn with.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#88

Post by wyclif »

kenjackson wrote: post #87
teach wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How to use a compiler. Basic shell of a Java program. That statements occur in a sequence. Practice with getting details right. Mathematical expressions. What variables are, and how assignments to expressions differ from formulas (in Excel, say). If statements and conditions. The concept of "incrementing" a variable or accumulators in general. Loops in general. See for yourself: http://cs.leanderisd.org/current/cs1/a…

Wow. Not quite 80, but still an order of magnitude more than I would have expected. Interesting they learn Swing before loops. For me, the first thing I learned was printing, then goto, then for-loop. Maybe just a function of language you learn with.

Yep, me too. Of course, that was in BASIC around 1983.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#89

Post by olegious »

I'm not a programmer - my biggest issue with all the tutorials that I've seen for Python, Ruby and even js on codeademy.com is that none of them actually teach you how to do things within a web environment.

I realize that this is meant to be an "intro to CS" class and not a web dev class, but a product can teach me how to create a simple web app that connects to a popular API, retrieves data and displays the data on a web page is the product that will get my money.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#90

Post by elviejo79 »

teach wrote: post #69

High school CS teacher here. I really hate taking shots at Khan Academy, because I love what they do and his other videos have really helped a lot of my students in chemistry, economics, etc. However, he's moving through the material MUCH more quickly than I've ever been able to do as a teacher. And I get nearly 5 hours a week of face time with my students. For example, his third lecture is on for loops. My students,…

This goes to prove that java is a pretty bad language to teach pogramming.

in logo this is how you draw a square forward 100 Right 90 Forward 100 Right 90 Forward 100 Right 90 Forward 100 Right 90

Then in the second lesson you introduce loops repeat 4 Forward 100 Right 90 End

then you ask kids to draw hexagons octagons etc. and they will never forget what a for loop does.

Edit changed repeat 8 to repeat 4. Thank you.

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