>On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 22:42 +0100, alex wrote:
>> An interesting live coding environment referenced by that superglue
>> paper:
>> http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/projects/pivotal/
>
>Also this looks really interesting, although it seems I haven't got the
>right font installed here so haven't got far:
> http://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/ch-phd.pdf
>
>al
it is worth installing the font ...
just a "random" pick:
"Scripting" is a term that has gained currency in recent years.
Educational software with some programmability is described as having
"scripting capability." In part, a meaningful distinction is being
made: a scripting language promises greater simplicity in return for
reduced expressive power. But there is a rhetorical agenda as well:
to reassure the listener that no dangerously substantial ideas lurk
within. The idea is afoot that students will have no need for the
specialized skills of programming, because they can just "script."
This is thin gruel for growing minds.
With no sense of a growing competence and power to which students' tool-related
programming experiences, large and small, might synergistically contribute, the
scriptable tool scenario promises a balkanized educational technology, where
students' ability to "go beyond the representation given" does not get off the
ground. The much preferable alternative, argued in detail by diSessa
(2000), would include educational tools in, or interface them to, a
unifying "computational medium." Every episode of scripting would
then also be an investment in what diSessa rightly calls a new
computational literacy, and I am here calling programming.
--
.
Received on Wed Mar 28 2007 - 22:40:59 BST