I have to thank Eugene Wallingford for commenting on my blog, because he left a link that led back to his blog. He has a lot of interesting musings there, such as this one which was inspired by a keynote talk by Alan Kay:
Kay reminded us that what students learn first will have a huge effect on what they think, on how they think about computing... Teaching university students as we do today, we imprint in them that computing is about arcane syntax, data types, tricky little algorithms, and endless hours spent in front of a text editor and compiler. It's a wonder that anyone wants to learn computing.
Posted on December 7, 2004 06:26 PM
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I have to agree with you. The blog entry kind of made me wish I was there to hear Alan speak. I have been preaching (to deaf ears) many of the same things to my university where I find no magic in the classroom. Its like being a child and having fairy tales read to you, before bed, by your parents. You wish and daydream about the world from the books. For me, the authors of those stories are the only things that have changed. Instead of Anderson, Grimm, and Mother Goose; I read stories provided by Queinnec, Ableson, Sussman, and Norman.
Posted by: MJ Stahl at December 7, 2004 09:08 PM