[sf-lug] Teaching programming at SF-LUG meetings

[Jason Turner]

A SIG within the LUG?  Sounds fun to me, too.

A semblance of structure and commitment?  Ok, those can be good things.  
I'm in -- when I can.

--
jt


Asheesh Laroia wrote:
> There was some discussion earlier on this list about teaching introductory 
> programming.  Thinking about it, I would love to be more directly involved 
> in that sort of thing.
>
> I would be thrilled if any non-zero number of people decide to follow 
> along.  There's a great book on the web called "Think Python: An 
> Introduction to Software Design" at 
> http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html .  It's a free 
> (of cost) download, and it's a Free Book (in the sense of the GNU Free 
> Documentation License, the same license Wikipedia uses).
>
> There are about ten pages per chapter, plus exercises.  Maybe we can do 
> one chapter and exercise per SF-LUG meeting?  If someone's interested, 
> reply and I'll make sure to come to SF-LUG meetings with teaching you as 
> my carrot. (-:  But you have to promise to read the chapter before I talk 
> to you about that week's lesson.  Hopefully you'll even do the exercises, 
> too.
>
> (Honestly, this is probably more useful than an intro programming course 
> at an online university, having just spent the past two hours trying to 
> tutor a generally smart person who is going through such a course.)
>
> Anyone interested?  We'll work out details.  I could be convinced to do 
> this outside SF-LUG meetings if people really think that's a better idea. 
> (One reason to do that is to go faster, like one lesson per week.)
>
> -- Asheesh.
>
> P.S. If someone *really* wants Java or C++ instead, I can think about 
> that.  The Python version is more recently-updated, so pretend I never 
> said this.
>
> P.P.S. Still thinking about this Debian packaging tutorial thing.  Working 
> on the announce. (-:
>
>