1. teaching Eu to students on a formal basis
Sorry to everyone that I haven't joined in much of the discourse at the
Forum here, but I have been very busy with other parts of my life that once
in a while require attention. But I do read the new entries at least two
or three times a day.
I happen to live in British Columbia Canada, up the Coast a ways from
Vancouver. The primary means of making a livelihood here have always been
centred around Fishing (salmon) and Falling (big trees). Well, all of that
has come under hard times, and the Computer Age is hitting into here in a
very big way.
I teach part-time computing here by running a municipality-funded Cyber
Cafe and have just begun to work small hours in a new programme which is
designed to give support to all of those who never learned how to use a
computer in the past, never wanted to, or can't read or write, whatever.
The problem is that there is now NO computer literate teachers at our only
high school (the last one packed up and went to Alberta), and the kids
attending there are going to be screwed when it comes time to get a job or
go on to college or university. Incredible but true!
I have been asked to try and help fill in some of the gaps in the
situation, and I would like to set up a course using Euphoria as its basis,
due to its ease of use and learning. But is there anyone out there who has
done a course or would like to give me some concrete feed-back and ideas
how to make such a thing successful. I am willing to share my experiences
with others about all of this. How about you?
Thanks in advance,
Norm
2. Re: teaching Eu to students on a formal basis
Norm Goundry writes:
> But is there anyone out there who has done a course
> or would like to give me some concrete feed-back
> and ideas how to make such a thing successful.
You might ask Detlef Reimers about his experiences
in teaching Euphoria to high school students in Germany.
His address (as of several months ago) is:
DREIMERS at aol.com
Prof. Mihai Tarcolea taught Euphoria to
engineering students in Romania. His address:
tarcolea at aris.sim.pub.ro
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
3. Re: teaching Eu to students on a formal basis
Hi Norm!
I live in Victoria, B.C.
I've designed a LOT of computer and statistics courses for both lay people
and for academics. The key to make it a roaring success is four-fold (in my
opinion):
1) The first thing (especially adult learners) fear is looking really dumb
in front of a group. One thing you can do to alleviate this fear is to
simply offer a plate of cookies during the sessions. Yeah, I know that
people worry about crumbs in the keyboards, but if you don't have people
taking the course, then you don't need the keyboards. Oh yes, and be
approachable.
2) The second thing you need is some little 2 or 3 minute amusing anecdotes
that, while amusing, actually end up connecting with computer knowledge and
giving them even more useful information that is easily digested (because it
is fun)
3) The third thing people want is success. They want to walk out of each
session with some PRACTICAL knowledge. It is absolutely essential to throw
some theoretical stuff in and people have to know what a byte is at some
point, and what "compiled" means and what "load and go" means, etc., but at
the end of each session there had better be something to take home, some
skill that they can actually demonstrate. That means if there is a
database session, then teach people BY USING ONE (in a simple way, and by
actually walking them step-by-step through entering 6 or 8 records, listing
them, printing them, and then searching and printing them), what a database
is. Once they actually see how they can use it for work, school, personal
data, cd's, etc. they will be interested in HOW it works. But first they
want to feel that they can use it, that it will enhance their lives and then
they can sit back and talk about it a little.
So you might teach people some programming, but I'd suggest you start with
some applications (even free ones, and they may even be written in Euphoria)
so that they have a knowledge of what widgets they might want to build and
exactly what they do. Otherwise you'll have people with little specific
motivation and that is a big problem. . . By starting with simple things,
and very, very specific things, people will see the potential through their
personal experience, and they will want more.
4) After each "module" you teach, do a little "course evaluation" with no
names connected to the evaluations. In this way you can get feedback from
the population you're serving. If they have frustrations, even seemingly
unreasonable ones, often you can do something to obviate the problems and
build on the strengths. This is easy to forget, and since everyone is
smiling you might think that everyone is 100% happy -- however you'll be
surprised at the results, and at some of the excellent suggestions you'll
get!
That's my 2 cents. It's always worked for me.
Cheers!
--Warren
4. Re: teaching Eu to students on a formal basis
Alyne & Warren wrote:
> Hi Norm!
>
> I live in Victoria, B.C.
Wow, some BC people on the list!
I live in Shawnigan Lake.
Greg Phillips
5. Re: teaching Eu to students on a formal basis
On Thu, 7 Oct 1999, Greg Phillips wrote:
>
> I live in Shawnigan Lake.
>
> Greg Phillips
>
Wow! Does that mean your are a fish or some kind of amphibian? (j/k)
8^)
