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Should Students Be Taught With or Without an IDE?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the why-the-zero-sum dept.

bblazer asks: "Beginning this next school year, there is a strong possibility I will be teaching an intro to Java and an intro to Python course at the local community college. I was wondering what the prevailing wisdom is when it comes to teaching languages - should students be taught with or without an IDE? I am a bit old school and wouldn't mind having them all use vi or emacs, but using a good IDE does have some advantages as well. I should note that the students I will be teaching will have had at least 1 semester of programming in VB or C++." Even though there is limited time in a semester, could a curriculum be constructed to accommodate both methods?

2 of 848 comments (clear)

  1. From someone who has taught intro CS courses by jbellis · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Short answer: Go with the IDE.

    Long answer: the goal of an intro course can be one (or both) of two things:

    1. provide "enough to get by" instruction in an area
    2. excite students about the area enough that they take more in-depth courses

    Neither one of these goals is served by teaching the details of what goes on under the hood in an IDE. That can come later, for students in category 2.

    --
    Carnage Blender : Meet interesting people. Kill them.

  2. Use a modern editor. by EnglishTim · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Ignore all these fools telling you to use emacs or vi. Your audience will be used to using Windows programs, and if (as you say) they've been doing VB or C++, they've probably been using Visual Studio anyway. You might as well let them continue. If you try and force vi or emacs on them you'll be wasting valuable time teaching a cryptic and outdated UI. Leave them with what they're used to for editing. Anything else will just get in the way.