How Should I Teach a Basic Programming Course?

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 11, 2008 @02:48AM from the week-one:-beards dept.

riverman writes "I have been 'provisioned' at the school where I work to teach a new Computer Science/Programming course. I'm supposed to be teaching everything from the very-very basics (i.e. where that myspace thing is in your computer monitor, and how it knows who your friends are) to the easy-advanced (i.e. PHP classes and Python/Google App Engine). I'm an experienced programmer, but I'm not sure where to start — I could easily assume that my students know something basic they don't. Are there any resources on the internet that could help me find a solid curriculum? What are your suggestions?" I'm sure many of us have gone through intro-level programming courses of some sort; what are some things your teacher or professor did that worked well, and what didn't work at all?

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Re:Task based learning by Blakey+Rat · 2008-10-11 05:28 · Score: 1, Troll

Which is why I've never been able to learn calculus.
Seriously. I've yet to encounter a calculus teacher who actually explains what good it is in the real world. (Considering I'm almost 30, I program computers for a good living, and I've never used it, I'm thinking: it ain't.)

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Re:Task based learning by arevos · 2008-10-11 11:07 · Score: 1, Troll

Of course, I'm sure you meant that as an insult, something like, "oh a web developer! They're so stupid! No wonder they don't know math! Ha ha ha!!!"
Given that you seem to take pride in your ignorance of basic math, you're not doing a lot to dispel that myth.