Yeah, I was thinking Canada would be the perfect place for introducing elephants, lions, and other megafauna, since there's nothing else of interest up there.
In other news, many large government agencies have thousands of computers running Windows 2000, and cannot rollout an XP upgrade this morning. The world is larger than your basement.
I'd already read about this before it happened, and the county was worried about out-of-state people grabbing them at the expense of locals. Anyway, the school system officials had stated that these laptops were the ones they couldn't use anymore and not in the best condition.
I love CNN's reporting: "More than 1,000 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks, which retail for between $999 and $1,299." Uh, no, 4-year old heavily used iBooks do not cost that. I know what the reporter was intending, but that's just sloppy.
I disagree. I took a beginning Java class when I knew programming, but most of the students didn't. Later, I taught Java to high school students who'd learned C++ at school.
My experience of what students constantly asked led me to believe that Java has way too much "forget about what that means right now, just type it" for the beginner. Python is much clearer, and many high schools have switched to it. print "hello world" sure beats all the cruft you need in Java. This is not to slam Java as a useful language, rather, to say it's not the best language for people who are completely new to programming.
The OP's thought about trying PHP or RoR seems to me very limiting - you're exposing the students to one problem domain rather than programming in general.
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In other news, many large government agencies have thousands of computers running Windows 2000, and cannot rollout an XP upgrade this morning. The world is larger than your basement.
Full of terrible drivers ready to mow down pedestrians! Especially in the District and Virginia.
I'd already read about this before it happened, and the county was worried about out-of-state people grabbing them at the expense of locals. Anyway, the school system officials had stated that these laptops were the ones they couldn't use anymore and not in the best condition.
I love CNN's reporting: "More than 1,000 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks, which retail for between $999 and $1,299." Uh, no, 4-year old heavily used iBooks do not cost that. I know what the reporter was intending, but that's just sloppy.
That's Virginie, bygum! (and I live in it).
My experience of what students constantly asked led me to believe that Java has way too much "forget about what that means right now, just type it" for the beginner. Python is much clearer, and many high schools have switched to it. print "hello world" sure beats all the cruft you need in Java. This is not to slam Java as a useful language, rather, to say it's not the best language for people who are completely new to programming.
The OP's thought about trying PHP or RoR seems to me very limiting - you're exposing the students to one problem domain rather than programming in general.