Murdoch's AP Computer Science MOOC Goes Live 67
theodp writes "Friday saw the launch of Rupert Murdoch's AP Computer Science MOOC. Taught by an AP CS high school teacher, the Java-centric course has students use the DrJava lightweight development environment for the exercises. 'If this MOOC works,' said Amplify CEO Joel Klein, 'we can think of ways to expand and support it.' Only the first week's videos are posted; course content is scheduled to be presented through March, with five weeks thereafter set aside for AP Exam prep. Might as well check it out, you may have helped pay for it — a MOOC-related Amplify job listing notes that 'This position may be funded, in whole or in part, through American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds.'"
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:2, Insightful)
Right, that's 4 concepts which have to be explicitly explained (or passed over) before we even get to how to put a single character on the screen, or add two numbers....
The K-12 education market .. (Score:3, Insightful)
No comment necessary
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:5, Insightful)
I really find it a tedious stumbling block explaining to my kids all the ``public static void main'' stuff --- really wish that Oberon had made it instead. Niklaus Wirth at least has his manuals heading in the right direction (Pascal, hundreds of pages; Modula, a hundred or so, Oberon, dozens).
As a professional who has done Java for application (enterprise/web/web service) and system/network protocol development for 12 years, I would say no. Java is not a good choice for a beginning or even intermediate level programming curriculum. As a very productive platform for developing robust systems, Java delivers.
For pedagogical purposes, specially as a starting programming language, it is atrocious. I would have preferred Python or Ruby focusing first on procedural programming, leaving object and functional features for later (rarely does a student leverages OOP and FP cleanly without having a good grasp of procedural programming, data structures and algorithms.) Or *gasp* BASIC or a Pascal variant or even C (students need to know right of the bat what a segfault is.)
I would typically choose Java for development of robust systems. I would never use it as a language in an into-to-programming course.
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, that's 4 concepts which have to be explicitly explained (or passed over) before we even get to how to put a single character on the screen, or add two numbers....
Exactly this. It's accidental complexity that has nothing to do with the fundamental tasks of programming that are supposed to the focus of study.
A BASIC/Python "print" or a Pascal "write/writeln" is supposed to be obsolete and clunky, but System.out.println enclosed within a mandatory class that is just not a class, but a public one, with not just a main function, but a static one, and with its name exactly case-matching the filename that declares it while making sure that no other "public" class exists in said filename, that is supposed to be pedagogical progress </rolls eyes>
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:4, Insightful)
Programming is hard. News at 11.
Re:Was Java a good choice for the AP requirement? (Score:2, Insightful)
Programming can be taught hard. But compared to other academic fields, it's relatively easy.