Education Sprint - PyconUK 2012

What do you think students should learn?

• How to think like a computer scientist.

• "Sir" isn't always right or know the answer.
• Problem solving.
• CS Unplugged.
• Cultural shift from Teachers PoV.

• Teamwork - programming is not just a solo activity.
• Programming is a creative process that is fun.
• Patience.
• It's not MAGIC.
• Computers only do what you tell them to.
• Documentation (explain your code, show your working). RTFM! Know where to look. Autonomy FTW!.
• It's not that hard! :-) Scratch your itch (solve your problems).
• How to access, query and understand data (opportunity for x-curriculum collaboration).

What do you think teachers need to know in order to teach programming?

• A programmming language (but how much)
• A place to look up reference material and resources (to know where to get second level support).
• Understand the free-culture/creative commons outlook (to be [not have] part of a community).
• Where to ask for help (IRC, teacheroverflow.com, stackexchange.com, computingplusplus.org, STEM etc...)

Project Ideas for Schools

• Pygame Games
• Pyweek
• Raspberry Jam
• Turbine recording data into a RPi.
• Beep Beep
• Text based adventure games ftw!
• Dojo :-)