kirby urner wrote:

>  Hi Andre ---
> 
>  My plan is to introduce my daughter to Python using the robot theme.  
>  Your curriculum is an obvious place to start.  I will be starting a 
>  more in depth investigation of your work in the near future.
> 
>  My longer term hope is to see some physical robot offerings on the 
>  market (in addition to the screen based ones) with some kind of Python 
>  capability -- perhaps just a module with pre-defined motions the user 
>  might resequence or trigger based on events (sensor inputs), per Lego 
>  Mindstorms example.
> 
>  Also, I'm hoping the screen-based options become more visually 
>  sophisticated, ala the Sims genre, i.e. we could script theater, 
>  complete with dialog and sound, using Python (yes, this is Alice 
>  territory).
> 
>  Arthur, before you blow your stack, this theater or playhouse genre 
>  isn't about learning or teaching programming necessarily.  It's about 
>  scripting plays and sharing them with your friends. 

What I would tend to blow my stack about is more the notion of pushing 
things off into to future... as if the barriers was technological.

if:

IDLE 1.1.2     
 > >> from visual import *
 > >> display(background=color.white)
<visual.ui.display object at 0x0927D150> 
 > >> sphere(color=color.blue)
<visual.primitives.sphere object at 0x0927D120> 

ain't enough to get a kid excited, the kid is simply jaded.

A fancier technology - Croquet? - plays better to the jaded, perhaps.

seems to me with some certainty that playing to jaded sensibilities  is 
not the role that educators should play.

>  An important fact to keep in mind, as we explore the space of 
>  potentially marketable products.

didn't know we were.

Art

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