Teachers as Programmers? Get Real

[Malte Brill]

Hi,

I´m missing two really important definitions regarding this topic.

1) What is a programmer

2) What is a teacher

I guess it will be hard to define both. :-)


1)
When I think of programmers I think of people building Software. I 
define software as being anything that is executable on a computer and 
works without crashing or doing harm to people or machines (but maybe 
that´s too much ethics for this thread...)

So if you can handle

on mouseUp
   go next
end mouseUp

you could call yourself a programmer. It does depend on what you 
expect. Surely getting in depth knowlege of Transscript will take time. 
But one does not need to dig too deep into the technology to create 
beautyful courseware. It all depends on the teaching goal. You don´t 
need a diploma to be a programmer. You don´t even need a diploma to be 
a GOOD programmer.

2)
  Is there a teacher-stereotype? Are only history teachers real  
teachers? Aren´t there also science teachers? No computer science  
teachers? These are likely to love (or hate) to use 
Revolution/Dreamcard once they get to know it.

Math and physics teachers potentially like Revolution/Dreamcard, 
because it is very easy to turn abstract content of teaching into 
visuals and thus make it much easier to get. You also can provide 
students with a good reason why they need to learn. Not only because it 
is content of the curriculum, but because they can get problems solved 
in a computer program and get visuals back from it.

Computer science teachers maybe hate Revolution, because it is very 
easy to turn abstract content of teaching into visuals and thus make it 
much easier to get. You can´t confuse students with Voodoo like a=++ 
syntax to convince them that you can´t do software without becoming a 
scientist. (Excuse me lumbing all computer science teachers together, 
but with one exception all computer science teachers I know in person 
behave that way...)

which leads me to What is needed (in a non teachers point of view):

I think the first thing needed is not HOW TOs, but WHY SHOULD Is
Afterwards create some HOW TOs and in an ideal world have someone (or 
some more) offering Revolution training for trainers services and 
seminars with the government paying for these seminars *dream* :-)

just my 2 €-cent

Malte