Re: [tlug] What is Code?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Raymond Wan writes:

 > Force usually makes people (not just students...adults, too!) 
 > reject what they are learning.  Probably a carrot approach is
 > better than sticks...  But that's just me.  ;-)

Well, "force" is a strong word here.  I suspect what Claus means is
that he's going to force *himself* (or a TA) to actually run the
programs and grade them on bugs, thus giving students the carrot of an
"A" for running and debugging programs themselves.

I've had a fair amount of success with my Wikipedia assignment for
"English for the Social Sciences".  The topic needs to be something
related to social science, but otherwise is unrestricted.  Then I set
up a Mediawiki (just like Wikipedia), and have the students import an
existing English page and the corresponding deficient Japanese page
(or make a stub if the Japanese page is nonexistent).  These two pages
must not be edited, they're for comparison (Wikipedia being a moving
target).  Then a page for the Japanese version that the student
creates.  After writing a draft, each student makes constructive
critical comments (ie, recommending changes) on at least two other
students' pages using the Talk page, and the author then responds with
a plan to address those comments in Talk and implements it on the
revised article.

The reason I mention this assignment is that it has very good
incentives from the prof's point of view.  The students are graded on
the quality of their comments, so they take them quite seriously (most
would, anyway, I think).  Then I add a quick comment from the prof at
the very end, and the whole thing is relatively painless for me
compared to reading, grading, and commenting on a traditional report.
It's very satisfying to get the occasional (one in twenty-five or so)
report that they've actually gone and submitted their changes to the
Japanese Wikipedia.  (I don't have the nerve to require that yet.
Team projects and presentations in class are one thing, publishing
your work to the world, even as an Anonymous Coward, is quite
another.)

Anyway, I've gone on at length because maybe somebody familiar with
Agile methodology (especially pair programming?) can suggest an
adaptation with similar incentives for Claus's situation.