Since the last version was produced in 2009, rur-ple had been downloaded more than 11,000 times. Since people that download it do not need to contact me to do so, it is only through serependity that I find out where it is used. By doing some searches on the web, including videos on youtube, I found out that it has been used by elementary school children in Austria, high school children in the U.S. and by university students in the U.S. and Latin America as a tool to introduce Python.
Recently, Samsung contacted me and asked my permission (!) to produce a book based on rur-ple. They distributed free copies of this book yesterday to approximately 1000 Korean students.
So what you say?....
I am happy to announce that a test-version of "Reeborg's world" is now available online as a tool to learn Python. Like the desktop version (rur-ple) I wrote, it is free to use and does not require registration.
The first version of Reeborg's world was produced to teach Javascript; it is the default version available from http://reeborg.ca. It includes some 98 lessons (available in both English and French); the English version can be found directly at http://reeborg.ca/learn_js. html
I'm working on an "improved" version which can be found at http://reeborg.ca/learn_js_ dev.html
Following some comments by early adopters, the UI of this version is improved slightly and more changes are planned, including a graphical world builder, new images for the robot, the option to import from file and save to file programs and worlds, etc. I am also thinking of adding a collaborative option using https://togetherjs.com/.
This time, I will probably include a page on the site where I will ask teachers that use it to communicate with me to let me know in what context they use it, and keep track of it on a "wall of fame".
The proof-of-concept Python version, which is probably of greater interest for readers of this blog, can be found at http://reeborg.ca/learn_py_ test.html It is based on the "improved" version and uses Brython to translate the Python code into Javascript, which can then be executed using eval(), like the Javascript version does. I do not plan to do more work on it (including adapting the lessons to teach Python instead of Javascript) until I have nailed down the "improved" Javascript version.
If you want to quickly try the Python version to see what it can do, after dismissing the "contents window", I suggest you select (from the drop down menu showing "Alone" by default) the world "Tokens 1" and run the following program:
move()
take()
move()
put()
move()
I welcome any comments & suggestions about Reeborg's world; please feel free to email me directly.
2 comments:
The books look cool! Anyway to see the content or get a copy?
I will ask.
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