TITLE: Scratching Itches and the Peril of Chapter 1
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 10, 2009  2:57 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
In my entry about
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-08.html#e2009-08-04T13_45_01.htm">
   advice on my advice</A>
to students interested in web development, I quoted
an alum who dared suggest that undergrads study one
language in depth for four years.  This seems extreme
to me, but it is often useful to examine the axioms
on which we base our curricula.  Wade's idea fits
well with the idea that we would like to teach
students enough that they can
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-08.html#e2009-08-03T20_51_23.htm">
   scratch an itch</A>.
I think that this approach overvalues what we can learn
from a single language, and any language that takes
four years to master is probably the wrong language
for undergrads.  Even if we accept that our goal is
to help students scratch their own itches in the service
of motivation, can't we do better?  I think so.

My goal here is not to add to the seemingly endless
cacophony about which first language(s) we should use
in CS1.  But I was impressed by a
<A HREF="http://terrychay.com/blog/article/learning-programming.shtml#comment-663351">
   comment Terry Chay made</A>
on the entry of his to which I linked in my "itch to
scratch" post, about textbooks.  Although he is a
proponent of PHP for web development, he argues that
it isn't suitable for people learning their first
programming language.  One of the reasons is the the
best books about PHP assume too much background.

Consider Welling and Thomson's <EM>PHP and MySQL Web
Development</EM>.  It is about web programming and
so assumes that students are familiar with HTML,
starting and restarting Apache, activating PHP,
installing and setting up MySQL, and all the editor-
and OS-specific details of writing, storing, and
running scripts.  That's a lot of hidden prerequisites,
and it is one of the challenges we face anytime we
try to embed CS1 in a context.  Context is context,
and students have to have it before they move on.

However, Chay claims that, after its first chapter,
<EM>PHP and MySQL Web Development</EM> "offers more
'immersion' gratification (at the least cost) than
any other language's textbook."  But it's too late.
The first chapter is what beginners see first and
what they must make sense of before moving on.
Unfortunately,

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
It's that first chapter that does the first timer in.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Many people who don't teach CS1 and who have never
tried writing for that audience underestimate just
how important this is, and just how difficult an
obstacle it is to overcome.  I occasionally see really
good books about programming written to solve problems
in a specific domain or context that might work well
for beginners -- but only as a second course, after
someone has taught a course that gets them through
the introduction.

Right now I have examination copies of three books
sitting on my desk or desktop that are relevant to
this discussion.
<UL>
<LI> <A HREF="http://www.mikeokane.com/textbooks/WebTech/overview.php">
        A Web-Based Introduction to Programming</A>,
     by Mike O'Kane.  I requested this when it was
     the first text book I'd seen that aimed to use
     PHP in context to teach a CS1 course.  Often,
     books written specifically for CS1 lose the
     appeal and flavor of books written for motivated
     practitioners with an itch to scratch.  Can this
     book be as good as the book Chay recommends?  </LI>

<LI> <A HREF="http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596800697/">
        Using Google App Engine</A>:
     Building Web Applications, by Charles Severance.
     I've see this book criticized for covering too
     many low-level details, but it aims to be a
     self-contained introduction to programming.
     The only way to do that is to cover all the
     knowledge usually assumed by Chapter 1.  The
     combination of web applications and Google seems
     like a potential winner.  </LI>

<LI> <A HREF="http://www.pragprog.com/titles/gwpy/practical-programming">
        Practical Programming</A>:
     An Introduction to Computer Science Using Python,
     by Campbell, Gries, Montojo, and Wilson.  This
     book was motivated at least in part by
     <A HREF="http://www.third-bit.com/">
        Greg Wilson</A>'s
    efforts to teach programming to scientists.  Unlike
    the previous two, <EM>Practical Programming</EM>
    uses several themes to introduce the ideas of CS
    and the programming tools needed to play with them.
    Will the same ideas work as well when brought to
    the CS1 level, outside of a single unifying context?  </LI>
</UL>

I'm disappointed that I haven't taken the time to
study these in detail.  I am familiar with drafts of
<EM>Practical Programming</EM> after having reviewed
them in the books early stages and know it to be a
well-written book.  But that's not enough to say
whether it works as well as I hope.  Severance's book
also promises big things, but I need to dig deeper to
see how well it works.  O'Kane's looks like the most
traditional CS1 book of the bunch, with a twist:
<TT>if</TT>-statements don't arrive until Chapter 7,
and loops until Chapter 9.

Gotta make time!  But then there is my own decidedly
non-freshman course to think about.  Fifteen days and
counting...
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