This description also appears on the other events page at the PLoP'98 web site.
There are many ways to look at patterns. An especially useful way to think of patterns is as a tool for teaching. We don't use patterns blindly; we learn them. Patterns are all about learning structures with good qualities and understanding when and how to generate them.
At ChiliPLoP'98, a small group of university computer science faculty gathered to consider patterns and pattern languages of program design at the level of novices first learning to program. We hope that this workshop serves as the beginning of a long-term project.
Some of the questions that might be discussed at this BOF session include: What role might a pattern language of program design play in the first two years of CS instruction? In what ways would having a viable pattern language change how we do CS instruction? What changes and additions to the traditional pattern language form, if any, would need to be made in order to prepare a pattern language for use by instructors and students?
Of course, the BOF will develop according to the interests and backgrounds of those who come to discuss, so it may go off in any number of directions!
For further information on the ChiliPLoP workshop mentioned above and on other work in this area, please visit the Elementary Patterns web site.