Alice in s131 - 2009-2010

(Wonderland)

Alice is the brainchild of the late Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who became famous for his life-affirming "Last Lecture," an Internet video phenomenon that subsequently became a best-selling book. Pausch loved football almost as much as he loved teaching and considered Alice the educational equivalent of a "head fake," the head movement football players use to misdirect an opponent. "The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else," he explained. With Alice, "the head fake is that they're learning to program, but they just think they're making movies and video games."[1]

 Alice is a motivator by using story telling as the motivator. The use of 3-D programming is closer to the games and animated films the young people are most accustom to. The whole system uses a drag and drop interface.

Programming should teach:
    Thinking and being able to express oneself
     Making complex ideas simple and logical
     Many ways to solve a problem but some are better than others – more efficient, less complicated,
             easier to use, etc. 

    Introduction
      Concepts
            Terms
     Program design and implementation
            Scenarios and storyboards
            Object – orientation and movement
      Building a program
            Functions and expression
            Control structures

      Object oriented and event programming concepts
             Classes, objects, methods and parameters
             Visible / invisible
             Interaction with the user
      Function and control statements
             If/else
             Random
             Repetition
             Loops
             Conditional loops
             Recursion
      Other areas
             Lists
             Search lists
             Variables
             Debugging using watches and output

[1] Carnegie Mellon University   5000 Forbes Avenue 
  Pittsburgh, PA 15213 – Alice webpage
 

Rules:

·          All rules and regulations found in the student handbook

·          Specific rules for this class:

·          Good news – there are no rules.

·          Bad news – there are no rules.

·          My expectation is that you act as a Christian.

You are responsible for your behavior.

Learning:

·          We each have many talents.

·          The greatest thing to develop is to learn how to learn.

·          Next is learning to enjoy learning.

·          You get to choose what and how you will learn.

You are responsible for learning.

Attitude:

·          Only you can choose what you like.

·          Only you can choose to enjoy or not like school / this class.

·          It matters little to none if I like something or you parents or friends like something

You are responsible for your attitude..