Teaching Computing BY LAW!

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Socoder -> Off Topic -> Teaching Computing BY LAW!
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 07:11
Jayenkai	THIS would be Awesome! Assuming A) It happens, and B) The teachers know what the fuck they’re doing!! Linkage -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 07:11
rockford	Indeed. unfortunately I suspect it will fall down badly at B) if A).
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 10:01
Afr0	Points number 5 and 6 should be replaced with "Learn C" and "Implement a game (not Pong!) from scratch in C on an OS of choice, including window management and memory handling". --- I was tempted to write C++, but alas, C is still the lingua franca of programmers. -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 10:34
Jayenkai	But Pong is important.. Pong teaches an incredible amount.. 1. Simple game looping logic. 2. Control input 3. Sprite movement 4. Possible AI movement 5. Audio 6. Gameplay scoring, and management And that's basic bog standard pong. You can then let the kids go wild with the results, changing sprites, adding different sounds, fiddling with scores, adding powerups and more. I'd say Pong has its place. I might not want to play the results of an entire educational system, but that's one heck of a great choice for learning. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 11:57
Erebel55	But I don't want everyone to know how to code...that would make us less special :/ -=-=- Lava Monkey https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lvm.lavamonkey
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 11:57
Dabz	Yep... Top idea, though... When I was a little whipper snapper at school, I had a couple of run ins with my IT teacher, basically it was a simple "I dont like you, you dont like me, lets not get on" setup. Now, I've used computers since I was nine years old, so, when it came to secondary school, it was ultimately, my fave thing... So, I did obviously a lot of programming in that time, as well as reading up on quite a bit of it. Bare in mind, this was the age of the awesome Archimedes computer, which, my school had by the bucket fulls and I was programming in Archimedes BASIC in break times, they had a few BBC Micro's kicking about, which, I toyed with too! Anyway, one day in IT, my teacher, Mr J Smith was talking all excited about "going online on the internet", well, I was pretty much stoked because reading up on it, it was about the time that it was gearing up to explode... I read loads on it... So, when he switched a BBC Micro on, crowd around him and "logged on", well, I wasnt too impressed because what I was looking at, was technically... Teletext... And I knew this type of "service" would be dead in a matter of a couple of years. So, I sat back down on my desk, old news, he noticed and asked "What's the matter with you Denathorn?", teacher, my surname... Here we go! I just turned around and said "Nowt sir, it's just that if I want to look at teletext, I can do that in the house"... Which he got up and exploded... "TELETEXT... TELETEXT", started banging on that he could read up to date news, book flights and holidays on it, send messages to other people, the whole show... I just said "I can do that with Teletext, and my phone!"... Which, resulted in a detention for back chatting and was told to stand outside... Great lesson that! Then, we FINALLY landed on a bit of programming, he knew I liked programming, so, for these lessons, he never heard a peep from me, I made a little pong game while he was explaining programming to everyone else, it was good, unfortunately, this lasted only 2 lessons, and we then moved on to... Barcodes... Pardon my french, but f***ing barcodes!?! That was it, me, not interested and just mucked about... Which, resulted in another slagging match... He started it off with the auld "Mr Denathorn" craic, then, told me to stop mucking about and concentrate on the subject. Which, he got a glorious reply of "Why?"... It didnt go down too well mind, he said that this was a subject used in everyday life, and I went "Yeah, but lets be fair sir, the people that use barcodes dont even care how they work, they just grab hold of something with a barcode on, something goes beep and that's it, onto the next one... beep beep beep" as I was doing an impression of moving groceries over the text. I continued with "for two lessons we do something I like, then it moves onto this bollocks... I'm not interested sir, I mean, I really dont care"... I was just being honest, and as such, he came over and said "One day Mr Denathorn, your going to leave this school and go into the real wide world and get a proper job!", which, to me, he must've thought everyone in the class was going to end up in Sainsburys on the checkout... Wanker... Anyway, that earned me another lesson standing outside the class as well as chalking another detention on my list... Great! Finally, when I was doing IT as an option in my final two years, I wrote a database on the Archimedes, it was canny, I had it printing stuff out and everything... Though, the project was split into two, one, the actual programming side, the second, writing about it... My database had quite a bit of code attached to it, which I rustled up in no time really, my written side... Erm, one A4 side of half arsed writing. I handed it in... It came back from Mr J Smith with a red bit of writing that stated it was "To vague"... So, I had another go... Managed a whopping 2 sides of A4... Again, it came back... "To vague, work harder", baring in mind, I rustled the power of GreySkull to even do that. So, countless bollockings later about how my project wasnt getting further on, he started to wait at the main entrance for me, I'd get off the bus, walk towards the door, he'd spy me, get the "Mr Denathorn" tagline, he'd ask me if I'd finished my project, I went "No", frog marched to his class room, bollocking... Every sodding morning for a fortnight that happened... Then... I just stopped going, completely removed myself from school. I went back for my exams, did the best I could considering, but, really, it was probably shite, never picked my exam results up... Pointless! So I headed to college, while I was there, I had to do a couple of essays, which obviously, we'rent my thing, so, again, I did a half arsed attempt and handed them in, the instructor called me over and said "Michael, can I ask you a question?".. I was like "Oh, here we go, but, he's used my proper name so theres a start"... He went "Are you dyslexic?"... I was like "Erm, I dunno, I dont think so?", turns out, erm, I was... They put me on a word power thing, felt like a prat mind, but, over the course of it, they and I discovered that when I wrote something, as in, explain something, my mind would go "sod this" if the bigger picture was literally, too big, basically, my wiring couldnt cope! So, they taught me how to break down what I wanted to explain into bite size chunks, then work on each chunk, instead of going in for the big kill... Which, worked an absolute charm, and before I knew it, I was firing off words like no tomorrow! It's generally the same with programming, you never usually work on multiple problems at the same time, your always gunning for one specific result, its not about, say, "the game", one minute it might be about about making that little enemy move across the screen, the next it's about what to do when the player drops from the screen... All little bite size pieces which, you work on independently which result in a full blown game. Anyway, out of all the years I had at that secondary school, it literally didnt help me with anything, but, as soon as I left, and was unleashed in the real wide world, I went out and got my NVQ Level 1,2,3 in trowel occupations, as well as gaining my National Certificate In Construction (Which equals 2 A-Levels)... I do wish I spent my working life in IT, and the education system didnt just abandon me as a "waster", if it wasnt for that instructor at college, I have no idea where I would be now, so.... For one, when it comes to this new programming course, I really do hope they dont take the same attitude my teacher had for me when any young'uns show interest in a specific part of the course, someone might not get the second chance that I did after it all falls apart! Dabz P.S. And, I've always promised myself, if I ever see that J Smith in the street, I will walk over to him and kick him square on in the gentlemans trouser furniture, even if he is retired... The git! -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 12:04
Jayenkai	like
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 13:00
rockford	Dabs, that was ace. Well done sir. And well done to that college teacher for spotting what should have been obvious to every teacher before. But I don't want everyone to know how to code...that would make us less special :/ People don't think coders are special at all nowadays. Go into a room full of non-coding peeps and say that you code computers and the best response you'll get is. "Oh. OK" Nobody gives a shit as long as they're getting games for 59p or less.
Fri, 08 Feb 2013, 20:49
zed	Despite the lack of knowledge of the teachers (on the most part), this can only be a good thing. Maybe the teachers will learn something too .
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 02:39
Afr0	Wow, I'm really sad that that teacher made you think twice about working with what you love doing. -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 06:43
steve_ancell	Same reason why I never got into a career in I.T, my school didn't give a shit either.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 07:08
Dabz	Wow, I'm really sad that that teacher made you think twice about working with what you love doing. Well, that's life really isnt it, maybe it was a good thing, when something becomes "a job", it doesnt have the same shine to it as it once did! I dunno, I've still done okay with myself, probably better then he ever imagined I would, which is a result! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 07:51
steve_ancell	Once you get BambooBasic completed you should track down that teacher and rub it in his face.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 07:55
Jayenkai	Similarly, I'd love to track down my old Music teacher, who thought I couldn't do anything well.. I COULD, but the teacher wouldn't let me use the smegging computer to do my compositions, and I can't actually play any instruments, so most of my coursework-based music sucked ass.. plinky plinkity plunk If I could just about manage to play it on a keyboard, that was as good as it got.. I could've got a half decent grade, damnit!! grrr.... -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 08:35
Dabz	Once you get BambooBasic completed you should track down that teacher and rub it in his face. Nah... I'd still kick him in the manjigglies if I ever saw him! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 09:51
steve_ancell	Jayenkai Similarly, I'd love to track down my old Music teacher, who thought I couldn't do anything well.. Over the years you have become somewhat an internet celebrity, that's probably heaps more than what that music teacher has ever done.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 10:19
steve_ancell	When I was at school, I just mucked about in music lessons just as most of us in that school did. I remember one time when the teacher had us singing Joe & The Technicolor Dreamcoat "I closed my eyes"... One of the kids then changed the words a bit and then got thrown out of the classroom; the way that teacher grabbed him, it was like he wanted to execute him or something and he threw him out that hard; some of us were waiting to hear the thud from him hitting the other side of the corridoor. I only ever remember two kids that were musically tallented; one of them left in the second year and moved to a more advaced school and the other one went on to do quite a long stretch in prison, he's been out for a few years now as I found out when I found him on facebook.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 11:43
rockford	What software do you use for your music nowadays then Jay? The stuff I downloaded recently is all excellent - I've put three of your choons into Frootopia, including the munkytrain one - I love that, it doesn't really fit, but I just had to have it in there! The kids in my class stole the school, car and house keys off our Music teacher - he was livid; I've never seen a person turn purple before. He soon after had a breakdown. And the keys never turned up.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 12:32
Jayenkai	Most of my music is done with FruityLoops, or FLStudio as its now known. I take the same approach to music that I do to art. I might not be good at it, but I know when something sounds terrible, and will scrap music often! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 12:42
steve_ancell	rockford The kids in my class stole the school, car and house keys off our Music teacher The same thing happened to poor old Mr Woolly too except they didn't need to steal his keys, he had a beat-up old 1970s goldy/brown coloured Ford Escort which were very easy to steal. Those old Ford Escorts rarely had in-built steering locks, which were a luxury in those days, if they still had an ignition-key switch you could sometimes start it with a screwdriver as was also the case with getting the door unlocked. Failing that, it was just as easy to bosh the window, pop open the engine bay and then run a wire from the positive side of the ignition coil to the battery, to start it you just needed to short out the solenoid. Before you ask, no I have never swagged a car but I've seen cars being hotwired by my dad before while he was working in the engine bay, it was just easier to test them like that instead of keep going for the ignition key all the time. \|edit\| Those kids that swagged his car didn't even go any great distance, they just booted it through the carpark an lost control, another teacher found it on an embankment and the car was still driveable afterwards, he was still driving it up until he left the school a couple of years later. \|edit\| \|edit\| It's just ironic how both mine and your teachers were teaching the same subject, must be something about music teachers that some kids don't like. \|edit\|
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 13:01
steve_ancell	The info above will not give any tutorial basis to swagging a modern car as the components are very different to older ones, plus modern cars have a transpoder in the key so I guess what I posted above is safe.
Sat, 09 Feb 2013, 15:22
Jayenkai	On being a Musician.. youtu.be/PAeqmjzOQ48 -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''