Q: "Best" book for teaching

[grkuntzmd]

I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming" course for
continuing education adults at a local community college. These would
people with no programming experience, but I will require a reasonable
facility with computers.

What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?

Thanks.

 

[Reckoner]

I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming" course for
continuing education adults at a local community college. These would
people with no programming experience, but I will require a reasonable
facility with computers.

What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?

Thanks.

QuickPython is pretty good, but might be somewhat above the level
you're looking for. Depends on the class. You might want to use it to
guide a selection of topics.

 

[Mike Driscoll]

I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming" course for
continuing education adults at a local  community college. These would
people with no programming experience, but I will require a reasonable
facility with computers.

What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?

Thanks.

If they ever release it, this book might be good:

http://www.amazon.com/Hello-World-C...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239129498&sr=8-1

Zelle's Python Programming book is pretty good (and was written by a
college professor) and I've heard good things about ORielly's Learning
Python by Lutz.

- Mike

 

[John Yeung]

I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming"
course for continuing education adults at a local community
college. These would people with no programming experience,
but I will require a reasonable facility with computers.

What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?

For an extremely gentle introduction, perhaps take a look at _Python
Programming for the Absolute Beginner_ by Michael Dawson:

http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Michael/dp/1592000738

A coworker of mine recently bought this book, which is how I found out
about it. Besides assuming no programming experience, it tries to
stay interesting through the use of simple games for its examples
(eventually building up to the use of the popular pygame library).
The writing style is definitely more "fun" than "academic".

John

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message
<[email protected]>,

I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming" course for
continuing education adults at a local community college. These would
people with no programming experience, but I will require a reasonable
facility with computers.

I thought that a good introduction might be to show them how HTML works, and
progress from there to embedding little bits of JavaScript.

Nothing to do with Python I know, but might be a possibility.

 

[tkpmep]

I taught myself Python from Python Programming for the Absolute
Beginner by Michael Dawson (which has been mentioned above) and with
lots of help from the friendly members of this group, but there's now
a free e-book titled Snake Wrangling for Kids by Jason Briggs. You can
view it at http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/.
There are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux, though it is focused on
Python 2.x.

Thomas Philips

 

[JBW]

What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?

"Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science"
Franklin, Beedle & Associates, by little Johny Zelle.

Accept no substitues!

Jim

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

If you want to emphasize web usage, I'd be tempted to show them a bit of
HTML and then introduce them to CGI-bin scripts... written in Python.

Yes, and show them how to watch /var/log/apache2/error.log to find their
errors.

mod_python could also be fun.

 

[aliencat777]

For an extremely gentle introduction, perhaps take a look at _Python
Programming for the Absolute Beginner_ by Michael Dawson:

http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Michael/dp/1592000738

A coworker of mine recently bought this book, which is how I found out
about it. Besides assuming no programming experience, it tries to
stay interesting through the use of simple games for its examples
(eventually building up to the use of the popular pygame library).
The writing style is definitely more "fun" than "academic".

John

An up to date book that is great for a short 21 lesson course is; "Start Here: Python 3x Programming Made Fun and Easier" by Jody S. Ginther. This is a good beginning programming course that introduces the entire process of software design including; version systems, planning, logic, and packaging. It takes a newbie from ground zero to making arcade style games complete with sound, music, graphics, and an creating an installation package in only 21 easy to follow lessons.

You can find it at http://www.quantum-sight.com

Jody