Presuppositions

[richmond62]

The thing that ANNOYS ME MOST about almost all LiveCode classes I have found online are that
they are

for students with some prior experience

https://www.stem.org.uk/elibrary/collection/4224

I believe there need to be lessons from the ground up: and by "ground up" I mean
ones for children who have NEVER done any programming whatsoever.

[richmond62]

I am going to work through the "Initial" module and 'pull it to bits' with a view to
seeing how it can be used for absolute 'virgins'.

My work and assessment will follow here.

The bloody COVID 'thang' is taking quite sometime to clear out of my system, so, probably better
to get on with this sort of thing than loll around feeling sorry for myself.

[richmond62]

-
Well:

1. This looks like an advert, it does NOT like page 1 of a programming course.

2. What is 'Community Edition' ? So, sadly out-of-date already.

ALL the rest of the PDF document goes on about Design and so on:
what is signally fails to do is mention anything about the fundamentals
of computer programming.

[richmond62]

-
It would be very interesting to know at what aged children this is pitched with
such vocabulary items as:

implementation

"Open the "Display My Message" program stack.

How?

What is a 'stack'?

We are already using metalanguage that we have NO way of knowing whether anyone understands.

RULE #1 of instructional design is that you NEVER use language you do not know the targets of your instructions
understand.

[richmond62]

Oops: I jumped the gun a bit: this page comes before the one I posted above:
-

-
Variable ?

a repeat . . . until loop

neither of these have previously been defined inwith these instructions.

AND, what on earth does:

SET My_Message TO String "" mean?
-

string.jpeg (4.18 KiB) Viewed 4065 times

[richmond62]

This just makes me "All stroppy", so I shall attempt to get started as I usually get started with
children who really would not know some string from a shoelace.

[richmond62]

Here's something:

viewtopic.php?f=107&t=36395&p=209796#p209796

[jacque]

The LC lessons weren't written for children, so you'll need to add instructions for that population.

These rather dated but still functional stacks were specifically written for novices starting from scratch:
http://hyperactivesw.com/revscriptconf/ ... ences.html

They were also not written for children but the approach may give you a guideline for creating your own. The stacks were intended to be read in order.

[richmond62]

Thanks for that information.

It seems that there is an awful lot of LiveCode "stuff" that might be educational
in one sort of a fashion floating around: almost all of which is totally decontextualised.

What is needed are series of web-pages (possibly linked to LiveCode's own website) where
these things are specifically stated:

1. LiveCode for 8-11 year olds with NO programming experience.

2. LiveCode for 11-13 year olds with NO or minimal programming experience.

3. And so forth.

Of course the BIGGEST PROBLEM is to get Primary, Middle and Secondary authorities
to "take a look" without the usual knee-jerk reactions:

i. It ain't Python / Java / C#

ii. It ain't SCRATCH and the LEGO brigade.