3-9 December 2012

                I finished Jeroo this week.  That is, I am now done with the projects within the unit, and theoretically ready for the final exam.

                Overall, I found Jeroo simple enough (simple=! easy, though), but I also understood that Jeroo is not the beginning of our study of Python, as I had thought, but rather a separate unit to function as an introduction to programming.  I’m not sure whether such a unit was required, given we did recently finish Scratch, but I suppose there’s a natural progression.  Jeroo was definitely better at making us solve problems than Scratch.

                Also, we talked about the university course, but I’m not allowed to further discuss that.

                Finishing Jeroo has left me with free time in class, which I don’t think I’m using usefully enough.  Actually, I think the Jeroo unit revealed the great problem of timing.   Students work at different speeds.  Therefore, we have people finishing days apart in a unit that only lasted a few days.  It’s fine for a very unstructured class, of for a short unit like Jeroo, but timing was a problem in the university course and it’s a problem now.

26 November-2 December 2012

                After Thanksgiving break, this week marked the return of Computer Programming, now with Jeroo replacing Scratch.  I’m not sure how to classify Jeroo, exactly; basically, it uses the bases of a programming language (in our case Python) to allow one to control kangaroo-like creatures on islands and their encounters with nets, flowers, water, and each other.

                The basic types of command are name.action().  The name must be that of an existing Jeroo, which are defined at the program’s start; the actions can be predetermined, or they can be methods one defines in a separate screen from these predetermined actions such as hopping and picking flowers.  “If” and “while” are also adjustable.

                In sum, we have now officially moved away from the university course, after a total of two people raised official objections (I think it was two).  It’s too early to judge the move, though.