[racket] off-topic -- Re: Live coding with Racket?

On May 30, 2014, at 1:10 PM, George Rudolph <rudolphg1 at citadel.edu> wrote:

> I agree with you--it's not our job to entertain students.
> They may not even like our classes.  It should be hard work,
> and they should learn how to learn along the way.


It is perfectly okay to entertain students in the classroom. 
As a matter of fact, I tell my 200 freshmen over and over again
that I am an entertainer who reminds them with interactive and 
hopefully fun lectures what they should have read, studied, and
understood at this point in class -- on their own, from the text
book and in pair programming sessions with their partners. So no
I don't object to entertaining delivery or connecting with your
students on a personal level (I know their names after two weeks
and I remember a good number of them and greet them by name when
I encounter them). 


I object to making material [acquisition] easy/fun/entertaining. I 
object to pretty colorful pictures in text books. I object to 
fast-paced delivery via our primary sensory mechanisms as opposed 
to forcing the brain to do the hard work. Because I think there is 
no other way to learn than engaging your brain actively. 



> I'm actually experimenting with an idea that live coding skills
> can be useful as preparatory for developing cyberdefense skills.
> Real-time interaction of a sort. Someone might argue that you can develop
> those skills playing video games--but it's not the same thing.
> 
> Why would I choose this way? Honestly, I'm just exploring possibilities.
> It may be a horrible idea.  Certainly it will be if they lose sight of what 
> I'm really trying to teach.



George, that is an experiment worth conducting. Report back to the list 
on how it goes. 

-- Matthias