[DrJava] Re: Summer Plans

[Charles R. <creis@u.washington.edu>]

That's fantastic!  That sounds like it could be hugely beneficial to 
DrJava (especially from a UI standpoint, since we haven't had much real 
intro-user observation outside TeachJava), and just a fun project on its 
own.

I think one related topic is putting together a good "Quick Start" or 
"What is DrJava" link on our home page, to help people understand what 
sets DrJava apart (and how to use some of the features).  I've been 
meaning to do this in my free time, but, well, you know...  I do have a 
possible outline that I've attached, though, if anyone's interested in 
working on it or simply has suggestions.

Good luck with it-- I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes!
Charlie


Peter Centgraf wrote:
> I have some good news for the DrJava team.  Yesterday I met with three 
> lecturers from the introductory programming group here at CMU.  They 
> have been using CodeWarrior for their courses and are becoming 
> increasingly dissatisfied with it, so they gave me the chance to sell 
> them on using DrJava instead.  After an hour of demos and discussion, 
> they agreed to begin experimenting with DrJava this summer.
> 
> More importantly for you, they agreed to sponsor me in an independent 
> study course to work with them.  My goals will be to 1: investigate how 
> teachers can leverage DrJava for pedagogic purposes in their courses, 
> and 2: improve DrJava to better support student needs.  Working on #2 
> will involve changes to the code that I will feed back to the group.  
> More importantly, I will be collecting data from both of our user groups 
> to guide future development.  I plan to publish my incremental results 
> on the web, and I will keep the list(s) informed about important findings.
> 
> For those of you working to support TeachJava, one of the courses I will 
> be assisting is an AP level course for high school students.  The 
> teachers have already been looking at the materials for past workshops, 
> and this summer will provide a good opportunity to field test some of 
> your methods.  In the past, CMU's introductory courses have started with 
> a procedural-style emphasis on mechanics.  It will be interesting to see 
> how pushing design patterns down into this level changes the style of 
> their courses.
> 
> If any of you have suggestions or questions for me, I would appreciate 
> the feedback as I develop specific plans for my work.  It's because of 
> your past innovations in teaching that I have so much to contribute to 
> CMU in the first place.  Thanks for the great work -- I hope to be part 
> of that process again soon.
> 
> -- 
> Peter
> 
>