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Using this tool, a student would get a visceral sense for what the stack and heap are, from experience (even if nobody had mentioned those words before). e.g. "

by troymc 15y ago

Using this tool, a student would get a visceral sense for what the stack and heap are, from experience (even if nobody had mentioned those words before). e.g. "Pointers point at stuff on the heap." Teachers and students have been drawing pictures like this on the blackboard, or on paper, for a long time. Many experienced programmers visualize these pictures in their imagination (unless they're implementing a familiar pattern). That can be tedious and error-prone. Why not let the computer show you what it's doing? Many debuggers already show some of what this tool does, but I've never seen one quite like this. Can you give an example of a "more complex programming structure" where this would be detrimental to understanding?

ht_th 15y ago
> Can you give an example of a "more complex programming structure" where this would be detrimental to understanding? It is difficult to imagine what kind of knowledge novice learners will construct while using this tool. I could imagine, for example, that their operational meaning of a variable becomes that of consecutive boxes with values in them. Given that knowledge, how would such a student start to understand a variable in a closure? Will it fit their existing understanding of variables as boxes? Maybe it does, maybe it will not. Maybe they have to deconstruct their understanding of variables first to connect it to their budding understanding of a closure, building a deeper and more widely understanding of variable. Maybe this will be not too much of a problem. Maybe this becomes a hurdle. We don't know unless we try it out, of course. Learning isn't an exact science. I think that dynamic representations like this one are very useful in teaching and learning. However, I would also argue to use these tools with care and conscience. Although it seems to fit our operational view of a program, that does not mean it is a good fit of a novice learner's operational view of a program. Whatever tools we use will influence that operational view. What I want to ask teachers is to evaluate and reflect on the best way and place (in space/time) to use these tools to make learning as optimal as possible.
- cshesse 15y ago
  I think if you tried to teach programming to two groups of people who had minimal programming experience, one using say the normal python interpreter and one using this tool, the latter group would acquire a better understanding of what is going on in less time.

by troymc 15y ago

ht_th 15y ago

> Can you give an example of a "more complex programming structure" where this would be detrimental to understanding? It is difficult to imagine what kind of knowledge novice learners will construct while using this tool. I could imagine, for example, that their operational meaning of a variable becomes that of consecutive boxes with values in them. Given that knowledge, how would such a student start to understand a variable in a closure? Will it fit their existing understanding of variables as boxes? Maybe it does, maybe it will not. Maybe they have to deconstruct their understanding of variables first to connect it to their budding understanding of a closure, building a deeper and more widely understanding of variable. Maybe this will be not too much of a problem. Maybe this becomes a hurdle. We don't know unless we try it out, of course. Learning isn't an exact science. I think that dynamic representations like this one are very useful in teaching and learning. However, I would also argue to use these tools with care and conscience. Although it seems to fit our operational view of a program, that does not mean it is a good fit of a novice learner's operational view of a program. Whatever tools we use will influence that operational view. What I want to ask teachers is to evaluate and reflect on the best way and place (in space/time) to use these tools to make learning as optimal as possible.

cshesse 15y ago
I think if you tried to teach programming to two groups of people who had minimal programming experience, one using say the normal python interpreter and one using this tool, the latter group would acquire a better understanding of what is going on in less time.