The worst three terms in my entire academic life are coming to an end. All the video recording backed up by more face-to-face workshops and seminars is finally giving way to having some time to think again.
In conversation about using a online crowd sourced system. Ended up with a slight tangent about why there are so many dyslexic programers and why so many students dropout from computer science.
Following up on this found BCS article by Prof. John Stein, Magdalen College, Oxford.
He suggests it's about thinking beyond the detail ( see links below). One thing I have noticed about the weak student is there in ablity to use intentation. you get if { { ( a > 4 ) { println)). The brackets failing to lineup causes them endless problems. Perhaps Python in the works because it forces the two-dimensional notation of code to get even the most basic code written.
Perhaps the success of Spreadsheets and Scratch programming ( with general neurotypcial population) is to do with this forcing of visualsiation.
Stein states
'This preponderance of parvocellular connections, which tend to be more long-range, means that dyslexic brains are much better at associating detail from widely different parts of a static visual scene than comparing across time. Thus, they are quicker and more accurate at spotting impossible static constructions such as Escher’s drawings of impossible waterfalls, Penrose’s triangles and his impossible stairs. Most of us have to move our eyes from one side of the picture to the other to spot its contradictions, but many dyslexics can see them all at once.'
I've been using flow diagrams this term with a first-year students to overcome the problem of going from code to program. ...
Prof. John Stein, Magdalen College, Oxford, explores how dyslexia works and explains why the condition might be a profound positive when it comes to designing software.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dyslexia-can-deliver-benefits/ ( on the impossible pictures thing).
I've been wondering if I could do some eye tracking experiments on students while they are learning to program. Perhaps if we could see what they see/look at we might get a better understanding of what we are missing.
The fundamental problem is what the week students are missing is practice. This year particularly it's been difficult to know if the students have actually been engaging with materials. My feeling is that the students drop out are the ones who are disapointed they cannot learn programming in a few minutes. They are used to mastering something in seconds with instant feed back or giving up.
Notes.
Dyslecxics -
Material reasoning
Interconnected reasoning ( conneting all the dot)
Narrartive Reasoning.
Dynamic Reasoning. ( talk about things that have happend into the future).
