[Haskell & FP in Education] Welcome and introductions

[erwig]

Hi everyone,

Having used Haskell in my graduate and undergrad PL classes for a long time, my recent focus has been on the explanation of computing concepts for non-computer scientists. To this end, I have published a popular science book last year that explains computer science concepts to laypeople [1]. The goal was to specifically reach people who are interested in learning about computing but don't want to learn a programming language first. Once basic concepts are understood, those who remain sufficiently interested can then be introduced to a more formal presentation by employing a programming language. This is where Haskell comes into play. (At the request of my publisher, I have created a Haskell tutorial (incomplete as of yet) with exercises that follows the exposition of the book.) At my university we have employed this approach successfully in the computer science orientation class [2], and we are currently exploring different ways of applying this approach in middle schools (especially in grades 6 and 7).

What I am looking forward to hearing about in this forum are the experiences of others in using Haskell for teaching programming and computer science. I am also interested to learn more about different approaches for creating learning environments for using Haskell (including CodeWorld and Helium). It would be great to have a Haskell implementation that provides a number of different complexity levels, e.g. allowing one to selectively turn off type classes, have only one number type, turn off parametric polymorphism, etc.

--
Martin


[1] Once Upon an Algorithm - How Stories Explain Computing
eecs.oregonstate.edu/~erwig/#book

[2] Story Programming: Explaining Computer Science Before Coding, J. Parham-Mocello, S. Ernst, M. Erwig, E. Dominguez, and L. Shellhammer, ACM Symp. on Computer Science Education, 2019, to appear.


> On Dec 15, 2018, at 2:19 PM, Chris Smith <cdsmith at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello, everyone!  Welcome to education at haskell.org.
> 
> This mailing list grew out of discussions at ICFP 2018 about creating a space for collaboration and discussion of using Haskell and other functional programming languages in general education.  To jump-start that process, I'd like to invite everyone to introduce themselves and specifically share your goals, opportunities, vantage point, and interests.  The hope is that we'll be able to sort ourselves into compatible interests and ideas, to kick off more detailed discussion or collaborations.
> 
> Some suggested questions to spur discussion:
> 
> - What education-related projects are you involved in, or have you been involved in previously?
> - What other projects do you find exciting, intriguing, or worthy of emulation?
> - On the other hand, what projects or conversations should be happening, but are not happening yet?
> - Is there anything specific that you are definitely looking for from this space?
> - What vision do you have for functional programming in education?  That is, what general principles guide your thinking?
> 
> I will reply with my own answers, and encourage you to do the same.
> 
> Thanks,
> Chris
> 
> P.S. I realize this email is long past due.  Between my job as a software engineer, volunteer teaching, and recent development on CodeWorld, I have again fallen into the trap of over-committing myself and falling behind on outside commitments.  I hope that late is still better than never.
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