Introduction to Perl for non-programming Mac folk

[Peter Corlett]

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:25:55PM +0000, Paul Makepeace wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk> wrote:
[...]
>> A big lump of clue-by-four to reiterate that last point, applied
>> repeatedly until it registers, or until they stop pestering you to give
>> the answers on a plate.

> "Spoonfeeding" people at the beginning is a very powerful teaching
> technique, primarily as it builds confidence and familiarity. The volume
> of information required at the beginning of learning a subject can be
> totally overwhelming, and oral transmission of that knowledge is for many
> people orders of magnitude more effective than reading docs.

*nods*

There is, however, a point where people have to start coding in the real
world, and the teaching needs to include how to cope when they don't have a
friendly BOFH[0] or Monger to run to with questions. Some students don't
really appreciate this and/or are too lazy, and find out the hard way when
it's too late.

So it should be a friendly Clue Bat, OK? :)


[0] Yes, really, friendly BOFHs exist!