Teaching Python

Episode 120: The Role of Failure in Learning In this episode of the Teaching Python podcast, co-hosts Sean Tibor and Kelly Schuster Paredes discuss the significance of failure in learning. They assert that failure is a crucial part of development and growth, providing an opportunity to be resilient and persistent when things don't go to plan. Sean shares a personal experience where he turned a coding failure into a learning opportunity, evolving better testing principles. Also, they discuss the need for a secure environment to allow for failure and learning. They conclude by introducing their community partnership with Python Tutor, a tool that helps in visualizing Python code execution.Support Teaching Python

In this episode of our teaching series, we dive into learners and their coding journey. We spotlight the Constructivist learning approach, emphasizing its core tenets: active learning, connecting coding to real-world challenges, the crucial role of collaboration, and the sheer power of motivation. The transformative potential of this approach is undeniable. From tales of initial struggles to triumphant victories, this episode is a 15-20 minute dive into the heart of teaching Python. Support Teaching Python

Today, we'll talk about how to test students' code using automated tools. For example, the unit testing built into Replit's Teams for Education allows students to see if their code is correct, while teachers can quickly assess dozens of submissions. We'll also talk about potential pitfalls that can disrupt or distract from learning. Note: This is a shorter episode format that focuses on one specific topic, limited to 15-20 minutes.Support Teaching PythonLinks:Teams for Education - Replit — Tests and autograding Save time on grading. Free yourself up for more individual attention and increase student persistence by letting them test code before turning it in.PyBites Platform | Real World Python Exercises — Overwhelmed by tutorials? Stop consuming books and courses! The only way to really learn to code is to write a lot of relevant code. Our platform makes you a confident programmer fast.

Yasoob Khalid, author and developer at Microsoft, discusses making learning Python open and accessible and the importance of teachers and mentors. He shares his journey from blogging to creating free online resources for Python learners. The conversation also touches on writing to improve understanding and even includes a sprinkle of Club Penguin.

This episode dives into the multifaceted realm of Natural Language Processing (NLP) with a guest expert, [Ines Montani](#). The discussion revolves around the use of Python in the context of NLP, the complexities of language, the design of label schemes, and how educators and students can dive into this intriguing area. The conversation also touches on tools such as Prodigy and Spacy, as well as practical applications, including a humorous digression on the popular game, Fortnite. Teachers are encouraged to explore NLP with their students, emphasizing the importance of hands-on experience and data annotation. There's also a mention of a fascinating project involving a "magic mirror" powered by Raspberry Pi.Special Guest: Ines Montani.Support Teaching PythonLinks:ines.io — Hi, I’m Ines. I’m a software developer working on Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing technologies, and the co-founder and CEO of Explosion. We’re the makers of spaCy, one of the leading open-source libraries for Natural Language Processing in Python, and Prodigy, a modern annotation tool for creating training data for machine learning models.Explosion — Company co-founded by Ines, specializing in AI and NLP developer tools.spaCy · Industrial-strength Natural Language Processing in Python — A leading Python library for NLP, designed to help process and understand large amounts of textual data.Prodigy · Prodigy · An annotation tool for AI, Machine Learning & NLP — An interactive annotation tool for AI and machine learning, mentioned extensively in the conversation.MagicMirror² — The open source modular smart mirror platformOur Patreon — The Patreon page where listeners can financially support the podcast.

In this captivating episode of Teaching Python, Kelly and Sean sit down with the innovative mind behind DroneBlocks.io, Dennis Baldwin. As a child, Dennis was deeply fascinated with remote control cars and airplanes. That childhood passion translated into a profound interest in engineering, as he delved deep into the intricate world of building, wiring, and programming flight controllers for his RC planes and quadcopters. Alongside, Dennis maintained an active presence on YouTube, making sure to share a majority of his research, development, and findings with an eager audience. 2010 marked a pivotal year for Dennis when he discovered the ArduPilot project and was deeply inspired by the dynamic developer community that supported it. This newfound inspiration set him on a journey of countless hours in the garage, experimenting and constructing a myriad of autonomous drones. This includes everything from hexacopters and VTOL aircraft to delta wings and mini quads, leveraging APM and Pixhawk flight controllers. 2014 saw him crossing paths with Marisa at Walnut Springs Elementary School in Dripping Springs, TX. A chance collaboration led to Dennis introducing students to the wonders of quadcopters, which further transitioned to the integration of DJI SDK upon students' intrigue in aerial photography. Fast forward to 2015, Dennis established a groundbreaking concept—melding block programming with the DJI SDK. This innovation birthed DroneBlocks, a platform cherished by students for its intuitive approach to conducting autonomous missions with DJI hardware. Today, DroneBlocks boasts an app, a comprehensive curriculum, and an ever-growing community of users sharing their mission code globally. As a graduate from The Citadel with a BS in Electrical Engineering and with a rich history of co-founding multiple tech ventures, Dennis, along with Marisa, aspires to integrate DroneBlocks into every STEAM classroom across the world. Tune in and soar with us on this incredible journey of passion, innovation, and educational revolution.Special Guest: Dennis Baldwin.Support Teaching PythonLinks:DroneBlocks App & Curriculum - Learn to Code with Drones! — DroneBlocks teaches STEM and the real-world application of drones, robots, and sensor technology through our apps, drone coding curriculum, simulator, and professional development.DroneBlocks Robo-Dog GO1 - Classroom Bundle — DroneBlocks — The DroneBlocks GO1 EDU+ bundle comes pre-equipped with two onboard Jetson Nanos and one onboard Jetson NX, this increased processing power gives you the capability of adding Lidar units in the future.ArduPilot - Versatile, Trusted, Open — ArduPilot is a trusted, versatile, and open source autopilot system supporting many vehicle types: multi-copters, traditional helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, boats, submarines, rovers and more. The source code is developed by a large community of professionals and enthusiasts.Dennis Baldwin - YouTube — I'm Dennis Baldwin, an electrical engineer by degree but fell in love with software engineering many years ago. I started building RC cars with my dad as a kid and now build UAVs (aka drones). I'm fascinated by the autonomous aspect of UAVs and spend a lot of time tinkering with Pixhawk and the APM code. Hopefully you learn something from my channel and hopefully I learn something from you as well. Thanks for tuning in.DroneBlocks Curriculum — Check out the full set of Droneblocks courses online

Way back on Episode 13, we interviewed Josh Lowe, then 15 years old and the creator of EduBlocks. When Josh was 12, he started a Saturday afternoon project to make a block-based coding IDE that generated Python code. Flash forward seven years and Josh still maintains EduBlocks as a software engineer on behalf of Anaconda. This week, Kelly and Sean caught up with Josh to learn about his educational journey since we last spoke with him, the latest developments on EduBlocks, as well as the new direction enabled by Anaconda's purchase of EduBlocks in May 2023.Special Guest: Josh Lowe.Support Teaching PythonLinks:Edublocks — EduBlocks is a free tool by Anaconda that helps anyone learn how to code with text-based languages like Python or HTML using a familiar drag-and-drop blocks systemAnacondaAnaconda Press Release Announcing Purchase of EduBlocks — Anaconda Inc., provider of the world’s most popular data science platform, today announced the acquisition of EduBlocks, a free, web-based, drag-and-drop coding platform built to help K-12 students learn fundamental skills. With EduBlocks, Anaconda expands its reach and offerings for K-12 schools as well as for beginner-level professionals.

This week we are joined by Philip Guo and Sam Lau, researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Philip and Sam have recently published research on how computer science instructors use artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot in their classrooms. Join us to learn more about the data behind how generative AI is changing the way we teach computer science and coding.Special Guests: Philip Guo and Sam Lau.Support Teaching PythonLinks:sam lauAI Code Generation Tools Study — From "Ban It Till We Understand It" to "Resistance is Futile": How University Programming Instructors Plan to Adapt as More Students Use AI Code Generation and Explanation Tools such as ChatGPT and GitHub CopilotPandas Tutor: Using Pyodide to Teach Data Science at Scale | Pyodide blog — Hi, we’re Sam Lau and Philip Guo, and we teach data science classes at UC San Diego. In this guest post we’ll tell you about our free educational tool, Pandas Tutor, that helps students learn data science using the popular pandas library. The above screenshot shows how you can use it to write Python and pandas code in a web-based editor and see visualizations of what your code does step-by-step.Pandas Tutor - visualize Python pandas code — Pandas Tutor lets you write Python pandas code in your browser and see how it transforms your data step-by-step. (If you use R, try Tidy Data Tutor. To visualize general Python, Java, C, C++, and JavaScript code, try Python Tutor.)Teaching Programming in the Age of ChatGPT — How computing instructors plan to adapt to ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and other AI coding assistants (ICER 2023 paper)Real-Real-World Programming with ChatGPT — Taking AI Far Beyond Small Self-Contained Coding Tasks

In this episode, Kelly and Sean meet with Adam Schroeder, community manager at Plotly and author of The Book of Dash. We'll talk about how teachers can use data visualization in the classroom with Dash to bring data to life for their students. If you're not familiar with the Dash and Plotly Python libraries, you can get started here with us! Dash is a library for building web-based dashboards to visualize your Python data. It uses Plotly, a library for making beautiful visualizations of data that are highly interactive. Both libraries are open-source and maintained by the Plotly company, which provides enterprise-grade implementations of Dash and Plotly for business customers.Special Guest: Adam Schroeder.Support Teaching PythonLinks:Dash in 20 Minutes Tutorial | Dash for Python Documentation | Plotly — By the end of this tutorial, you will understand the basic building blocks of Dash and you will know how to build this app.Plotly Blog - What Scientists, Engineers, Teachers, &... — Making graphs and analyzing data are essential skills for science, engineering, journalism, and data analysis of all types. Collaborating online with our team means we can work better and faster. The status quo tools–pencil and paper, desktop software, and graphing calculators–present problems.Plotly: Low-Code Data App Development — Dash Enterprise is the premier platform for building, scaling, and deploying data apps in Python.The Book of Dash | No Starch Press — A swift and practical introduction to building interactive data visualization apps in Python, known as dashboards. You’ve seen dashboards before; think election result visualizations you can update in real time, or population maps you can filter by demographic. With the Python Dash library you’ll create analytic dashboards that present data in effective, usable, elegant ways in just a few lines of code.Charming Data - YouTubeMinecraft EDU Digital Citizenship — Minecraft is an open-world game full of possibilities, where players can create and build, solve problems together, and explore amazing worlds. Learn how Minecraft is transforming education. Minecraft is working on a series of digital literacy/cyber safety worlds and lessons.

Episode 111: Exploring Generative AI in Education In Episode 111 of the Teaching Python podcast, join special guest Eric Matthes and your hosts Kelly and Sean as they dive into the intriguing world of generative AI in education. Coming fresh from the Education Summit at PyCon 2023, they provide a comprehensive recap of the event, highlighting the successful speaker topics, the ideal room size, and the engaging breakout sessions that made the summit a resounding success. As an extra resource, Eric Matthes, author of the widely acclaimed "Python Crash Course," joins the discussion, providing valuable insights into the intersection of generative AI and education. For those interested, Eric's book can be found on Amazon. The conversation then delves into the complexities surrounding generative AI, emphasizing that while it holds tremendous potential, it is still in its early stages, leaving us with more questions than answers. To lay the groundwork, the hosts define generative AI and demystify how large language models work, drawing an analogy to refrigerator poetry magnets to aid comprehension. As the discussion unfolds, Kelly, Eric, and Sean raise crucial questions about the role of generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, in education. They explore the optimal level of usage, the necessary policies and governance to support its implementation, and draw parallels to the concept of the "Goldilocks zone" in astronomy, seeking the right balance for effective integration. The episode moves to thought-provoking dialogue regarding the future proficiency levels required for learners in problem-solving scenarios. They examine whether coding proficiency alone will suffice or if learners will need to develop AI literacy, enabling them to harness the power of AI to generate code and solutions. Tune in to Episode 111 of the Teaching Python podcast to gain a deeper understanding of the implications and potential of generative AI in education. As the hosts explore the evolving landscape, they shed light on the importance of finding the right balance and preparing learners for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.Special Guest: Eric Matthes.Support Teaching PythonLinks:Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming: Matthes, Eric: 9781718502703: Amazon.com: Books — Python Crash Course is the world’s best-selling guide to the Python programming language. This fast-paced, thorough introduction will have you writing programs, solving problems, and developing functioning applications in no time.Python Flash Cards: Syntax, Concepts, and Examples: Matthes, Eric: 9781593278960: Amazon.com: Books — Keep your coding skills sharp on the go! Python Flash Cards take a tried-and-tested method and give it a programming makeover. Eric Matthes, author of the best-selling Python Crash Course, distills essential Python programming knowledge into this 101-card deck you can use anywhere.- Education Summit - PyCon US 2023 — The Summit is a gathering of teachers and educators focused on bringing coding literacy, through Python, to as many learners as possible. We invite educators from all venues to join the discussion, share insights, learn new techniques and tools, and share their passion for education. We are inviting educators from many venues: authors; PK-12 schools; colleges and universities; community-based workshops; online programs; and government. In addition to a wide array of engaging speakers, we will also create collaboration opportunities and hands-on learning sessions.