Student having trouble learning programming?

Question

I am teaching a class on programming methods. I have one study, who comes to every class and tries his best. But he can't seem to get the basic idea of programming.

I have gone through a range of different examples and methods in programming (eg, Pseudocode, flowcharts, PSDs, DSDs etc). He doesn't get any of it.

Can anyone suggest a website I can refer him to that might help him?

Basically the young lad doesn't get anything.

In terms of teaching method, I have done much of what has already been said.

What I am looking for is a good website that he can use.

Answer 1

You're giving us fuzzy logic here.

What can't he get. You're not providing enough data.

Programming is using FUNCTIONS and OPERATORS to do worked in a structure like a sentence. Your grammar and syntax have to be correct.

It's like sentence diagraming.

SUBJECT/VERB

The boy walks to school one mile East every day.

Boy is a FUNCTION, the CURSOR in this case
EAST is a direction on the screen which is an X or Y coordinate
WALKS is a change of coordinate positions on the screen
ONE is an amount of distance in this case 100 pixels

Using traditional BASIC

LET X=200
LET Y=200
REM Our starting position on the screen for the boy

FOR A=1 TO 99
REM this is our one mile distance.
CLS
REM clears the screen
CURSOR(X+A,Y)
REM this moves the cursor on the X plane 1 pixel
NEXT

This program moves the CURSOR (BOY 1 mile EAST (the X direction) to school.

If you don't have a CURSOR function, then you make one as follows:

LOCATE(X,Y)
PRINT "X"

That's a cursor function made from two other functions.

A computer is a ROBOT and a program TELLS IT EXACTLY WHAT TO DO and this must be done in proper GRAMMAR and SYNTAX

You do this by understanding how functions and operators work.

In Visual Basic you start with a form

Drag two TEXT boxes (the white frame on the tool bar) to the form and space them a little apart.

Drag four PUSH BUTTONS to the form and stack them between the two TEXT BOXES

Go to the CAPTION property and type in + in the first button - in the second button, * in the third and / in the fouth

Drag three LABELS to the form.

Label1 Goes at the top left of the Form
Label 2 goes near center bottom of the form and Label3 goes almost next to it.

In the Caption Property of label1 type in

Enter two numbers greater than zero into each of the boxes and press a button to do a math operation.

in label2 type in

=

double click on the +

You get the

Button1_Click()

end

Sub box

Between those two write

label3 = Val(Text1.text) + Val(text2.text)

So it looks like this

Button1_click()

label3 = Val(Text1.text) + Val(text2.text)

end

For button 2 (or the -) you change it to

label3 = Val(Text1.text) - Val(text2.text)

For button 3 you change it to

label3 = Val(Text1.text) * Val(text2.text)

For button 4 yu change it to

label3 = Val(Text1.text) / Val(text2.text)

Now you RUN the program and do the math.

This covers form design, programmer instructions to the end user, simple math operations, the FUNCTION of turning TEXT numbers entered into the TEXT BOX into REAL numbers using the function VAL()

It renders a small calculator.

It takes 10 minutes to create

It demonstrates what a programmers do to make a useful program, simple as it is.

Now if you're doing this WITHOUT a programming langue on their screen in their hands THEN you have to do a virtual situation the OLD STYLE WAY

IBM CARDS

One card per function or operator

Stacked in order.

The students have to put down the variable assingments
functions
operators
one line at a time on one INDEX card


To teach SUB routines requires colored cards in a rainbow.

OR marking pens to make the edge of the card a different color.

Then YOU have to be the IBM machine and read each card.

The syntax and grammar are correct or you return the cards to the student with the wrong one (the buggy one) marked.

The student must redo the program.

This is how it USED to be done in college when students couldn't run the computer and had to turn in BATCHES of cards.

The idea behind TEACHING programming is to SHOW how a function is practical.

And how to SHOW how a function is made.

You take a GRAPHICS FUNCTION like your PSET(X,Y)

You design a form.

You tell the program when the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON is depressed that the PSET(X,Y) function is started using the current MOUSE X,Y COORDINATES

Then the student learns how to make a FREE HAND DRAW tool.

Now you put some BUTTONS on the screen with a thicker box inside of each. First one is a single pixel. Second is four pixels. Thrid is 8 pixels.

If RADIO BUTTON 2 is selected you add more code to the program.

PSET(X,Y)
IF BUTTON2=1 THEN PSET(X+1,Y+1):PSET(X-1,Y-1)

Now FOUR pixels are in action making a THICKER LINE

Now you can add color buttons to change the color.

Then switch to using a DROP DOWN MENU and replace the buttons with MENU ITEMS

PEN SIZE
PEN COLOR

Now they learn how to work with a FREE HAND DRAW tool

You can also change PEN SHAPE by different arrangement of the pixels to TWO pixels up and down but not left and right, DIAMOND SHAPES, CIRCULAR SHAPES.

You add a CIRCLE button and instructions

Go to the center of where the circle is and click right mouse button. Move right to the edge and click left mouse button.

Assign a variable for each of these

Then use the CIRCLE PRIMITIVE to draw a circle at that postion in the size specified as a radius.

When they press the right button the circle should MAGICALLY appear.

You can do the same thing for boxes.

The same thing for FILLs using the BOX FILL function inside a circle or box.

Now they are designing a paint program.

You can then use the GET(X,Y)-(XX,YY) function to screen save their work as a BIT MAP into a FILE so they can bring the picture back at a later date.

In about two days you have taught them how to make Paint, which comes with Windows.

You can teach them how to make PROPRIETARY file saves by a second variable to tell the system a CIRCLE was made or a BOX was drawn, complete with pen size and pen color

This gets saved as COORDINATES with a marker for each coordiante as to what it is. This one is very complicated and it involves LAYERS

Each drawing action is a layer

It requires using ARRAYS

LAYER(0)
It looks for a tool operation or mouse clicks left and right or on and off.

This way you can remove a layer by clearing the screen and replaying ALL the layers except for one.

This is how CORELL and ADOBLE ILLUSTRATOR or PHOTOSHOP works with their DEFAULT file. It works in layers and coordiantes and allows you to remove a bad draw object.

Each element drawn becomes an OBJECT

Now you've moved from PAINT to COREL DRAW

You have a more grown up program.

Another element you can work on is WORD WRAP AND JUSTIFICATION

Set margins, save keypresses into an array, put some into a holding buffer, count the spaces, compare to the margins, when a word exceeds limits you move it to the next line down, go back to the start of the previous line and add spaces between spaces until the margin lenght is reached.

Now you have RIGHT FLUSH justification.

It's magical to watch that word drop from here to
here

And see the upper line do this

It's magical to watch that word drop from here to
to here

Justification and text programs are arrays of lines and a QUE that holds one word temporarily until the math section determines if it exceeds the margins or not.

It's magical to do this and watch it and realize you are making WORD FOR WINDOWS or at least WORD PAD

Answer 2

hi. i'm actually an IT student that have just graduated. During my first year, i actually hated programming coz first of all, this field is not what i chose. it is really tough to actually learn something that u dislike. however, i m lucky enough to have a lecturer that have patiently guided me throughout my journey of my uni life. there is no other way to learn programming rather than trying to understand it bit by bit. for flow chart, pseudocode all those stuffs are actually showing the flow of the program so you have to understand the logic & the flow behind it. so, i think you have to be patiently guiding your student in understanding it; explaining it in a simpler way by giving examples. i think the www.howstuffworks.com really help. but, it actually up to the interest of your student. i hope that help. try to guide hm/her along the way & don't let hm/her give up that easy. ;)

Answer 3

Both languages are lovely. The French accessory is also extra complicated to grasp, however I can`t see how finding out the language might "damage their lives". Maybe it was once simply tougher than they imagined? Just pick the language you believe will improvement you extra in my opinion. Either one is a step within the correct path. By the best way, so far as rolling your tongue is worried, the extra you train it the higher you end up. I talk from private revel in.

Answer 4

i would have him come in for a session after school ......i would sit down with him, go step by step, have him write down every step. go over it again with him until he gets it....talk him though it, then let him do it with you sitting with him. that should fix the problem............