
Google's Python Class (Video, Notes & Exercises) - jamesk2
http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/
======
pavs
I had this idea that what if Google was involved in a project where they would
make online courses of educational material available for free. Not like bits
and pieces of video lecture available from stanford or short video tutorials
available from <http://www.khanacademy.org/>. But actual course material,
perhaps starting from 2nd grade to all the way to graduate level courses.
There will be a combination of texts and videos and it could be semi wiki like
where, certain qualified people can update course material to keep it relevant
and up to date.

It would probably cost them less than buying a video codec company, but might
have bigger and far reaching effect.

Imagine a single site will all the educational material, regularly updated.
The only difference from a formal education (other than social interaction) is
a certification.

Crazy (stupid?) idea?

~~~
gojomo
Cool idea. But why limit it to Google (or any single company)?

Take every topic taught in formal education -- from K-12 through undergrad and
graduate school. Break it up into small 2-day to 2-week modules. Categorize
each module in terms of its prerequisities and teaching style (creating a
giant graph through which students can travel). Provide pre- and post-tests
(or simply let students self-declare their mastery of earlier subjects). Put
it all online.

Others are thinking this way, too. See David Gelernter's 'Tracks and Clusters'
concept from the 2009 Edge essays:

<http://edge.org/q2009/q09_9.html#gelernter>

(He adds to the online component real-life 'cluster rooms', where students
working on similar materials gather for additional mutual in-person
instruction.)

~~~
pavs
Great! David Gelernter wrote almost exactly the way I was thinking. Albeit, he
presented it eloquently.

The reason I specifically mentioned Google because, it is the only company
that is crazy enough to do something like this without expecting any direct
profit in return. They also have the engineering muscle and deep pocket to
make it possible.

I always felt, throughout my years in school, how inefficient our education
system is. Not only in USA, everywhere in the world (AFAIK).

Imagine how much effect this will have on third world countries (with the help
of cheap computers like OLPC) with course material translated to local
language? Ok maybe it won't be perfect and some problems needs to be solved,
but it will be better than having little to no access to high quality courses
of higher education?

Hell, if I had couple of millions lying around. I would give it a shot myself.

------
username3
This should print YayYayYay.

    
    
      Here is code that calls the above repeat() function, printing what it returns:
      print repeat('Yay', False)      ## Yay

[http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-
class/int...](http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-
class/introduction.html)

------
phatbyte
Even though Python is a very easy to learn language, I give this two thumbs up
for google. Python is really a great amazing language, however I feel
sometimes that's very underrated for most of IT people I know, it's not
perfect but is powerful and beautiful.

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davidedicillo
I heard the MIT OCW 6.00 python class on iTunesU is great too.

~~~
katovatzschyn
[http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-
Compute...](http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-
Science/6-00Fall-2008/CourseHome/index.htm)

I work through these a while ago and can attest to the validity of the above
statement.

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vlad
On a related note, it would be great if Google allowed others to post
education materials of length beyond 10 minutes in length, as well. For
example, I want to post full-length videos of computer science conferences and
talks but this seems to be impossible without applying to the YouTube Partner
program, which requires traffic and credentials. Does anybody have such a
contact at YouTube?

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ashishbharthi
I have been thinking of learning Python for long time after I read pg's essay
about Great Hackers. This will be a good start. Thanks for the link.

~~~
jamesk2
While these lectures are not for total programming newbies, they are very
gentle if you know some other languages. He'll often contrast Python with
Java, C++ and Javascript to highlight the differences.

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hartror
He is wearing a Netscape shirt! :D

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcteAbMC1Ok>

