[PD] PD i education

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo,
Anders Friberg hat gesagt: // Anders Friberg wrote:

> However, the most common problem is the following:
> I want to do this <operation> - is there block that can do it and what's 
> the name of it?
> In the majority of cases in the beginning there is actually already a 
> block that can do it but there is no way to find out except browse the 
> whole documentation including all packages and guess. It used to pop up 
> a text file with blocks ordered according to purpose in vanilla pd which 
> I think was of great help. I suppose this is considered to lowtech and 
> inflexible considering all the packages etc.

I consider "learning the blocks" part of a more general issue with
learning Pd. Like many other languages, natural ones like English or
programming languages like C, a user of that language needs to develop
a higher level of literacy. 

When children learn how to read, at first they decipher words letter
by letter: "c-a-t", "d-o-g", "e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t" etc. 

Adult people don't do this anymore, instead they immediatly recognize
complete words or even phrases and sentences, youknowhaddamean?

In Pd developing this kind of an eye for phrases, blocks, idioms or
whatever you call them is just as important. Having a dictionary at
hand is of not much help here, you only gain that ability through
constant use, through reading and writing patches yourself.

That's why I started to do special excercises in my workshops to
improve the student's literacy in Pd. A simple one is attached:
hellokitty.pd contains some Pd phrases, some "kittens" as I call them,
that have lost their home. Students are asked to decipher them and
think about, what might be the correct "home" for these "kittens", the
place they belong to in a Pd patch. Giving the kittens a name may help
with remembering their structure.

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__
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