Computer Languages For Students
Fred A. Masterson · 2005
There are three ways in which programming languages are applied to instruction. In the first application, instructors use programming languages to compose programmed lessons. In the second application, students learn how to use programming languages. In this case, the emphasis is less on the content of the problems being solved than on the programming techniques used to solve them. This paper f ocuses on a third application, in which students u se programming languages to solve problems in areas such as statistics, algebra, logic, and physics. In this application, the computer becomes a powerful tool, under the student's c ontrol, for exploring problem domains. Some programming languages are more appropriate for this application than others. This p aper discusses criteria for suitability, and illustrates them with example from AMPL, a student-friendly dialect o f APL.