A presentation outlining why people are scared to use Java's GUI capabilities, but why they should use them.

1. And 4 Reasons You Should!

2.  Define Better!
 Example of Tools: Alice, Scratch, Game Maker
 Pros: Super easy to use, drag and drop tools,
 Cons: Students don’t really learn programming concepts

3.  Because your focus, as a teacher, should be to teach
them how to PROGRAM.
 This is my biggest problem with Alice and some of the
other tools, when students leave Alice and move on to
Java, it’s like everything they learned about variables
and loops was a blurry dream.
 I don’t believe you can properly teach students
programming using a drag-and-drop method. What
about Syntax and Semantics?

4.  Java isn’t as popular as it once was
 It’s dropped below C in popular programming
languages (According to Tiobe Software)

5.  Because it’s still 2nd most popular.
 Cross Compatibility with all operating systems

6.  And moving towards C and C++ in order to help
students understand what is “under the hood” of
programming.
 Java does remove some of the responsibility of the
programmer with objects and garbage collection

7.  Because we want students to understand the basic
concepts like variables and loops without complicating
things with Make files and garbage management.

8.  This is generally pretty true. I won’t deny it.

9.  Who says the student needs to create the GUI?...
 See next slide

10.  Create a game, or replicate a game in Java.
 Make your program well organized.
 Create a java class that is purely a helper file that only
contains a few empty functions.
 Explain what the functions should do and discuss with
students how they could get the function working
correctly.
 The helper files, when completed successfully, should
complete your program thereby creating a working
game.