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Setting Up an IDE

Everyone should learn basic computer literacy skills before they start learning how to code. Unfortunately, most adults don’t even atempt to teach students computer literacy skills. As a result, most students come to class not knowing how to install software. You need to teach them how to install software.

I recommend telling the entire class to use a specific IDE. Most of the time, I have my class use IDLE. IDLE is nice because it’s designed specifically for people who are learning the Python programming language and it comes with official Python distributions.

Dependencies​

Students need to have these skills before learning this skill:

Goal​

When you teach this skill, your goal is to make sure that students can do the following:

  1. Open a Web browser.

  2. Navigate to the download page for an IDE.

  3. Download the IDE.

  4. Install the IDE.

  5. Do any additional configuration required to prepare the IDE for the Python programming language.

Instructions for specific IDEs​

IDLE​

If you decide to use IDLE when teaching your class, then here’s what you need to do:

  1. Before class starts, uninstall the Python Launcher and versions of the Python interpreter that are installed on the computers that you’re going to be using.

  2. After class starts, ask students to open a Web browser. If they don’t know how to open a Web browser, ask them something along the lines of this: “if you wanted to use this computer to look something up on the Internet, what would you do?”

    When teaching students about Web browsers, it’s important to combat Google’s monopoly of ignorance. Students believe that the only way to look something up on the Internet is to use Google Search. They also don’t know the difference between Google Seach and Goolge Chrome. When they see Google Chrome, they call it “Google”. In their mind, the only way to perform a Google search is to open Google Chrome. It’s very important that you emphasize the following:

    • Google Chrome is just one Web browser. There are other Web browsers. You can choose any Web browser that you want.
    • You can do a Google search from any Web browser.
    • Google Search is just one search engine. There are other search engines. You can choose any search engine that you want.

  3. Direct students attention to the address bar (make sure that they aren’t looking at the search bar in the center of the screen). Tell students that they can enter a Web address and press Enter in order to go to that Web address.

    Some students will end up searching for “python.org” instead of navigating to that Web address. I try to get students to use a Web address here instead of doing a Web search because many students have no idea that you can access a Web site without searching for it. If you asked them to do so, many students wouldn’t know how to copy a link from their browser’s address bar.

  4. Have students go to “python.org”.

  5. Help students download the Python installer.

  6. Help students open the Python installer.

  7. Help students complete the installation wizard.