I took the first MIT OCW course in electrical engineering and computer science (6.00) from Fall '08 to get my feet wet in computer science. I was not a CS major in college, but after reading through the syllabi of their courses and watching a few lectures, I think I have a feel for what they're going for.
Their intro course teaches computer science in Python, which is one of the simplest fully-featured languages to learn. It goes through programming structure and syntax without getting too much into the arcane. It piques the interest without scaring the new student off. If they decide not to continue, they now know the first bits of Python and can start learning more on their own.
If they do like it, however...the next level (6.01) is taught in Scheme, as best as I can determine. (MIT students correct me if I'm wrong) It rehashes a lot of the same programming concepts taught in the Python course but adds more on top.
I think colleges would benefit by asking if their students just want to program, or if they want to learn computer science.
Their intro course teaches computer science in Python, which is one of the simplest fully-featured languages to learn. It goes through programming structure and syntax without getting too much into the arcane. It piques the interest without scaring the new student off. If they decide not to continue, they now know the first bits of Python and can start learning more on their own.
If they do like it, however...the next level (6.01) is taught in Scheme, as best as I can determine. (MIT students correct me if I'm wrong) It rehashes a lot of the same programming concepts taught in the Python course but adds more on top.
I think colleges would benefit by asking if their students just want to program, or if they want to learn computer science.