Monday, April 01, 2013

Interesting Links 1 April 2013

It’s April First which means both the real and virtual worlds will be filled with jokes and tricks and attempts to fool people. No jokes here though. I find most of them more annoying than funny. The links I have to share today are real and valid and I hope helpful. So read on with confidence.

Anyone Who Thinks Apple Will Rule The World Forever Should Look At This Picture  via @businessinsider is an interesting read about the past and future of the computer industry. For me the interesting part was that the computer they show on the picture is of a computer model I used in college that was built by a company I used to work for. Predicting the Future of Computing is hard and as teachers that reinforces why we need to concentrate on concepts and principles over specific tools.

Interesting things continue to happen with regards to computer science education in New York City. With two articles popping up of interest.

"IT'S A GOOD COURSE, BUT..."  some thoughts on AP courses from Eugene Wallingford (@wallingf) I agree with a lot of what he says here. I’m not a huge fan of the current AP CS exam. Trying to keep an open mind about AP CS Principles which is still in development 

How to Close the Tech Industry's Gender Gap Closing it starts in the classroom but I think most of us in education know that. Industry should do more to help though.

New on Blog@CACM: Nerdy Strutting: How to Put Women Off the Tech Industry Attitudes and behaviors do not help with retention of women in the field of computing.

Turning Elementary Computer labs into STEM labs: A welcome change? via Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher)

@ImagineCup announces the Kodu challenge for students ages 9-18 worldwide!

CS2N is proud to announce a new tutorial series for Alice 2! If you are using Alice 2 this may be worth while looking at.

Developer training company Pluralsight released a pair of online coding courses for kids. I know the people who have developed both of these courses and they do good work. I’ve used a lot of Joe Hummel’s resources especially. So I’m sure these courses are both well worth exploring.

Everyone Should Learn To Program, But Not Everyone Should Be A Programmer Seems obvious to me but apparently not to everyone.

Math Nerds vs. Code Monkeys: Should Computer Science Classes Be More Practical?

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