Interesting Links 17 June 2013

First Monday of “summer vacation” and my grading is done and have been submitted. You know what that means! Yep, working on my lesson plans for August. Two brand new courses to teach and I am determined to be ready for them. OK, yeah, maybe I have some fun planned as well. Since it is Monday I do have links to share. I hope you’ll find some useful.

First off, if you are going to ISTE 2013 you really want to take advantage of a free Microsoft Surface RT that is available to eligible attendees. You need to bring some paperwork so go to the Windows in the Classroom Surface Experience Project site, read the details and get the paperwork done before your central office clears out for the summer.

I’m not going to be at ISTE this year and I am very disappointed about that. Looks like more computer science sessions than they have had in years. And do stop by the Microsoft booth. I may not be working at Microsoft anymore but a lot of good people who care about education are.

Peter Beens ‏@pbeens tweeted a link to pynguin - Python Turtle Graphics Application. Turtle graphics really seem to be coming back in a big way to introduce students to programming. (See also my TouchDevelop Demo: Simple Turtle Graphics )

AP CS Principles Course Moves One Step Closer with millions of dollars in new funding. Good read from the CSTA blog

Should All High School Students Learn Programming? While an obvious YES to me not everyone agrees.

Coding Is Coming To Every Industry You Can Think Of, Time To Start Learning It Now for the pro learning coding from  @FastCoExist

Computer Scientists Get Wet talks about the way computer science is getting deeply involved in all the other sciences. 

A reminder that I keep a list of computer science educator blogs is available at Computer science education blog roll Looking for any I have missed.

Computer Coding Lessons Expanding for K-12 Students via @educationweek

Biggest EdTech Question: How? Good read from @KenRoyal about how many schools struggle with how to get and maintain education technology

Interested in CS education? It's worth taking 40 minutes to learn from one of the field's top researchers – Mark Guzdial. What We Know About Teaching Computer Science ("What does Guzdial do, Anyway?")

A recorded session from TechEd 2013 - Building Apps with the Kinect for Windows SDK – is available. yet one more thing I will be looking at for ideas to use in class next school year.