Monday, December 09, 2013

Interesting Links 9 December 2013

Today is Grace Hopper’s birthday. An amazing woman I was fortunate hopperenough to meet while in college and hear speak several times during my career. It’s also part of Computer Science Education week and that is no coincidence. The week of Admiral Hopper’s birthday was a natural selection for the celebration of computing education. Through many roles in her career Admiral Hopper always thought of education of the next generation as a key part of her life’s work.

Speaking of CS Ed Week and the signature event of this year – the Hour of Code – the media is starting to pick up the news. For example in this article Cnet discusses the Hour of Code

And there is this Open Challenge for Ellen DeGeneres to try and write as much code as a 4 year old by Thinkersmith

On the CSTA Blog, CSTA executive director Chris Stephenson writes about some Concerns About a Computer-Based AP CS Principles Exam. Not on the curriculum but on the plans to only offer the exam on computers. Take a look and leave your opinion in the comments section there.

Have you never been to the SIGCSE Conference? For the first time there are some travel grants for first timers to attend SIGCSE 2014. Thanks to Henry Walker! http://sigcse.org/travelGrant

Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2013: Coding & "Making"   via @hackeducation Another example of why @audreywatters is a must read

Do you use Alice to teach programming? Did you know that Students Can Create Animations of Garfield the Cat With New Version of Carnegie Mellon's Alice Software? Cool!

Everything Is Becoming a Branch of Computer Science from Innovation Insights at http://Wired.com

Why Teachers Must Have a Digital Footprint What do you think? Are they right?

The Boston Globe covers the Bootstrap program for integrating algebra and computing:

Computer science education - Readings from Thanksgiving Break  by @caitsydney

What’s the difference between college-level and corporate programming? More or less than you thought?

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1 comment:

  1. Garth11:53 AM

    That list of issues in the Concerns About a Computer-based APCSP Exam goes well beyond an issue with a simple exam. These issues are going to cause problems with online educational strategies across the board. Schools are having to deal with the Smarter Balanced Assessment test which seems to be a mandated, online only assessment. A little bit tricky for schools that do not have computers or students that are not trained to use computers. There are still a lot of both out there. The assumption that every school has high speed internet or even has computers is a big mistake. If a school offers APCSP then computers can be assumed, but not the high speed internet. If they are not careful I can see things like APSCP becoming a type of exclusive club. Poor schools or country schools need not apply.

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