Interesting Links 14 December 2015

I’m late this week. Windows Live Writer’s connection to Blogger (where this blog is hosted) is broken. Now that it is being open sources as Open Live Writer I am hopeful all will be fixed soon. In the meantime I have to use the built in editor on the web (and manually upload images) so that slows me down. Plus I had a real life this weekend. :-)

Many of this week’s links are related to Computer Science Education week. BTW Twitter posted a custom icon for all Tweets using the #HourOfCode hash code.

Happy 200th birthday to the remarkable Ada Lovelace, a Victorian pioneer of computing

And of course it was Grace Hopper’s birthday last week as well.


US Secretary of Education @JohnKingatED talks to students about the importance of computer science.

A Tale of Two Coding Programs a reminder of the struggles. 

Why do students love Computer Science? Head to the Microsoft New England blog and they'll tell you!


Oakland joins almost 100 other US cities to add computer science to curriculum together with http://Code.org

Every Student Succeeds Act: CS defined as part of well-rounded education. What it means is that the same sort of support as is available for subjects like math and English will also be available for Computer Science. 

Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) crashes coding party, calls for fundamental changes in education.Cook said that he wants “to see coding be a required course like social studies, English, and mathematics in every public school curriculum.”

Why the Hour of Code Is Right for Your Students  with quotes from me :-)

Computer science is finally getting some well-deserved respect by Doug Bergman, Computer Science Chair, Porter Gaud School

Key Messages of Computer Science Education http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-yongpradit/key-messages-of-computer-_b_8742250.html by Pat Yongpradit the Chief Education Officer at Code.org.
 
Ria Galanos ‏updated her @Twitter assignment. Check it out at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o0fvuw9hovm2m8c/AACvoL3Mf7C1MxUuNICcoQ54a?dl=0

Google for Education Blog: CS Education Week is All About Making a Difference Some of the history of Computer Science Education Week from Chris Stephenson who has been involved since the beginning.

Google for Education: Supporting the development of excellent computer science teachers globally Grants for professional development programs. Mostly of interest to universities who want to support secondary school CS teachers.  Google’s Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) award program opens applications for the 2016 year.

Play With Apple's Open Source Programming Language In Your Browser With IBM Swift Sandbox (via @LifehackerAU) I hear a lot of good things about Swift. I may have to try it out.