Monday, March 21, 2016

Interesting Links 21 March 2016

It’s Spring! And as I work on this Sunday afternoon I am wondering if we will have enough snow to cancel school tomorrow. I’m thinking we will not but it’s still fun to think about. Computers have make weather forecasting a lot more accurate but the weather has a knack for changing direction is ways we don’t predict that well yet.

Speaking of computers, here are some links that may be of interest to you.

The ACM, CSTA, Code.org, NMSI, and Cyber Innovation Center invite you to review the first full draft of the K-12 CS Framework. See the review instructions at k12cs.org/review.

Alan O'Donohoe ‏@teknoteacher shared some interesting looking Python resources. 10 Python Teaching Resources You Really Should Be Using and the Micro:Bit Python cheat sheet

image

This EdTech Conference Puts Teachers Before Tablets is a nice article on Forbes about the conference Microsoft ran for/with teachers around the world recently. It really is as much about the teachers as the technology.

2 weeks to take advantage of early bird registration for the 2016 CSTA Annual Conference. Workshops , Sessions, keynotes, BOFs & playgrounds! Hope to see you there!

Will robots care for elderly?  And if they do is that good or bad? Good questions to discuss with students.

Apple vs. FBI: this is just the beginning by @hadip Hadi Partovi talks about the deeper issues of this controversy and what it tells us about the need for computer science education for everyone.

Math Teachers Group Questions Allowing Computer Science to Count as Math Credit  via @educationweek Well of course they do. A lot of this is about turf of course. Math teachers don’t want to lose courses but there is more too it than that. What it really means is that CS has to be required as computer science.

Computer Science is Changing Everything is the new CS promotional video from @codeorg And its a good one!

Via @NPR: Can Computer Programs Be Racist And Sexist?  Short answer – yes it can be. This is another example of why we need more diversity developing our software.

[Resource] Over 16GB of high-quality, royalty free sound effects to boost your game development projects 

There was a lot of attention being paid to Google’s program AlphaGo taking on one of the world’s best Go players and winning. For example, Google's AlphaGo scores 4-1 against South Korean Go player But is AlphaGo the solution to artificial intelligence? This article Why AlphGo is Not AI argues that it is not even real artificial intelligence. Great topic for discussion with students.

I’ll finish up with this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod that has had me thinking a lot lately.

No comments: