Micro:bit Small-board Computer Launches in U.S. & Canada

The Micro:bit (nee BBC Micro:bit) is now available in the US and Canada. This little device has been in classrooms in the United Kingdom for about a year and a half but is only now become commonly available in the US and Canada. Now at first glance this may not seem like a bit deal. It is a little device that must be connected to a larger computer to program. Seems like an extra step.

But it is a big deal and it is more than just a little device. In a word, the thing that makes the Micro:bit interesting is “Making.”   This little device is easily included in little projects that can really interest students. Just programming the device on its own might get boring quickly. It was for me. But including it in a maker space sort of project is a game changer.

Now you’re asking for resources. The device is programmable in a number of languages and tools from Scratch to Python and JavaScript. There is a 14 week curriculum developed for students by Microsoft. Project Lead the Way also has a curriculum. Both are designed around making things that include the Micro:bit.

The Micro:Bit web site has a bunch of project ideas if you are looking for what others are doing. This could be fun!

How To Teach Computer Science

I always read articles like this one - The 5 Worst Ways to Teach Computer Science – with some trepidation. I always expect to find out that I’m doing it all wrong. The other thing that always concerns me is that the author will be all wrong. Everyone who knows how to code thinks they are an expert in teaching computer science. Many of them are wrong. But this article is a good one. (In other words it mostly talks about doing things the way I already do them.) I think to most experienced CS teachers it is review. I think it is written for teachers who are new to teaching CS though and it fits that role well.

I do think there is a place for individual projects though. Not every project needs to be or even should be a group or team project. So the second thing that article did was get me thinking about good practices.

One of the worst ways to teach computer science that the article doesn’t talk about is Do Everything On The Computer. I am seeing that that can be a real problem. My teaching focus is always concepts first and while after 40 years of writing code a lot of things on the computer seem obvious to me. Not so the “digital natives” I am teaching. Many of them separate real life from what is going on in the computer.

We think they see them as the same because of the social aspects of computer use we observe but I don’t think that is really the case. Young people see the communication aspect of using computers as somewhat parallel to their real life but that is much different from most computer science concepts.
Take counters and accumulators for example. They don’t think in terms of those computer science type words even though they use both in their daily lives. It’s hard for them to make the connection using code. I have them count a hand full of coins. Then I have a student total the value of the coins. Now we can have a conversation about counters and accumulators in the context of a loop.
Speaking of loops I have students walk as a loop. Walk seven steps or walk to this point – demonstrates counting and while/until loops. I’m struggling with how to have them act out recursion though. Ideas?


More and more I am looking for kinesthetic learning that gets students physically involved in computer science concepts. There are some great ideas at CS Unplugged which I use with several classes. “Steal from the best” I always say.
We use some exercises from there when we teach sorting, parity checking, and more. They work well and get students involved. Of course kinesthetic learning is far from just a computer science teaching thing. The growth of maker spaces is one newer aspect of it and “making” has some potential in computer science education. We can also connect computer science to other subjects which will help students learn both/multiple subjects.

The important thing is that we don’t narrow our teaching to just lecture and things the students do on the computer. We have to be more interactive and include ways to get students doing things.

What is the purpose of a computer science education?

One of my former students posed that question. He then asked if it were:

• Building computer scientists
• Building software engineers
• Building citizens

Now context is important in this question. At the university level, many schools see the first item as their main priority. Some see the second a a priority but then they may also see software engineering and computer science as very different majors. Where does the third item – building citizens – fit? Recent events (think Volkswagen diesel issues and hacking and more) suggest that building good citizens should have some thing of a higher priority.

At the high school level , where I teach, the questions are different still. We are not, for the most part, trying to turn out job ready CS students. Oh sure, many of my students have gotten summer internships and part time jobs based on what they have learned in my classes. But I’m not trying to make everyone a professional developer. Nor am I expecting the end result of my course to be a serious (for example published) computer scientist. No, high school is more about preparing students to take their place in the world as informed and (hopefully) ethical citizens. I teach in a Catholic school so we are allowed to emphasize values pretty strongly. In fat that is part of our mission.

I see the purpose of teaching computer science in high school as about several things. Not about making professional developers but giving students the tools to understand computers.What can computers do? What can they not (yet?) do? And how do these things impact the world they live in?

I see my role as building enthusiasm for the subject. (See What CS Should a Student Know Before High School) Not every student will major in CS in college nor should they all. But if I can encourage a few smart kids to do so that is great. At least I don’t want to kill enthusiasm that students might have.

I really want to instill some ideas about ethical practice. High school should be something what about citizenship. That  is where I want students to start thinking about the consequences of computer science and what it enables. They really have to understand CS to understand what is happening though. They need a vocabulary and some understanding of basic concepts. They need to be able to participate in conversations intelligently and with some knowledge. And they have to learn how to learn more.

High school computer science is a beginning and not an end in itself. A high school diploma is not a terminal degree. If students are a little more prepared for a world where computers are important we have been successful.  

What CS Should a Student Know Before High School

Recently a middle school teacher asked what computer science knowledge would high school computer science teachers like their incoming students to know. The first answer was the obvious “send them with enthusiasm and we’ll work with what ever knowledge level they have.” Pretty unsatisfying. I know because university CS faculty tell me the same thing when I ask what they want. So I had to think about it a bit.

So what would I really like? Well I’d like them to know the way around the operating system they use. Creating folders, moving files, renaming files, connecting a network printer, and connecting to wi-fi. That’s not computer science you say! Yes it is. It involves knowing something about how computers work and how to get around in the system. It will save me a bunch of time and the students some heartache. I’d also like them to have some experience trying things out. They should know were to look for different things in menus, in tools, and online.

How about understanding how the Internet works? DNS, packets, IP addresses, and stuff like that. I don’t mind teaching that. It’s actually fun. But students could learn that earlier.
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For programming things? I’d love to spend less time on variables, loops, and decision structures. Can they use them to solve simple problems? Do they understand the connections between a variable name and a location in memory, a variable type and how much memory is uses, and how values are identified? Can they understand how a loop works and how an if statement works? If so I saved about three weeks that I can use for more advanced things like arrays and objects and methods and scope and a whole lot more. Even if they know those concepts in something like Scratch or Alice I can jump right to syntax for text based languages.

Honestly though few of my feeders are going to do all that. So I’ll still need my current freshmen course. But if a couple of kids can jump right into Honors Programming or AP CS Principles I could be very happy.

Need Funds to Attend the CSTA Conference?

OK this is an opportunity too good to pass up if you are a K12 computer science teacher. Seriously.

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If you are a K12 teacher, then Rolls Royce wants to help get you to the conference in STYLE!

CSTA and our partner Rolls Royce are excited to announce a scholarship to help K-12 teachers attend the CSTA Conference in Baltimore, Maryland this July. Thanks to a generous contribution from Rolls Royce, over the week of June 5 - 9 we will give away a total of twenty-five (25) $1,000 travel scholarships for the CSTA Annual Conference. Each day we will release five (5) scholarships until they are gone. How do you get one of these scholarships?  Here are the rules: You must be a K12 Teacher to be eligible. No exceptions. You may only receive one scholarship to attend the conference. Recipients of other CSTA conference scholarships are not eligible. Each day by 9:00 AM EST we will post a unique application link for that day via Facebook, Twitter, and other media. Applicants can submit one entry each day. All applications become the property of CSTA. Each day there will be a simple question or activity to complete. Each application will remain open for 24 hours. Recipients will be randomly selected from eligible entries and notified by email. Recipients will have 24 hours to confirm the scholarship or it will be released to another applicant. Have fun, and we look forward to seeing you in Baltimore for fun and learning at THE event for and by CS teachers & teachers that teach CS! The CSTA Annual Conference will be held in Baltimore, MD on July 8-11 and we have a great lineup of sessions, workshops, and exhibitors planned. Click here to find out more about the conference. Need more information? Register for the conference here. View the program here. Click here for information on the Cyber Showcase & Education Discovery Forum.

How To Make Computers Work For People Like You

Years ago I was giving a career talk in Roxbury (a heavily minority neighborhood in Boston) to a group of students. At the end a young African American woman asked me why I, a middle aged white male was interested in seeing more people like her in computer science. A fair question for sure. My reply was basically that I worked for a company, Microsoft, that wanted to have customers of all types. While I have a pretty good idea of what middle age white men want, young African American women probably have different wants and needs that I don’t know so well. So to serve the needs of diverse customers we really need diverse people in the field.

While that is true now and was then I have sense learned that things are worse than I knew without diversity. Take this article - Algorithms aren’t racist. Your skin is just too dark. – for example. If I am living in an all white world I might never notice this sort of built in bias – intentional or otherwise. It reminds me of other stories I have heard during my career.

A company I worked for created color CRTs where the default colors were red and blue. The developers had no idea how common red/blue color blindness is. And there is thee famous story of the developers who were so proud of the handwriting recognition of the Apple Newton. Until they gave it to Steve Jobs to try. It turns out they hadn’t tested it with left handed people – like Jobs – and it could not read his handwriting. There are more examples out there but you get the idea.

A reason to increase diversity in computer science is so that computers work better for more people. It’s a diverse world out there and we can’t have computers that only work for white and Asian males. Especially not if they are all cookie cutter examples of a few narrow types.

The best way to have a future that is built for you is to build it yourself. With computers becoming more and more central to daily life we need that diversity building out future.

News Flash! School and Industry Are NOT The Same

Computer Science cheating has been a discussion lately. Not just in the NY Times article I referenced the other day (Cheating In Computer Science Class) but on Facebook, on Twitter, and other social media. One sort of rebuttal to the concern over cheating was a blog post - Computer science students should learn to cheat, not be punished for it  - that also got a lot of attention. I see industry people nodding their heads in agreement. The problem is that the rebuttal author doesn’t seem to really understand the issue. There are some common misconceptions that I think need clarification.

Misconception: The goal of a school project is a working program.

That is what the goal is in industry. Make it work to spec and make the user happy. That is not the goal, or at least not the main goal, in a school project. The goal in a school project is to demonstrate what a student knows. Not what their friend or their parent knows but what they know. It is a diagnostic tool for the teacher to see how much learning is taking place. An imperfect tool to be sure but all we have are imperfect tools.

We also want them to practice and use what we are teaching. Cut and paste is usually a poor substituted for figuring out how to solve a problem and properly use the tools that are being taught. One learns more by doing than by simple copy operations.

Misconception: Students who copy code have to understand it to use it.

Oh if only that were true. Any teacher will tell you that students use code acquired from others without understanding it all the time. If a student finds a snippet of code, understands it, and uses it in a project most teachers would see that as a win. The student learned something. Wonderful! We’re happy. Using code without understanding it helps no one.

But it is not just snippets that are involved in cheating. Nothing so remotely borderline as partial borrowed code. Sometimes a student will hand in a full and complete program that they found on the Internet. And they will do it without understanding a bit of it. Who does that help? No one. Remember that in school the goal is gaining knowledge not just handing in something that works.

Misconception: Teaches don't want students searching the Internet for help

The internet is a wonderful learning resource. I know teachers who explicitly recommend sites like Stack Overflow to students and encourage them to look there for help. Some of us actually recommend reading the documentation online and even using sample code. As long as the student understands what they are using. Teaching is not just about covering the limited material but helping students learn how to learn. We’re thrilled when students use outside resources to go beyond the scope of the class. But we do want students to understand what they are doing.

Misconception: Programming for school and for industry should be the same

No. In industry the goal is a working program and in school the goal is learning. Industry expects employees to know things. School assumes they don’t and strives to teach things. The goals are different so the methods must be different.

I have heard the argument that schools should teach the things that industry needs using the tools that industry uses. It’s the old trade school mentality. And that works great for trade schools which serve a valuable purpose. Computer science education has to be more than just the tools of the hour. It has to be on concepts that last for a career. And that process is different from short term goals.

Sure using industry tools can be a good thing. And using things like Git and other source code repository/source code control tools is a good thing. Guess what? Many schools do teach those things. In fact arguably more CS departments teach more of the professional skills, especially soft skills, than many outside of education realize.

Misconception: Computer Science and Software Engineering are the same thing

Computer Science is more theoretical and software engineering is arguably more practical. One should not criticize one for not being the other. At the high school level we are not trying to create professional software developers any more than we are trying to create professional physicists or biologists. Rather we are trying to give students a conceptual basis for understanding the world in which they live. Links to more reading below.

• Software Engineering / Computer Science Difference David Janzen at CalPoly
• Software Engineering vs. Computer Science at Software Engineer Insider

I’ll conclude with one more point which I think may be the most important one. We need computer science professionals with integrity. We need professionals who are honest, who are ethical, and who are dependable. Educators care about cheating in its various forms because we value those traits as  much as we value the technical knowledge students gain in our classrooms and labs.  If a student cheats in school will they not also cheat the companies they later work for? I think so. And that should concern industry people. It should concern them a lot.

On Becoming a Better Computer Science Teacher

Andy Ko, Associate Professor at the University of Washington iSchool and Chief Scientist & Co-Founder @answerdash has posted a blog and slide presentation from a talk he gave called How to be a great (CS) teacher. It’s the best thing I have read on the topic is quite a while. If ever. The article is very good but I recommend you read and save to re-read the slide presentation.

I wouldn’t say that all or even most of the ideas in it are new to me but they are explained very clearly and backed up with references. That is especially cool in that we often adopt ideas without real research behind them. Research is good.

Over the years I have learned a lot from great teachers. Many years ago Carnegie Mellon ran summer workshops for CS teachers where one of the goals was to help us learn how to teach to a more diverse (i.e.. female students and other non traditional) student body. The 6APT program was a game changer for me.

When I was at Microsoft I was able to travel and visit a lot of teachers around the US. And attend a lot of great conferences (SIGCSE, CSTA, and more) Since I returned to the classroom I have tried to adapt many of the things I learned in those years to my teaching practice.

This summer as I put my plans together for next year the ideas in Andy Ko’s work will be a regular reference as I look to how I can improve next year. Always be learning.

Cheating In Computer Science Class

An article about cheating in CS classes from the New York Times (As Computer Coding Classes Swell, So Does Cheating) has been all over my social networking feed this last weekend. Harvard’s famous CS50 is the big name example in the article. I wonder if this points to a problem we may be crating inadvertently. Are we creating an environment where taking a CS course is seen as the end product rather than actually learning computer science?

Has taking a CS course become the cool thing to the point where students without real interest in the subject take the course (or courses) more as a resume builder than as a real attempt at learning something valuable for the sake of using it?

The article points out that a CS class can involve a lot of work. This often leads to cheating in many subjects. After all the end goal of taking a class for many students is to get a good grade. Oh sure there are courses where a student may really be interested in the topic and wants to learn as much as possible. But there is only so much time in the day so if a few corners are cut for the sake of a good grade outside the student's real interests what’s the harm? (Or so the rationalization goes.)

My experience is that other students get very upset when their peers take shortcuts. It’s unfair if someone gets grades they don’t deserve. It makes me wonder if grades hurt more than they help. The same motivation seems to lead to cheating as often as it does hard work.

It’s actually somewhat more complicated in computer science though. There is a fine line between collaboration and helping ones peers and actually cheating. Where is the line to be drawn? Once in industry the motto I heard often was “steal from the best” and code reuse was touted as a very good thing. Of course one was always expected to really understand the code they reused. And one usually learned from it. A course is a shorter term thing though and one can sometimes borrow code without understanding it.

What is the answer to cheating? For some it is better detection of cheating and swift, firm, and noticeable punishment. An other option is projects that are more tuned to student interests. It can help if the student becomes more interested in completing the project and learning what they need to know to do so. But it is hard to come up with projects that motivate every student. Especially in a huge auditorium course like CS 50. High school teachers may have it easier there. BY degree at least.
Maybe part of the answer is less focus on grades. That’s hard though. High school students are told over and over again that good grades get them into a good university which will get them a good career. Not good learning – good grades. The words we use matter.

Clearly I don’t have a final answer. No teacher does and we have been dealing with this issue probably as long as we have had grades that matter. For now I find that semester projects of a student’s choice work best. They don’t eliminate cheating. But I think they reduce it. And that at least is a step in the right direction.

FWIW here is a contrasting view - https://thenextweb.com/dd/2017/05/30/lets-teach-computer-science-students-to-cheat/#.tnw_oaJUHJAM I reply to it at http://blog.acthompson.net/2017/05/news-flash-school-and-industry-are-not.html

Interesting Links 24 May 2017

It’s been a while since I posted one of these collections. And I’ve been blogging a lot less lately. Call it a sort of blogging vacation. I just needed to prioritize other things for a while. We’ll see how things are going forward. In any case I felt like I had a lot of things I should share so here we go.

I know a lot of people are using Python these days and with summer coming you may be looking at projects for next year as I am. So I thought I should share this Collection of free Python lessons (Shakespearean Insult Generator, Magic 8 ball, Sorting hat, Mad Libs, and more) I’ve used similar projects with students in other programming languages and they work well with students.

Announcing Microsoft MakeCode for Circuit Playground Express – From Microsoft Education. The really cool thing about this online development tool is the variety of interesting and inexpensive hardware it can be used with. Combining programming with “making” opens some really interesting possibilities.

Speaking of making – this look at what Doug Bergman is doing with his students is really impressive. A spirited teacher reshapes the computer science classroom for 21st-century makers He has a very interesting computer lab with movable tables, lots of interesting hardware (think several kinds of robots plus Kinects) and really lets students get creative.

Researchers unveil new password meter   - security is getting more and more attention lately so this information about good passwords may be a good discussion starter. The source code for this password meter (it’s in JavaScript) is available.

The ACM Code of Ethics, Draft 2 is now available for comment. Deadline for Input Is June 5th, 2017. This update is designed to make sure that the code is current with the technology. I plan to have some discussions about ethics based around the final document with my AP CS Principles class. I will at least bring it up in the rest of my courses though. Ethics is VERY important and getting more important to teach all the time.

From the UK there is a new edition of Hello World magazine out *now*. Download via   Brought to you by Raspberry Pi, CAS and the BCS Academy. Lots of awesome in this edition. Things are really moving in CS education in the UK and the rest of us should take advantage of the resources.

Check out the Computational Thinking Interview Series from  CSTA “The CSTA's Professional Development Committee is gaining perspectives on computational thinking by meeting with leaders in the field. In this interview series, we are asking, ”What is computational thinking?””

Designing a Computer Science course with constraints  by Mike @zamansky is a good look at how teachers often have to deal with constraints outside of their control when designing a course.

Three Computer Games That Make Assembly Language Fun – They’re not free but they’re not all that expensive either. Some interesting possibilities for some classrooms I think.

Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset Developer Edition is one of two mixed reality headsets offered by the @MicrosoftStore Available in August when birthday comes. Seeing these inspired a blog post of mine. A post with some ideas and questions I am still looking for feedback on.

Using Virtual Reality for Teaching Computer Science? 

Using Virtual Reality for Teaching Computer Science

Maybe you can help me? My gut tells me that virtual reality or even mixed reality can be useful for teaching computer science. How to do that is the question. I don’t want it to be just another device that students program. That’s not really innovative. I want to think of ways that help students learn computer science. I want them to “see” things that can not ordinarily be seen.

My first thought was a virtual tour of a computer. While I do show students mother boards and other pieces of computers wouldn’t a “walk through” of a virtual computer be better? More interesting? On one hand a video, perhaps just an animation, can do that fairly well. On the other hand virtual reality is the opportunity to take different paths through the computer to trace things the way a student would like. A mixed reality tool would label items as a student looked at a physical device. Taking the tour would be more fun though.

How about following instructions as data through the pipeline in a CPU? That could be fun and make things more real to students. In fact a general walk through a CPU could be good. The improvement over a simple video would be the ability to travel non linearly. IS that enough? I’d like to find out.

How would virtually tracing the path of code in a program work? Could we set things up so a student could follow (visually) a variable through code to see what happens to it? Perhaps watching the variables as they appear (are instantiated) and disappear (as their scope expires)? The idea of being mixed in with the code ala TRON or The Matrix has a certain appeal to me.

Do these ideas make sense to people? Would they help? Do you have other ideas?  Is this even possible with current technology? Putting this together probably requires some talent, time, and even money. Who will do it first?

Pseudo Random Numbers Are Confusing

Random numbers are really useful in computer science. We use them a lot for simulations (or games – pretty much the same thing) and to make programs more interesting. But they are not as simple as might appear. First off they are not really random and secondly there are often timing issues. And then there is the whole testing situation.

Let’s start with the first of these. Those of us who understand random numbers in CS understand that it is impossible for computers to calculate truly random numbers. Cryptography which really relies on true randomness uses all sorts of tricks and tools to generate groups of random numbers. No serious cryptography person would use a standard library for use in cryptography. But for most things we do  in high school computer science built in library random number tools are just fine.

Where things have gotten complicated for my students lately is with timing issues. The libraries we are using use time from the computer’s clock as a seed value for the generator. If you instantiate two different random number objects at the same time, or rather within a single clock interval, you get two lists with the same values. Whoops! This is pretty much the opposite of what students really want. They’re generally better with one variable than with two but that is not obvious to many beginners. After all if one is good two is better right? And even if you have one variable if you instantiate it over and over again in a tight loop you can also get a lot of duplicates. Various languages have various ways around this (static variables for example) but hardly obvious to a student who just heard (or read) about generating random numbers.

And then there is testing. Oh my. Seldom a student strong suit. After all if it compiles isn’t it right? The special problem with random numbers is how does one test if the data is different all the time? Visual Basic has a Randomize statement that makes things “more” random. If one doesn’t use it than the program will use the same random numbers every time. In other languages (libraries really) one can use a fixed seed value to get the same set of random values for each run. How ever one does it, it is useful to have a known set of data for testing purposes. Talking about this is an important part of the larger issues of understanding random numbers AND of testing program.

One of my tasks for this summer is going to be trying to document this better for students. I realize that I need to cover this in more depth if students are going to really be able to use random numbers effectively. I can only talk so much in a single semester course. Perhaps if I provide supplementary reading for homework it will help. It’s a theory.

Maybe I’ll bring random.org into the mix. Looks like some interesting tools there.

Punch Cards, Comments, and Learning From the Past

Doug Peterson, whose blog always makes me think, had a post last week about internal documentation. Specifically things like comments which a lot of the popular block languages don’t really do that well. Of course this made me think about my code and what I teach.

The image to the right is some code I wrote in university. Yes, I have a 45 year old deck of punch cards and yes, that is a FORTRAN program. I ran into it while cleaning up this past weekend. Doug’s post had me looking at the code. And the comments.

The comments  are great. They really let me know what is going on. That’s good because my variable names are horrible. What ever was I thinking? I’d do things a lot differently today. And in fact I do do things differently today. I have written programs like this one several times and in several different languages over the years. The variable names are much better. We’ll talk about comments in a moment.

The first time I dug out this deck of cards was some years ago when I tried to rewrite this program in Visual Basic. The comments, one in particular, was critical for me making things work. I use this as an example for my students of why they should comment their code  in fact.

My most recent iteration of this program has been in TouchDevelop. I’m pleased to say my variable naming is MUCH better now. My commenting? Not so good. Part of the problem is the nature of the language. Comments are supported but somehow I never seem to think of them the same way as I do in other languages. This seems typical of block or drag and drop programming languages. (Doug brings this up which made me really think about it.)

Of course lack of commenting is not unique to drag and drop programming. Students have pointed out that some sample code I wrote and gave to them to learn from could use a lot more comments. BLUSH They are quite correct.  I really need to fix that. Perhaps I’ll take on as a summer task to well document the demo code I show students. I really should be modeling what I present.

I do worry that we are losing the focus on internal documentation these days. There is this theory that well written code with well chosen variable names and identifiers should be understandable without comments. Like many theories that doesn’t seem to work as well in practice though. Well, I’m off to comment some code.

How important is the first programming language really?

We really need people who have never faced a room full of  students in their lives to teach us how to teach computer science.

Said no CS teacher ever.

What brought that on you may well ask. Long story. First Mark Guzdial posts about changes at Stanford (Stanford CS department updates introductory courses: Java is Gone) highlighting an experimental version of their first programming course to use JavaScript. Then it hits Reddit (Stanford is moving from using Java to JavaScript for their introductory CS course) where hundreds of comments follow. Yes, hundreds. Most appear to be from people who have never taught a class themselves but have strong opinions of what a first language should be. And the occasional journalist kicks in with something like Universities finally realize that Java is a bad introductory programming language

How ever would we poor ignorant teachers get along without these experts? Fortunately for my sanity Mike Zamansky who actually is a teacher jumps in with some useful thought. A new first language? What's the follow up plan?

I believe that a first programming course is very important. The language used, while important, is not the biggest consideration. Rather is is the concepts covered (see Mike’s post) and how well the instructor does in preparing students for what comes next. The new course at Stanford is going to be taught by Eric Roberts who is one of the al time outstanding CS educators. I’d sign up for that course because of the instructor even if it was in COBOL.

Teacher is important. Curriculum is important. Projects and assignments that help learning are important. Language some where down the line.

I figure I’ve learned a new programming language about once every three years for the last 45. While I joke that I can still write a good FORTRAN program in any language the truth of the matter is that learning new languages changes how I code and how I think about problems. The first language got me hooked. But that was not the end all and be all. The first course is just the first course. There is a lot more to come and it would be a mistake to try to cram a four year undergraduate curriculum into a one semester (or even full year) high school course. And yet that is what some "experts" seem to be trying to do.

Surface Book–a first look

I’ve had two Surface Pros. A Surface Pro 3 and a Surface Pro 4. I love them. Make no mistake these have been idea travel computers for me. And powerful enough for just about everything I could want. They are also great for teaching as I can carry them around the room, use the tablet, and project wirelessly to my LCD projector. But I have had my eyes on the Surface Book for a while.

And now, thanks to the MIE Expert program and the Surface Experts program (https://education.microsoft.com/microsoft-innovative-educator-programs/mie-expert) I just received a new Surface Book. As someone who teaching computer science this means three things for me. 1) More disk space - more VS is being installed now 2) more memory (8gb) so emulators should run better for mobile development 3) a faster CPU.

Actually the more memory means the most to me. More disk is a close second. Modern CPUs are fast enough for just about everything I do. Also the screen on the Surface Book is larger which is also a nice thing.

As I said though memory and disk are big plusses for me. I’m not your average classroom teacher. I like to install lots of software (I’ve had as many as three versions of Visual Studio installed at once in the past) and I always want to try more things. The disk space on the Surface Pro limited me a bit. The Surface Book has twice as much disk so I have installed a bunch of Visual Studio things to play with. I may not need it all for teaching but I do for learning.

Memory is the next big item. My Surface Pros have 4gb of RAM. I can run mobile emulators but barely and I have to be very careful about what else is running. With the Surface Book and its 8gb that problem goes away. With my computer lab being updated to 8gb systems over the summer I now have a lot more options to my Mobile Development course next year. To say nothing of my own “needs” for mobile development.

The look of the Surface Book is nice as well. I’m not big on esthetics of computers but having a nice clean design is nice. I understand the keyboard (a very nice friendly keyboard BTW) comes off but I don’t need that very often. And I still have my Surface Pro 4 if I do.

All in all I am very happy with it so far. It’s everything the Surface Pro is but more. Just what a computer science teacher who can’t stop trying new things needs.

Code Slow Finish Fast

Looking through student code today brought this quote to mind.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Mark Twain

Students are always in a hurry to write the code for programming projects. No matter how strongly I suggest they think about the problem and design their code most of them start coding right away. This often results is a lot of code where a small amount of code will work just as well if not better.

Often the techniques for less code require a bit more thought. Setting up a long set of if statements with a bunch of different variable names is tedious but doesn’t always require as much planning as setting up an array and loop solution does. Students are in a hurry so they take what they think are shortcuts.

Experience tells of course. My version of Whack A Mole (our current programming project) can be changed from 5 possible “moles” to 6 by changing one 5 to a 6. Some of my students would have to write, well let’s just say I don’t want to do the math.  We’ll go over the options during our next class. The theme will be to think more before starting to code though.

Math vs Programming

Take a look at these two equations. I found the first one on Facebook. The second is my first attempt at rewriting it for the computer. What is the answer?

Well the first answer is 1. The second answer is 9. How is that possible? If you think about it there is a sort of implied parenthesis around 1/3. It’s pretty clear in the more traditional mathematical expression that one is to divide by one third and not 1 divided by three. A more accurate expression for the computer would have some parenthesis to make things obvious. That would give one the answer 1 that the traditional expression provides.

We see this sort of thing a lot – students assuming that equations in programming are exactly the same as the mathematical expressions their are used to using.  The most common issue is students thinking that the = sign allows copies from left to right as well as right to left. After all in mathematics the = sign means that both sides of the equation have the same value. That is not the same think as the = sign meaning copy the value on the right into the location on the left.

Some functional languages do things differently. The WeScheme IDE and DrRacket used by Bootstrap for example. That curriculum takes a much more algebra focused look at computer science. Or is that a more computer science focus approach to algebra? Either way it seems to be very effective. (Note that Bootstrap training is available though CSPdWeek and other venues.)

Those of us using other platforms though have a lot to contend with as we teach students how to build expressions that mean what students think they mean. Is it worth the effort? I tend to think so. But it is confusing at times.  Days like to today make me rethink things.

Computer Science Teachers Association T-shirt Campaign

Are you a computer science education super hero? You know you are so now you need the t-shirt. Get yours here and also support the computer science teachers association.

Just the thing to wear to the CSTA conference or really any education event. I would love to see lots of them at ISTE to let people know that CS educators are there

CSPdWeek: Free Professional Development for many K-12 Teachers

The people I talk to who went to last year;s event rave about it. If you are looking for some good professional development this is well worth looking into.

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Thanks to funding from Infosys Foundation, NSF, NCWIT, and CSTA, CSPdWeek is *on* again for next year: July 17-21st, 2017

. CSPdWeek is a distinctive cross-curricular event that offers high-quality professional development for teachers planning to teach any of the following: 

•       AP CS Principles
•       AP CS A (Java)
•       Exploring Computer Science
•       Bootstrap

Each of these week-long workshops will be led by leaders in the field. In addition, counselors are invited to attend half the week (2.5 days) for professional development. 

Please share this email with anyone planning to teach computer science in K-12 during the 2017-18 academic year, as well as counselors at high schools. Extended details on each of the CSPdWeek tracks are below. Information and application materials are available at: http://www.cspdweek.org. 

Colorado School of Mines is excited to host this exceptional event.

ACM and CSTA Announce Cutler-Bell Prize Student Winners

Make no mistake I think the Cutler-Bell Prize is an outstanding award. I love that it recognizes early computer scientists (high school students!) for outstanding achievement.

This year's winners appear (based on the names) to be computational focused magnet schools. On one hand that such schools exist is great and even exciting. On the other hand I worry about the kids who have great interest in computer science but who don't get the opportunity to spend several high school years learning the cool stuff and working on great projects. Will the publicity for this award motivate more school districts to set up more similar magnet programs? Or perhaps at least look at expanding the CS offerings they offer? I hope so.

In the mean time I congratulate these students. It looks like they have done some serious work and I wish them great success in the future.

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ACM and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) have announced the 2016-2017 winners of the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing. Three high school students were selected from among a pool of graduating high school seniors throughout the US. Eligible students applied for the award by submitting a project/artifact that engages modern technology and computer science. A panel of judges selected the recipients based on the ingenuity, complexity, relevancy and originality of their projects.

The Cutler-Bell Prize promotes the field of computer science and empowers students to pursue computing challenges beyond the traditional classroom environment. In 2015, David Cutler and Gordon Bell established the award. Cutler is a software engineer, designer, and developer of several operating systems at Digital Equipment Corporation. Bell, an electrical engineer, is researcher emeritus at Microsoft Research.

The winners are Elizabeth Hu, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Virginia); Avi Swartz, Cherry Creek High School for Computational Biology (Colorado); and Aaron Walter, Yorkville High School for Computer Science (Illinois). Their submissions ranged from using data to study refugee migration models; determining type and quantity of protein components in biological samples; and a software program that evaluates students’ understanding of curriculum components.

Each Cutler-Bell Prize winner receives a $10,000 cash prize. This year’s recipients will be formally recognized at the Computer Science Teachers Association’s annual conference, July 8-11.