Glenn Noyama
Five Principles to Radically Transform How We Teach Computer Programming. Today, there is a grassroots movement for teaching programming languages to kids.
Some of the factors driving this movement include new devices like the Raspberry Pi1, initiatives like Khan Academy2, and a greater global emphasis on math and science education. For policy makers, the stakes are high because computing skills are now seen as an indicator for a nation's economic competitiveness. But yet, as I will discuss below, we need a fundamental rethink about how we teach kids programming languages to prepare them for the next wave of computing.
From an education standpoint, here are seven goals we pursue when teaching programming. Many of these are not being addressed by current education techniques widely used in this field: Based on our work in trials with schools and educational institutions for the feynlabs methodology, here are the first five of our ten principles for transforming how to teach programming languages to kids. Revolution Hits the Universities. Last May I wrote about Coursera — co-founded by the Stanford computer scientists Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng — just after it opened.
Two weeks ago, I went back out to Palo Alto to check in on them. When I visited last May, about 300,000 people were taking 38 courses taught by Stanford professors and a few other elite universities. Today, they have 2.4 million students, taking 214 courses from 33 universities, including eight international ones. Anant Agarwal, the former director of M.I.T.’s artificial intelligence lab, is now president of edX, a nonprofit MOOC that M.I.T. and Harvard are jointly building. Agarwal told me that since May, some 155,000 students from around the world have taken edX’s first course: an M.I.T. intro class on circuits. Hack Education. Bill Gates: A fairer way to evaluate teachers. In much the same way that sports teams identify and nurture talent, there is a window of opportunity in public education to create systems that encourage and develop fantastic teachers, leading to better results for students.
Efforts are being made to define effective teaching and give teachers the support they need to be as effective as possible. But as states and districts rush to implement new teacher development and evaluation systems, there is a risk they’ll use hastily contrived, unproven measures. One glaring example is the rush to develop new assessments in grades and subjects not currently covered by state tests.
DIY. New Ideas. Politics. Reinventing Fire. Digging up and burning the deposits of ancient sunlight stored eons ago in primeval swamps has transformed human existence and made industrial and urban civilization possible.
However, those roughly four cubic miles of fossil fuels every year are no longer the only, best, or even cheapest way to sustain and expand the global economy—whether or not we count fossil fuels’ hidden costs. Those “external” costs, paid not at the fuel pump or electric meter but in our taxes, wealth, and health, are not counted in the Reinventing Fire analysis, but are disturbingly large. Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars each year subsidize America’s fossil fuels, and even more flow to the systems that burn those fuels, distorting market choices by making the fuels look far cheaper than they really are. But the biggest hidden costs are economic and military. America’s seemingly two-billion-dollar-a-day oil habit actually costs upwards of three times that much—six billion dollars a day, or a sixth of GDP. Wired.com. Mind Mapping Software, Brainstorming, GTD and Knowledgebase Software.
My Personal Reboot.
Kerry Park, Seattle. Photography Tips & Tutorials. How to Take Sharper Pictures. Welcome If I had a nickel for every time someone with a new camera blamed the camera itself as the reason why their pictures aren’t coming out as crisp as those seen in photo books, magazines, or even this website, I’d be able to pay someone to write this guide for me.
Unfortunately, I don’t. So here I am. Here are some easy, but essential tips on achieving the best (and by best, I mean the sharpest) results from your digital camera. Is it the Camera or the Photographer? If you are new to photography I would suspect your technique first. If you did your research and paid good money for your camera (and lenses) and still aren’t getting good results, you have to wonder, is it really your camera? There could be several reasons why a camera may not be shooting sharp.
The Gamma adjustment page. (If you already know all about gamma, and just want to get on with the calibration; go here)
Photography cheat sheet - Digital Camera World. In this quick tutorial we’ll show you how to choose the right AF points and weigh the pros and cons of single point vs area selection.
Many people dream of turning their passion for photography into a full-time job, and in his brilliant infographic professional photographer Robert Sail guides you through some of the key steps and lessons you’ll learn from newbie to pro. Often we talk about the reasons why you should upgrade your camera, but rarely do we examine the reasons why you shouldn’t buy a new camera. Here is our checklist of 9 danger signs that you may not like a camera. What is TTL flash? In this tutorial we will help you take your first steps into ‘through-the-lens’ flash photography. In this post we run through some of the most effective techniques for using your external flash unit, the most useful accessories, set-ups and more.
Smartphone camera vs DSLR? Do you feel left out when other photographers start talking about lenses?