Things your Guidance Counselor Didn't Drill into You. I got the exciting news today that the son of my wife's daughter (which modulo the complications of 2nd marriages would make him my Grandson) has been accepted to the University of West Florida.
He lives in Florida and I'm up north on Long Island (New York), so I confess to not having ever met the young man nor even knowing about the University of West Florida. But, as usual, Google is my friend when it comes to learning about places not familiar to me. Having now read a bit about the school, I whole-heartedly endorse his choice of college. Wikipedia had nice things to say about the place and it even fared well in the US News tabulation of colleges. Bill Gates TED Talks - Ideas Worth Sharing. Software Development isn't a Field for Loners. A young friend of mine, a first year student studying to become a computer engineer, recently sent to me a copy of his school's 3rd year curriculum, asking me for comments.
Now, on the one hand, I'm no curriculum expert, not having really looked at a college catalog for computer science in many a year. But, on the other hand, it's a rare topic that leaves me without an opinion when I'm asked to look at something. On the plus side, the curriculum was packed full of technical courses. SOLID software design... My hopeless backlog One of the bad habits I have is accumulating lists of things to read.
Google Reader used to be a handy place to categorize and keep my "subscriptions" to blogs and so forth to read. TED Talks on Education. Ken Robinson on how to effectively run an education system - Command and Control isn't the right choice. Ken Robinson surely must earn a lot of air miles giving talks at TED conferences.
Here's another one, from fairly recently. Spoken Word Poetry and fun with data. And now for something completely different....
Or is it? It's another TED talk by a teacher, but the topic is not STEM, not software, not design - It's poetry. 18 and a 1/2 minutes that reminded me how few English teachers I have had who were really memorable. But memory is slippery stuff. I have a clear memory of the time Mrs. McCutcheon had us bring in a poem to read aloud to the class. Be careful what you wish for. There's an old warning that you should be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Here's an article from the Slate "web magazine" cautioning that MOOC's are going to doom us all: Countering that point of view, the article does manage to provide a link to a TED talk by coursera founder Daphne Koller, speaking at Edinburgh in June 2012: (21 minutes) Now my own experience is limited. Told You So - MOOC forum participation is important. If you have been a regular reader of this blog and have a long memory, you may recall that back in December of 2012, in my article "Is the Udacity CS101 Course Watered Down?
", I strongly emphasized my opinion that a vital part of getting the most out of the course is to participate actively in the forum. As strong as my opinion on this matter was, it was just my opinion. But now I've got data to back me up. A Chem teacher cautions against "Pseudoteaching" Several times now I've come across mentions of "Pseudoteaching" in my reading, and I confess to not quite grokking what that meant.
Today, the Google+ STEM community shared this short video and I think I'm beginning to understand. "Blow something Up! " I remember Mr. Greenberg, my high school chemistry teacher, but on the one hand I have trouble cataloging him as an "entertainer', but on the other hand I was always troubled by the seeming "magic" in chemistry class. See, when we stir these 2 clear liquids together, it turns pink. "Go Do Something Interesting". Another interesting TED talk on the future of education.
The speaker is Seth Godin . The question is "What is school for? ". (17 minutes) As usual, it is easy to see how that could work out for a self-motivated student, but what about the unmotivated students? Will they just waste time until school is over? Life could be awfully complex for a teacher in the future if all the students are going off in their own directions and each student is looking to the teacher during the day to answer questions they have from the diverse lectures they listened to last night.
Can Computers Replace Teachers? Can/Should computers replace teachers?
It is clear to me that computers are not capable at this time of eliminating the role of teachers. But it is also evident that the number of students one teacher ought to be able to teach should be increased by use of technology for the mass presentation part of lessons. Is the Udacity CS101 course watered down? A Udacity CS101 student asked on the forum if the course is watered down compared to taking an introductory programming course from Prof. Evans on campus in Virginia. To see the original question, see: Here is my reply to that question: It's an 8-week course intended to fit into your life - that is, it isn't 8 weeks of intense focus every waking hour.
It doesn't cover 100% of the Python language and Python environment, but it is not, IMHO, watered down. Python programming language. One of the things you should master while you are in this course is how to dig up additional information from the web. STEM Education Ideas. No Child Left Behind (Humor) Marketing the Importance of Programming Education. Linus Torvalds on Teaching Children to Program. Learn How to Program Computers! Say What? News photo of an experimental self-driving Volvo from Engadget report.
Computer procesors show up almost everywhere these days. Desktops, laptops, cell phones, processors embedded in cars, processors embedded in printers, embedded in cameras, embedded in dish-washers. Bicycles for the mind... A Steve Jobs talk from long ago. Curriculum Design with the End in Mind. As a person who enjoys reading, I'm heartened to see that interesting material about Education isn't limited to video's (e.g. TED talks). I was particularly impressed with this article from Grant Wiggins: "Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really. ". Advice to undergraduates... An overseas college sophomore majoring in Computer Science has been asking me for advice on what to study.
"How to become a good computer programmer". I have no magic wand to wave to confer great programming skills, but I did find some web pages that look like sound advice. One of my favorites is: and I don't think that I only like it for its mention of Cornell U and my old professor Conway. The author of that piece seems to offer good advice. "How Children Succeed"... If you've been a regular reader of this blog in the past couple of months, you're aware that I've volunteered to teach a couple of computer courses at the North Hempstead, NY "Yes We Can" community center, which opened in my neighborhood here last September. Related links: Approval for CS101 at the Community Center. Keeping Busy. I'm writing this on the evening of 1/14/2013, and the Computers-100 class that I thought was going to start in early December got pushed to 1/15/2013 3:30PM (tomorrow afternoon) when the town decided more paperwork was needed.
Not mine: Mr. Teachbad on “How Children Succeed” Education and Technology. Today continues my coverage of "education" as a topic. First, another TED talk: This one is by Salman Khan of Khan Academy, talking in March 2011 about the advantage of putting lessons into videos and how the material can be used to "flip the classroom". The talk is just over 20 minutes long. Control Engineering? My Master's degree My MSE is from U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Another Designer with Education Ideas. A Designer's Perspective on Education.