Graduates to be offered £20,000 to train as computer science teachers The education secretary, Michael Gove, said in January that information and communications technology teaching must be radically revamped to prepare pupils for the future. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Graduates are to be offered £20,000 scholarships to train as computer science teachers in an initiative launched by the government and backed by companies including Microsoft and Facebook. The move is part of a package of reforms aimed at overhauling computer science education, giving children the skills to write programs rather than simply focusing on word processing skills. The education secretary, Michael Gove, announced on Friday that current information and communications technology teacher training courses will be axed from next year. Teachers and industry leaders are concerned that the way ICT is currently taught in schools leaves children bored and learning little beyond the most basic digital skills.
3 keys to computers Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Become a smarter digital marketer Brave NUI World - Chapter 15 - Touch versus In-Air Gestures Summary Technologies inhabit an ecological niche, in that each represents a set of potential uses and markets. Just as those who failed to understand the true utility of touch input predicted the death of the mouse and keyboard, new technologies, such as Xbox Kinect and the Sony EyeToy, that offer touchless gesture input might incorrectly be believed to be a replacement for touch and touch gestures. Certainly, devices that enable users to gesture in air open a seemingly all-new world of interaction potential. Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the differences and similarities between touch and in-air gestures. Author Keywords Touch input without the touch; in-air gesture design; in-air gestures are the same as touch gestures; in-air gestures are nothing like touch gestures Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
General Assembly launches Dash, a Codecademy-style site that teaches you to code General Assembly launched today a new service designed to help get more people to take advantage of its Web Development courses. Called Dash, users will be able to take courses in HTML, cascading stylesheets, and Javascript right in their browser. It follows in line with what other services like Codecademy, Coursera, and others are doing in the computer programming education space. We interviewed General Assembly’s co-founder and Chief Product Officer Brad Hargreaves who told us that initially Dash was meant to help its students get started in its immersive programs. Interested users can sign up for the service using their Twitter account or email. After successfully authenticating, users can opt to undertake one of four projects, each one more complicated than the last ranging from building a simple website to creating a CSS-powered robot. Just like what you have with Codecademy, Dash’s lessons guides you through the process. Dash is free to use and anyone can sign up for an account.
The (Apparently) Irrelevant Question Truth rarely appears where we might look logically. The creation of new knowledge almost always requires some wandering off course. The more we cling to coastline, the less apt we are to find the New World. As Melville so dramatically pointed out in Moby Dick, the search for truth requires the courage to venture out and away from the familiar and the known. But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God --so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! Strategy One - The Jigsaw Puzzle, Juxtaposition, and Worst Case Scenarios We can use the jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor for this kind of thinking. Extend this metaphor to a cluster diagram. We then create a matching set of empty boxes on the right as unknowns. Web definitions of juxtaposition. Making plans without paying attention to what might possibly go wrong is dangerous - the equivalent of wishful thinking. What could go wrong?
Developer Network Top 10 Pro Tips and Tools for Budding Web Developers and Designers | Life Hacker Web development and design are two great skills to have because they allow you to work from anywhere and create amazing, beautiful sites and apps. Nonetheless, it can be hard to get started when you don't know what to do. We can help you out with these ten great tips and tools. 10. Tips and tools are useless if you don't know the basics. 9. Picking the right font can make or break a great design. 8. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Text is not the only thing you might need to generate for your designs. 7. You know how there are no original ideas and everything is a remix? 6. For most web designers, Photoshop is an essential tool. Expanding your shape and brush collections can also provide you with new options. 5. The CSS3 Generator, the CSS3 Maker, and the CSS3 Border Radius Generator are all great examples of ways you can generate the more complex CSS code you often forget. 4. 3. 2. 1. So what frameworks should you use?
Interacting with Computers - Physical gestures for abstract concepts: Inclusive design with primary metaphors Volume 22, Issue 6, November 2010, Pages 475–484 Special Issue on Inclusion and Interaction: Designing Interaction for Inclusive Populations Edited By Patrick Langdon and Harold Thimbleby Abstract Designers in inclusive design are challenged to create interactive products that cater for a wide range of prior experiences and cognitive abilities of their users. But suitable design guidance for this task is rare. Graphical abstract The picture shows the agreement of multi-touch and free-form gestures with theoretical predictions. Research highlights ► Primary metaphor theory predicts physical-to-abstract mappings for gesture-based UI. ► 2D and 3D gestures are equally congruent with theoretical predictions. ► Old and young users show the same amount of metaphor-congruent gestures. ► Results are largely independent from users’ cognitive ability and prior experience. Keywords Gesture interaction; Multi-touch interaction; Image schema; Conceptual metaphor; Inclusive design; Older adults
7 Apps for Teaching Children Coding Skills It's hard to imagine a single career that doesn't have a need for someone who can code. Everything that "just works" has some type of code that makes it run. Coding (a.k.a. programming) is all around us. That's why all the cool kids are coding . . . or should be. Programming is not just the province of pale twenty-somethings in skinny jeans, hunched over three monitors, swigging Red Bull. If you're concerned that that a) elementary school students don't have the ability to code, b) there's no room in the curriculum, and c) you don't possess coding chops to teach programming skills, throw out those worries. In no particular order, we have listed all the coding apps that are appropriate for young learners. GameStar Mechanic Platform: WebCost: $2 per student GameStar Mechanic teaches kids, ages 7-14, to design their own video games. Scratch Platform: WebCost: Free! Tynker Platform: WebCost: Free! Move the Turtle Hopscotch Platform: iPadCost: Free! Daisy the Dinosaur Platform: iPadCost: Free!
How These Amazing, Kid-Friendly Languages Are Hooking Tomorrow's Programmers SmartBrief Exclusive Preview Page 3 of 3 How These Amazing, Kid-Friendly Languages Are Hooking Tomorrow's Programmers "These students do not know how to connect the subject areas with each other. I try to do that in this class. I make it a relationship," Boyd says. The result is increased self-esteem, shy children "getting out of their seats," and special-needs children participating with other students. "Programming gives the students a logical method to present themselves in a creative way and own their learning," Boyd says. About the Author Margo Pierce is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer.
10 Online Courses to Beef Up Your STEM Knowledge Looking to boost your STEM knowledge? If you're not interested, can't afford, or don't have the budget to go back to school, you're in luck. There's a flourishing education landscape at your fingertips on the Internet. From courses for experts to beginners, free programs to paid sessions, there are options for all types of learners looking for a variety of skills. We scoured the web to find top curricula in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), all of which you can take from the comfort of your home. Look through the gallery above at a small sampling of STEM courses you can take online. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisegagne
The Shocking Truth About How Web Graphics Affect Conversions Does this situation feel familiar? — Your web designer reckons your site is outdated. The solution? A redesign, of course. It’ll have snazzy vector paths, cute cartoon scenes, jQuery carousels, full-page high-resolution background photos, the works. Why? Well, check out the reasons! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Many years ago, advertising legend David Ogilvy commissioned research into the use of images. What he discovered from testing various kinds and placements of images was quite different to the popular opinion of designers—then and now: Images can reduce readership. Yes, they catch people’s attention. You might be wondering why you should care about research done in offline advertising. What Ogilvy Discovered Here are four principles Ogilvy’s research turned up. Of course, they are just best practices—a sensible place to start. 1. The natural sequence for reading involves a very specific order. 2. Newspapers have long understood the value of captions for drawing readers in. 3. 4.