ACSE Discussion

A six-week App Inventor curriculum unit for an introductory CS course

Are you teaching Advanced Placement Computer Science? Are you looking for supplemental exercises that may help you students with the concepts? If so this announcement may be of interest to you. Pex for Fun has been around for a while offering coding duels in C#, F# and Visual Basic. Recently though it was decided to invest some time, money and effort to adapt some exercises specifically to help learn APCS concepts. Most students find the differences between Java and C# pretty minor at this level so most APCS students will find this doable even if they have only been taught Java previously.

An excellent list (with links)

Microsoft has finally released a new programming language in addition to their current suite of languages including C#, C++ and other .NET languages. The language is called Dflat.NET or simply Db.NET. It still uses the .NET Framework as its base. Also known as vNext.NET, this new language features many enhancements that developers and database designers have been looking for in other languages but were not available.

Wow, no one saw this coming.  The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million.

After two phone interviews Google asked me to visit London and have a whole day of chatting about technology and solving intricate coding puzzles. Just to see how good I am on a scale of 1 to Google.

The conclusion is that either people are in a big rush to learn about computers, or that computers are somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else. There are no books on how to learn Beethoven, or Quantum Physics, or even Dog Grooming in a few days. Felleisen et al. give a nod to this trend in their book How to Design Programs, when they say "Bad programming is easy. Idiots can learn it in 21 days, even if they are dummies.

This classic Eric Lippert post describes, in excruciating, painful detail, exactly how much work it takes to add a single ChangeLightBulbWindowHandleEx function to a codebase at Microsoft:

There are no two ways around it, there's a high demand for developers and engineers not only in the Bay Area, but around the country.

There are no two ways around it, there's a high demand for developers and engineers not only in the Bay Area, but around the country.

CS4HS 2012 Workshop Schedule

Download epub or PDF versions of Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist here

Python Quick Hacks and Codes - Pearltree

Many people want to learn computer science, but not many can afford to do so at the best institutions.  Fortunately many of the best institutions in the world are opening up their courses so you can take a course from Stanford, MIT or Harvard simply by going online and learning at your own pace.  Here are 8 ways you can take advantage of this.

Many people want to learn computer science, but not many can afford to do so at the best institutions.  Fortunately many of the best institutions in the world are opening up their courses so you can take a course from Stanford, MIT or Harvard simply by going online and learning at your own pace.  Here are 8 ways you can take advantage of this.

Mozilla Webmaker wants to help you make something amazing on the web. With TOOLS, PROJECTS and EVENTS that help you create, learn and connect. Our goal: move millions of people from using the web to actively making the web. Creating a new generation of webmakers, and a more web literate world.

Android App Training is committed to teaching all people how to create great mobile applications without having to learn computer programming. With that in mind, we're pleased to announce our App Inventor K-12 Equal Access Program.

Last week Doug Peterson pointed me to an article called "Let's not call it computer science if we really mean computer programming." My initial reaction was "Let's not call it computer programming if we really mean software engineering."  Really the author was talking more about the difference between CS and SE than much else.The ACM has a great Computing Careers web site which lists a number of computing fields and degrees. I recommend this series to teachers and guidance councilors all the time. They list five different degree paths:

Last week Doug Peterson pointed me to an article called "Let's not call it computer science if we really mean computer programming." My initial reaction was "Let's not call it computer programming if we really mean software engineering."  Really the author was talking more about the difference between CS and SE than much else.The ACM has a great Computing Careers web site which lists a number of computing fields and degrees. I recommend this series to teachers and guidance councilors all the time. They list five different degree paths:

We're building a generation of webmakers. First step: invite people everywhere to MEET up to MAKE something cool and LEARN how the code behind the web works. It's called the Summer Code Party and it starts June 23rd.

So you've got a kickass computer, but the summer heat means a warmer office, which means a hotter computer, which explains why your computer's been impersonating a jet engine lately. If your computer's generating a bit too much heat and noise, here's how to give its cooling system an overhaul for cool, silent operation.

 Oracle Academy prepares students for 21st century careers and provides teachers with world-class training and professional development opportunities.

I checked out their website and I find it a bit of a joke. First off, their Introduction to CS includes topics like PL/SQL which is proprietary. Oracle states that their Introduction to CS workshop is free and then when you go to enrol it is only available in China, India, and Brazil. I was expecting them to offer something like the FREE course that Stanford offered this spring by Nick Parlante.

The Nifty Assignments session at the annual SIGCSE meeting is all about gathering and distributing great assignment ideas and their materials