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The first week in December was deemed Computer Science Education Week by the U.S. House of Representatives to promote awareness and education of computer science.

"This article examines the ongoing efforts to integrate computer video games in existing traditional CS courses."

Computers that can pass the Turing test and write. What does this portend for education?

We are getting ever and ever closer to the quantum computer.. And when that happens, the watershed moment has happened in computing. This is when the future of education will REALLY be felt in the classroom..

"The link between teenagers' computer abilities and an increase in academic cheating is evident across the nation."

I thought this was a fascinating article about the possibliities of harnessing the power of the brain to control computers and electronic devices. If this is realized no doubt there will be many implications for the education field.

There were two recent articles in NYTimes on use of technology with opposing view. While one article proposes replacing textbooks with laptops, the other school "doesn't compute." This article takes a middle path, a balanced used of technology in our schools. The author argues that computer cannot replace books, technology cannot replace a teacher, writing, or discussion. Technology is a tool to enrich the material and agument a curriculum.

Important questions to ask students 1. What do students think is the best use of technology in schools? 2. What do students think the roles of computers should be in the classroom? 3. What do students think about computers being used as tutors? 4. Do students want more time with the teacher or is the computer instruction enough? 5. What is a good use of the internet in classrooms?

Thanks for sharing Uche, I'm excited to see this actually being used in the classroom (and out of it)!

An interesting, non-education, look at what Ubiquitous Computing may mean for social interaction. Interesting to view it through this lens and see what might work or not work well for education.

Company in Taiwan claims to be only two years from a commercially available Folding computer touch screen. ... This was 6 months ago. The lighter weight, ultra portable nature of a folding screen increase the ability of educators to move learning outside the classroom, and allow learners of all ages to access information on demand anywhere.

A Q&A article discussing reappropriating commercially available games for educational uses. 2 Important ideas: "The learning doesn't come from the game itself but becomes the context for learning." "What we're talking about is not computer games, it's play."

Interesting stance from the UK, where the government hopes to raise up the importance of computer science in education, where ICT (information and communication technology) lessons are not up to date with the needs and skills of the 21st century. Kids engaged in ICT classes learn how to use software, and not how software works or how it's created. From the article: "Written by gaming guru Ian Livingstone and visual effects veteran Alex Hope, Next Gen called for programming skills to replace learning about business software in ICT lessons." direct link to the UK Government's response to the 'Next Gen' report: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/publications/8646.aspx

From MIT's CSAIL -- an interesting short video to gains being made in teaching computers to recognize elements of narrative -- a propos of our readings

A step forward in comprehensive online ed, and also an example of "mashing up" existing offerings by a third party. This guy "thought it would be an interesting exercise to see if it was possible to design a reasonable computer science curriculum using just Coursera courses (a MOOC)."

I think that's a really interesting exercise--especially the one comment about "you could take all these in about six months." Thanks for the link!

From the Orlando Sentinel, 1985: Although they have not solved how to keep students interested in certain subjects, computers are proving to be highly acceptable motivational tools in all grades at Seminole County schools. Unlike video games that provide only entertainment, computers in the classroom are used as a teaching resource to reinforce development skills for elementary and middle school students and for those with learning deficiencies....

Building computational agents that are capable of play-- the promise and impediments.