An interesting video on using the IPRE approach to teaching high school robotics.

Combining Python with inexpensive robots is a very effective way of teaching programming at the middle and high school levels. Since Python is easy to understand a constructivist approach is possible – students learn by creating and running simple programs, observing the results, and then modifying their code to fix bugs and add functionality.

via PyCon 2011: Python and Robots: Teaching Programming in High School – PyCon US Videos – 2009, 2010, 2011 – blip.tv.

Tagged: computing education, high school CS, robots
Computing Education Blog

I leave Tuesday for Dallas and the 2011 SIGCSE Symposium! I don’t have the cycles this year to do a bunch of posts about the events I’m attending at SIGCSE. Instead, I’ll offer a quick overview of the program from my perspective.

Wednesday: I’ve got the SIGCSE Board meeting all day. In the evening, Tiffany Barnes, Sally Fincher, and I are hosting a mini-workshop for future ICER (International Computing Education Research workshop) and Doctoral Consortium leaders: On how to handle paper reviewing, how budgets work for SIGCSE conferences, what paperwork ACM expects, and what are the big issues to pay attention to.

Last chance for change stories!Sally will be gathering more change stories during the conference, and she’ll leave the website open until the end of the conference. Please tell her your change stories before Saturday!. It really only takes 15 minutes, and she wants ANY TEACHER’S stories — high school or undergraduate.

Computing Education Blog

This is a conference for high school CS teachers, sponsored by CSTA.

Register Now for CSTA’s Annual CS&IT Conference

July 11, 12, & 13, 2011 Columbia University, New York

July 11: Hands-on Workshops

July 12:  Keynotes and Breakouts

July 13: Imagine Cup Activities

You are cordially invited to attend the 11^h annual Computer Science & Information Technology Symposium at Columbia University Faculty House in New York, NY!

This CSTA conference is a professional development opportunity for computer science and information technology teachers who need practical, classroom focused information to help them prepare their students for the future.

Symposium Opportunities for Learning:

Take advantage of this opportunity for relevant professional development!

• Explore issues and trends relating directly to your classroom
• Network with top professionals from across the country
• Interact with other teachers to gain new perspectives on shared challenges

Act now to register for Symposium 2011 at:

Computing Education Blog

Call for papers

THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH WORKSHOP

Providence, Rhode Island, USA, August 8-9, 2011

http://icer-conference.org/

Computing education research is the study of how people come to understand computational processes and devices, and how to improve that understanding. As computation becomes ubiquitous in our world, understanding of computing in order to design, structure, maintain, and utilize these technologies becomes increasingly important–both for the technology professional, but also for the technologically literate citizen. The study of how the understanding of computation develops, and how to improve that understanding, is critically important for the technology-dependent societies in which we live.

The International Computing Education Research (ICER) Workshop aims at gathering high-quality contributions to the computing education research discipline. Papers for the ICER workshop will be peer-reviewed. For the first time this year, ICER…

Computing Education Blog

Interesting that prototyping and rapid development is predicted to make a comeback.  Maybe this is the year when scripting becomes more important than more traditional, compiled languages that have a main() in them?  Many of us already think scripting is pretty important, and much easier to learn.  Yet, C++ is still taught in an awful lot of CS1 classes.

About 47% of the survey respondents who said they plan to hire IT professionals in the next year will be looking for people with programming or application development skills. Moreover, Monster.com reports that three quarters of 245 HR managers and recruiters it surveyed in May plan to hire IT staffers with applications expertise by the end of this year.

“Those skills are separate from enterprise business applications,” says David Foote, CEO and chief research officer at Foote Partners LLC in Vero Beach, Fla. In this volatile market, companies need to quickly reposition, as well as use IT to grow the business through new products…

Computing Education Blog

It is the start of a new year and the VWBPE Executive Committee is now sending out the first of three rounds of calls for volunteers

In this first round we are looking for people who are interested in being part of the Organizing Committee. The Organizing Committee looks after the running of several key functional areas including providing input into the way the conference is going to grow and develop.

This year we are looking for people interested in the following areas:

COMMUNICATIONS – includes social networks including twitter, eventbrite, SLED Mail-List, Facebook, Linked-in, Press-Releases and any other networking avenues and the creation of any in-world kiosks and posters to be distributed to various locations.

FACILITIES – includes developing and implementing communication and infrastructure tools, teleport boards, chat bridges, translation tools, etc.

PROGRAMS – establishment of the general direction of the conference in terms of overall theme, call for papers and exhibits,…

Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education

Call for Proposals

The Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) is a community-based conference that provides opportunities for participants in all virtual worlds to share current teaching, learning, and research practices in 3D virtual environments. Conference presentations focus on teaching/learning, scholarly work, projects, events, activities and new and innovative tools for virtual education. Presenters will focus on the identification of best practices in education designed for 3D virtual world technology.

This year’s theme is You are Here.

Whether your virtual adventures take you to Second Life, OpenSim, World of Warcraft, Eve Online or Club Penguin – you are part of a global interconnected network. It’s about people. It’s about community. Its’ about learning. It’s more than a platform – it’s the stories we tell and the way we share them.  The divide between what is real and what is virtual is a state of mind. We learn everywhere and you are already here.

Here is…

Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education