Learn the N G

Today is going to be pretty basic.  Well review all of the keys weve learned so far, and then well add two new keys to the mix - the N (R1) and the G (L1).

Read More..

Pizza orders directly from the smartphone

In case youre hungry and want to order pizza or food with delivery at office or at home , we have from now available and an application,developed for iOS and Android."Pizzicato" is called and is made of Ascend
NetSolutions. The application has been downloaded of Google Play and App Store,before the official announcement.

Immediately after the user place an order,this is contacted by phone of an operator Pizzicato which will confirm delivery.

The applications can be downloaded on phone : for Android & for iOS.

Read More..

The Great Debate Writing in CS Principles

I have been asked to share this - I usually do this during my second unit in APCS Principles - The Internet Unplugged.

Writing is a big part of doing well on the new Performance Task assessments for the course. I have found this activity to be a great way to get them writing. I do not grade for grammar or spelling at this point. I want them writing, we can work on mechanics later.

---

One activity that works really well to get students writing is an online debate using a discussion board. The point of this activity is to get them used to thinking and debating a topic and responding to other students. In the beginning students tend to take a very surface approach to topics. Debating lets them really delve in and explore the why behind the points they are making.

This activity works well in several areas of the APCS Principles curriculum. It is simple to grade and really gets the students engaged in writing.

To get them ready we play a game in class to get them used to pros and cons, then we debate a current event topic online. The in class debate topic does not necessarily need to relate to computer science. For the online topic I usually pull a current event that relates to something like privacy or online ethics.

The in Class Game:

Have the students line up into two equal lines. Make one like pro and one line con.

Then explain the rules:

• the two lines take turns
• after a student goes they move to the back of the line
• if you are in the pro line you must be for the resolution, if you are in the con line you must be against it, no matter your own personal opinions
• whoever is at the front of the line earns a point for every time they
• add a new point or
• rebut a point made by the other team
• No points are awarded for repeated points or responses

Once they understand the rules reveal the topic reveal the topic. As they take turns keep score.

Topics that work well are things like:

• Resolved: the minimum driving age should be raised to 18
• Resolved: cell phones should not be allowed in schools
• Resolved: social media sites should be limited to people over the age of 18

As you move to the online debate a similar format works. In addition students may earn points by by responding with a related fact as long as they provide a link to a reliable source.

I usually let the online debate go on for 3 - 5 days. In the end you can add up points and declare a winner. You can even post a daily point tally. I do usually try to keep the total points close to keep everyone interested.

For topics for the online debate try to pick something currently in the news. The first time I did this activity Congress was debating some Internet piracy legislation that was being heavily covered in the news.  Computer Science is constantly in the news there is almost something in the headlines related to the Learning Objectives.

Read More..

I Know What You Did on the Web

This graphic from Baynote Shows a summary of what common online companies like Facebook and Google are doing with your data. This would make a great discussion board topic relating to Big Data for CS Principles.

Read More..

The Origin of the Idea

Hello. On this blog I will be walking you through the process of building a computer. I got the idea to build a computer from working with the Raspberry Pi that we got in class and working with the Makey Makey we also got in class. I also got the idea from my Step-Dad. He built his own computer so I wanted to make one when I heard that he built one.  

I plan to build a computer. Ill build a desk top computer at first then maybe later I will be building a laptop computer. I plan to make my computer almost completely from scratch. I will also plan to make my own monitor as well. I will also try to make my monitor almost completely from scratch.

Read More..

Computer Science and The Digital Native Myth

From the Washington Post this morning: Survey finds gap in Internet access between rich, poor students
So the basic summary - half of students from upper income families have Internet access at home, only 3% of students from poor families have Internet access.

No surprise there. I have students that do not have electricity or running water at home. Food is an issue. It is hard to imagine that Internet is a possibility.

So what does that mean for us in Computer Science education?

As educators we have to challenge the assumptions about digital natives with the push for 21st century learning. Weve have several readings in our professional development recently about digital natives and how they are different from us "digital immigrant" educators.

All true, as far as it goes. Some of my students have had access to technological devices since they were toddlers. They are comfortable with using technology to solve problems. They live in a world with constant access to humanitys  largest storehouse of information. They have never lacked for a fact or access to information. They also do not naturally question a lot of the information they receive.

But that is only some of my students. A real wall has grown over the past five years between the students with access and without.

And that is not to say that project based learning is only good for some students. It is a natural way to teach in computer science classes. I have been doing some version of it since the mid 90s when I started teaching computer science. It has been sort of funny that it now has a name.

But what other assumptions about digital natives are we carrying into our classrooms? As technology has shifted from something we visit to something embedded in the lives of many of our students it is too easy to assume every student in instantly comfortable in our labs.

The access issue needs to inform everything from how we recruit to the examples we use in class. I know I am guilty of using smart phones often as an example of something in the "real world". A real world that only exists for a section of my students. It is probably about like trying to explain English grammar by comparing it to Japanese.

And the question then becomes, is computer science really for everyone?

I say yes, and it is something we may need to fight for. It is easy to attract the kids with access. Really, how hard is it to convince a kid that spent last summer at  robotics camp that computer science might be interesting?

For the rest of the kids computer science classes are the one chance they have of really climbing over that wall. We offer an Ellis Island opportunity for the "digital immigrants" in our classes.

So do we do the easy thing, or the right thing?

Of course I am crazy enough to think that computer science should replace the traditional geometry class for all students. But we can debate that one another day.

Read More..

What are we doing after the AP exam

This question pops up every year with my students...we have six weeks after the AP Computer Science exam, are we doing anything?

Nope, Ive decided you can just nap for six weeks of school. That sounds reasonable.

They know me well enough that there is a lot of eye rolling at this point. After fifteen years teaching high school I have learned eye rolling equals success. It is my job to annoy them occasionally.


Usually I pick something new to everyone and we work through that. Sometimes we do advanced data structures like linked lists, java graphics or a new language.

This years group is too eclectic for that to work. I have students that already know VB, C++, Python and just about anything else I could throw at them. They have done NASA summer internships, built robots and held part-time jobs doing web design.

So I tried something new, this year they got to pick their own projects.

The ground rules were:

1. Do something new to you
2. Do something non-trivial (something that will take several weeks to complete)
3. Amaze me

I had them write about what they were going to work on first. So far this has kept them much more engagged then they normally are this time of year. Plus it has been a lot less work for me.

In short, I have been amazed. Plus, anything that cuts down on the amount of nagging I have to do everyday is a total win.

Read More..

Computer Science In the News

Interesting Articles:

• Computer made of soldier crabs -
• Netflix Algorithms - Open Source

Read More..

A history of the Internet

This is a vocabulary week - please make sure to get your vocab definitions completed by tomorrow night for Week 7!

Today we are going to watch the video below on the history of the Internet.

Read More..

Keys to the Web

Keys to the Web

we used these back when we did the Internet Unplugged unit back in the fall.

Read More..

Vocabulary Last of the symbol keys

WIKI

HTTP

EMOTICON

After talking about each of those vocabulary words briefly we will continue with learning the symbol keys.  The good news is that today is the last day of learning the symbol keys - yaaayy!!

Today we will learn the = (R4), the _ (left shift + R4), and the * (left shift + R2).  After today we only have the keypad left to learn.  However, it takes a lot less time than learning either the letters, numbers, or symbols.

Read More..

Are American High Schools working in the Internet Age

(continuation of  Redefining Teachers in the Internet Age)

Before we can redefine teaching we must examine schools themselves.

One of the core issues the Internet in education raises: does this always mean we need to visit a teacher in person? Traditionally the most efficient way for an expert to share knowledge was to collect a large number of people in a room at the same time and talk. Now, the Internet has the potential of bringing this conversation to a much larger group that do not necessarily need to be housed in the same place at the same time.

For the traditional American high school this raises some large questions. A lot of modern educational theory centers around manipulating large numbers of mostly unwilling participants into absorbing information and skills that they do not inherently care about. We train teachers in both delivery and assessment, and spend an inordinate amount of time on behavior management. (* In case youd like to see an example: http://teachlikeachampion.com/the-classroom/ . *)

So what if we took this off the table? Lets say we now face the same questions education faced at the beginning of the last century when moves towards compulsory education first began. At that point there were not large buildings meant to house 2000 or more teenagers in order to teach them. At the time it was a new model centered around the need to be physically present with a teacher.

So, does this model still work? There is a lot of discussion currently around what is wrong and why in education. Perhaps part of it is the buildings themselves. Our underlying assumption that we have to put thousands of 16 year-olds in a building in order to effectively educate them might not be true anymore.

If we were, right now, building a compulsory education system from scratch would that the solution look like? Think about it for a minute. If you had to build an educational system from scratch, right now, with no infrastructure, school districts, buildings...what would you design? Would every student have access to high quality classes? How?

There are advantages to both in person and online teaching. Neither alone holds the solution to the myriad issues of quality and access that plague our educational system.

But it is time to start investigating - Are we doing it this way because it works or because of the infrastructure we already have in place?

And ultimately, what is the best way to introduce our children to collected human knowledge?

Read More..

Learn the 5 7

Today we will learn the 5 and the 7 in class.

Just as a reminder...the Crossword Puzzle is due this Friday.  You can turn this in today if you have it completed or tomorrow.  If you do not get this turned in by tomorrow it will not get graded as it is the end of the 3rd Quarter.

Also, next week is a vocab week, so if you are responsible for definitions for week 6 please get those definitions posted to the Wikispaces page as soon as possible.

Read More..

The Data Cake

Interesting read for the APCS Principles course on open data and the impact on research. The article is especially interesting in light of the Data Portfolio Task that asks students to find a publicly available data set as a part of their exploration.

And I know that it is now the Investigate Performance Task, not the Data PT, but to be honest my brain is full these days and cannot take all these name changes.

There is also this: "we must redress the dominance of knowledge generated in the global North". Very interesting to think of covering the Data and Global Impacts together in this way. This would make a great class discussion and journal topic.

I may also use the graphic as a writing prompt. One of the goals I have for the students is to articulate the difference between data and information.

Read More..

Untangling the CS Principles Learning Objectives

Struggling with the CS Principles Learning Objectives? Try them as Flashcards: CS Principles flashcards - Learning Objectives

One of the thing I have found most challenging in working with the APCS Principles Topic list over the last 3 years is the Learning Objectives themselves. None of them are all that hard in of themselves, but trying to make sure I am covering everything can sometimes be overwhelming. Unlike the existing APCS course, the topic list does not really suggest any particular sequence, so trying to make sure everything has been covered at AP depth can be a challenge.

Here are the LOs in Flashcard format if you would like to print them out. This has been really helpful for me as I lesson plan to make sure everything is in there. Sometimes it is fun to draw a few cards randomly and try to come up with an activity to cover them. this has helped with some out of the box combinations of topics.

**Note - these are the learning objectives as of Dec 2013. If you are reading this more than 6 months from now you should make sure they still align with the LOs. The course is still in pilot phase and the LOs are subject to adjustment as Collegeboard gets ready for the launch of the new course in 2016-17.

Collegeboards AP CS Principles site

Read More..

Recruiting for Computer Science the AP Potential Report

For many high schools it is recruiting season. If you school has an AP program there is a little kown report, called the AP Readiness Potential, that can help you in attracting kids to your classes. This is an especially helpful way of identifying girls and other groups that may not already be taking your Computer Science classes.

Basically this report takes students PSAT scores and predicts the AP tests they are statistically likely to score well on. It is based on a past correlation between past PSATs and AP exams.

While we do not yet have this for APCS Principles, since no AP tests have been given yet, we do have it for the current APCS class.

A new feature is teachers can now log in to see the reports. To access the report you will need an access code. You can get this code from the person in your building that coordinates the AP exams. I find that person often doesnt know about the report, or have any idea of how to find the code.

You can call to get your schools code. The number is 866-630-9305. You just have to identify yourself and your school.

The login for the site is here. Youll need an account for AP Central. Once you pull the report the site even has sample letters to send home to parents. I have found letters directly to parents to be a powerful way to attract kids to computer science.

Long term I am very curious to see how this test correlates for the new APCS Principles class. Since much of the assessment for this course will be written it will be interesting to see if a correlation with the writing section of the PSAT.

Read More..

Writing in the Computer Science Classroom

So, you think you are not an English teacher? Guess again.

Disneys Paperman 

This is a good article about the new Disney short film Paperman.  Well be using this article as a prompt in the CS Principles class this week. In making the short Disney combined traditional hand drawn animation with the CGU technology with a piece of software called Meander.

For the CS Principles Pilot this year the focus is on assessment - how will Collegeboard test the kids at the end of the year?

One major change from the existing AP Computer Science course is the addition of written portfolio items. You can preview them here under Prototype Items. Students are asked to write to demonstrate learning in the CS Principles class.

The best way to prepare for a written assessment is to write, go figure. So though out the course I have the students respond in discussion boards and journals. My goal is once a week. Just like with coding frequent practice leads to mastery.

It has been very interesting to see the students reactions. In the pilot class I have a wide range of abilities. Some are seniors taking mostly IB and AP classes, others might not take a single advanced class while in high school. From all the computer science teachers I talk to this is pretty typical. It means that we cannot make assumptions about the students writing levels.

One thing I learned last year was I had to be very explicit about what academic writing should look like. While they have all written English papers, it doesnt always occur to them that rules like "write in full sentences" apply in the computer science class.

We finished up the first Portfolio papers right before winter break. Since the Internet Unplugged is the second unit I cover int he course we did the Internet Portfolio paper. Well be doing the ones on data and programming over the next two months.

Ill summarize more about the Internet Portfolio papers and the experience of working on them with the kids later. Right now I am just trying to come up with enough interesting discussion board topics to keep them writing until the next round.

Read More..

Celebrate the International Day of teh Girl with

Some Great Computer Science Resources

I just stumbled across the Tech Girls Website, and as they point out Oct 11 is the International Day of the girl.

They have a great list of resources - very complete.

Read More..

Vocab Quiz 10 the last one! Pizza menu design work

Today is the last of the vocab quizzes!  As usual you will be given time at the beginning of class to study - do not go to Classmarker until I tell you to do so.

As soon as you complete the quiz you may continue your work on the pizza menu.

Read More..

Mapping the Internet

Whenever we start a new topic I love having an activity to set the tone. I came across the Mapping the Internet a few weeks back.

The projects asks people to "Please draw a map of the Internet, as you see it. Indicate your "home".

Yesterday I wrote about HTML in my Internet Unplugged unit. I think this would be a fun way to start off that unit.

My Daughters Maps

They have a taxonomy of these maps. Which of course is data - another big idea from CS Principles. From here it would be interesting to collect the students drawings and do some discussion board topics about what they drew. Were there common themes? How did your map change after learning about the physical parts of the Internet? Did it change after learning HTML and CSS?


Another thing I try to do is set a presence for computer science in my school. Wherever we can I do art projects and hang them in the halls around the building. This would be another great way to get computer science out of the lab.

Read More..