This French tech school has no teachers, no books, no tuition -- and it could change everything | VentureBeat | Dev | by Dylan Tweney PARIS — École 42 might be one of the most ambitious experiments in engineering education. It has no teachers. No books. No MOOCs. And yet it plans to turn out highly qualified, motivated software engineers, each of whom has gone through an intensive two- to three-year program designed to teach them everything they need to know to become outstanding programmers. The school, housed in a former government building used to educate teachers (ironically enough), was started by Xavier Niel. He is also irrepressibly upbeat, smiling and laughing almost nonstop for the hour that he led a tour through École 42 earlier this week. Niel started École 42 with a 70 million euro donation. Above: Free founder Xavier Niel, speaking at Ecole 42, the free engineering school he created. Image Credit: Dylan Tweney/VentureBeat “I know one business, and that’s how to make software,” Niel said. Above: A student at Ecole 42 explains how he created a ray tracing program. Above: Exterior view of Ecole 42.
Learn To Code, Learn To Think : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture Is learning to code software a valuable skill? Is it one that prepares people to join the workforce of the future? On the one hand, the popularity of computer science as a college major and the proliferation of coding bootcamps suggest the answer is decidedly "yes." Code.org, a non-profit that encourages education and diversity in computer science, currently invites visitors to its homepage to join over a million others in agreeing with the following statement: "Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science" On the other hand, some endorse the headline on Kevin Maney's May 29th article at Newsweek: "Computer Programming Is A Dying Art," one that will soon be taken over by smarter, more "brain-like" computers. " ... in 2030, when today's 10-year-olds are in the job market, they'll need to be creative, problem-solving design thinkers who can teach a machine how to do things. Maney's timeline may be optimistic but the prospect isn't crazy.
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!
Level Creation Guide - The LittleBigPlanet Wiki - LittleBigPlanet characters, levels, walkthroughs, and more Pressing in create mode pulls up the Popit Menu. The main functions essential to creation that appear in the Popit Menu are the Goodies Bag, Tools Bag, Sticker Menu and the Popit Cursor. Levelcraft Understanding these concepts is easy, but applying each and every one of them into unique and original ideas can be more difficult. Make sure there's not too many complicated things in one small area, or else the entire game will freeze and will lose all changes. The World You need a basic idea of what the world your level takes place in is like so that you can model your level after those ideas and so when you publish it sackthings will like the setting. Physical Appearance Using techniques such as Landscaping and Decorating can give the players of your level a good idea of what kind of world your level is in. Atmosphere If the level's theme is a spooky mansion, use the Tools Bag to make the fog level go up and the lighting go dark. Music Enemies Dialogue The Name The Description The Level Badge
CodeWorld Rises Again! | Sententia cdsmithus About three years ago, I started work on an idea about technology-based math education. The idea was to get middle school students to work passionately on using mathematics to create things, by: Doing their own original, creative work, instead of following instructions or reaching set answers.Getting instant feedback 24 hours a day, so they can tinker and learn in a self-directed way.Building confidence by working on their own ideas, inspiring pride and excitement.Experiencing how concepts from geometry, algebra, and physics can be springboards for creativity.Becoming creators, rather than just consumers, of technology. That’s a lofty set of goals, but it was very successful. In the 2011-2012 school year, I taught a small class of six students, two to three hours per week. We had an awesome time. Students didn’t really think of what they were doing as math. At the end of that year, I had plans to teach this program in multiple schools the following school year. Getting Started Changes:
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python This course is the first of a two-course sequence: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, and Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science. Together, they are designed to help people with no prior exposure to computer science or programming learn to think computationally and write programs to tackle useful problems. Some of the people taking the two courses will use them as a stepping stone to more advanced computer science courses, but for many it will be their first and last computer science courses. Since these courses may be the only formal computer science courses many of the students take, we have chosen to focus on breadth rather than depth. Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python covers the notion of computation, the Python programming language, some simple algorithms, testing and debugging, and informal introduction to algorithmic complexity, and some simple algorithms and data structures. Recommended textbook.
Creative Coding — Monash University Learning to program is no longer just for computer specialists and software developers. People from many different backgrounds now want to understand the basics of programming, because it’s both fun and an increasingly valuable skill. One of the most exciting ways to learn programming is through authoring your own creative programs. Known as “creative coding,” this growing field uses computer software as a medium to develop original creative expression. So if you’re an artist, designer, architect or musician who’s interested in how you can expand your creative skills, or even a computer programmer looking to work in creative applications, you will find this free online course extremely useful. Explore the concepts and skills of creative coding Throughout the course we’ll help you develop practical programming concepts and skills by exploring creative ideas and challenges. Learn with professional artists and designers The course is very different from technical courses on programming.
Linux creator Linus Torvalds: I do not believe everybody should learn to code | VentureBeat | Dev | by Harrison Weber Even Linus Torvalds, one of the most influential computer scientists alive today, doesn’t believe everybody should learn to code. Torvalds, the creator of Linux and Git (a version control system for dev teams, and the technology behind GitHub), opened up for an unusually lengthy Q&A this weekend. Now 44, Torvalds shaped modern computing, and yet his views contrast recent learn-to-code campaigns like Codecademy’s Code Year. When asked about the future of computer science education, Torvalds said, “I actually don’t believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code. I think it’s reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. While enthusiasm for computer science is high — even President Obama is into it — many developers have reacted negatively to learn-to-code campaigns. However, Torvalds clarified that “there may well be lots of people who never realized that they might actually like telling computers what to do.”
hs "Netti ei toimi", jokeltaa koodikerhon vetäjän Marko Klemetin 2-vuotias tytär, Iiris. Hän työntää tablettiaan Jennalle, 10 ja Erikalle, 11. Josko he auttaisivat? "Täh? Perkkaanpuisto antaa esimakua syksystä 2016. Seiskaluokat aloittavat 2017, kasit 2018 ja ysit 2019. Se oli melkoista salatiedettä. Nyt puhaltavat eri tuulet. "Ohjelmoinnin osaaminen on 2000-luvulla kansalaisen oikeus ja velvollisuus", sanoo Linda Liukas. Ohjelmoinnin tulo voi hermostuttaa joitain opettajia. "Kirja on ensiapulaukku ja lunttilappu ohjelmointiin", sanoo Mykkänen, joka oli HS:n Nyt-liitteen esimies vielä vähän aikaa sitten. Mutta miten opettaja pärjää? Liukas ja Mykkänen tapasivat aikoinaan seminaarissa. Viime syksynä 55 virolaista peruskoulua eli joka kuudes koulu lähti mukaan kokeiluun. Opetusministeri Krista Kiuru vei ohjelmoinnin opetussuunnitelman luonnokseen. Syy ohjelmoinnin tuloon on kaikkialla selvä. Meidän on hallittava konetta eikä sen meitä! "Kaikki alat muuttuvat ohjelmistojen takia!"
Shaun the Sheep's Game Academy 10 places where anyone can learn to code Teens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, “but that doesn’t really make you fluent.” Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code Fluency, Resnick proposes in this TED Talk, comes not through interacting with new technologies, but through creating them. The former is like reading, while the latter is like writing. The point isn’t to create a generation of programmers, Resnick argues. In his talk, Resnick describes Scratch, the programming software that he and a research group at MIT Media Lab developed to allow people to easily create and share their own interactive games and animations. While we’re at it: bonus!