Interesting Links 11 October 2010
Yesterday was 10/10/10 which a lot of geek types had fun with. Of course 101010 in binary is 42 in decimal and 42, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the answer to everything. But your probably knew that. Speaking of geeky number stuff, David Johnston, Canada's new Governor General, has a coat of arms with binary digits! Gotta love it!
I blogged about this last Friday but in case you missed it, there are now some Small Basic programming curriculum materials available.
The second Imagine Cup IT Challenge Quiz #2 is on October 18! Do you have what it takes? Do your students have what it takes? The Imagine Cup is a great chance for IT students to test themselves on what they know. And perhaps even win some prizes.
My friend Gautam Reddy (on twitter @GautamReddy) wrote a new blog post titled How can High School Teachers provide students with DreamSpark Software that explains the whole process, in detail with screen shots, on how to set up a DreamSpark program for a high school. This is an incredible program for students to get a lot of Microsoft software for themselves for free!
Computing in the Core (https://www.computinginthecore.org/) is a new site and partnership amount companies and non-profits advocating for K-12 computer science in the mainstream. That means getting it as one of the core subjects that “count” for graduation. One page is Top 10 Facts about Computer Science Education.You may know these facts but you may not. There are some scary things in that list though.
Know any women in graduate programs? Do they know about the 2011 Microsoft Research Graduate Women's Scholarship Program? Students who are nominated must attend a U.S. or Canadian university and be enrolled as a full-time graduate student in the Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics departments and be nominated by there department.
Jeff Blankenburg has started a blog series titled 31 days of Windows Phone 7. The series has a good start on it but it’s never too late to join the fun if you are interested in developing for Windows Phone 7.
I missed the K-12 CS Education Town Hall at the Grace Hopper Conference but the CACM Blog has a good summary. The CSTA blog has the same summary (Notes on the Hopper K-12 Town Hall). I can’t help wonder if we’re making much progress on CS education though. It seems like the same complaints or concerns that were reported in this town hall could have all been reported 15 years ago. It concerns me. Will Computing in the Core help? I hope so.
My great friend Edwin Guarin (aka the Edvandelist) is now blogging at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/edvangelist/. Drop by and wish him well.