tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42486834900378526652023-05-10T02:58:16.362-07:00Brokenairplane RSS FeedEducation resources, tutorials, and news to support educators in the 21st century. Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-18267352814828883612013-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:002018-09-13T11:18:31.568-07:00What I learned from the engineers on the Blockly open source projectIt's <a href="http://csedweek.org/">Computer Science Education Week</a> and I am really glad to see how much it has grown over the years. I expect this year, more people will become aware of the benefits of computer science and how learning to program provides you with powerful tools to create and innovate than in any year prior. If you haven't tried the <a href="http://csedweek.org/learn">Hour of Code</a> I highly encourage you to check it out. The ability to program transformed what I was able to do in my classroom and has opened up many opportunities in all areas of my life.<br />
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In my last post, I shared my <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2013/11/brother-edx-cs-mooc.html">brother's story</a> about how a Computer Science MOOC opened up a new world of exciting projects and ideas for him so now I'd like to reflect on one of the projects I've been working on for the last few months. I already know a bit of computer science, I've learned how from books and tutorials over the years. Nevertheless, no matter how much I learned, it never seemed like I was getting any closer to developing the kind of software professional engineers create. I had access to all of the same resources the professional have but I just could not figure out how to cross this chasm and write more complex programs.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-coZnG3iKKF0/UqQPwpvs-UI/AAAAAAAA5hs/Vpp8kValzNw/s1600/programming+chasm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-coZnG3iKKF0/UqQPwpvs-UI/AAAAAAAA5hs/Vpp8kValzNw/s1600/programming+chasm.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I became much more painfully aware of this issue at Google where I am surrounded by experts in computer science. I realized there was something that was missing, and our team's technical manager told me I needed code reviews, the <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/09/feedback-refinement-ron-berger.html">feedback and guidance</a> one receives when someone more experienced looks at your code. He suggested I join an <a href="http://opensource.org/osd">open source project</a>.</div>
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It just so happens that I sit next to <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/100863994824297167995" target="_blank">+Neil Fraser</a> (<a href="https://neil.fraser.name/">blog/tutorials</a>) and <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/102371586750823440821" target="_blank">+Ellen Spertus</a> (<a href="http://www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/cs/spertus/spertus.php">Mills College Faculty Page</a>) who work on <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/105063463762828771517" target="_blank">+Blockly</a> (<a href="https://code.google.com/p/blockly/">Google Code page</a>, <a href="http://blockly-demo.appspot.com/">demos</a>) and before that <a href="http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/">App Inventor</a>. Over the next few months, through their kind, helpful, and specific feedback; I was able to build on what they had developed. It is one thing to read about a topic but actually using version control, following <a href="https://code.google.com/p/google-styleguide/">style guides</a>, and following the <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself">DRY principle</a> taught me lessons that books and tutorials alone never could.</div>
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Their willingness to help me improve as a programmer motivated me to learn quickly so I didn't squander their time and mentoring on simple syntax/logical errors (always run the <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Lint_(software)">linter</a>!). After improving the <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/05/code-smells.html">readability</a> of my code, I was able to implement additional features and it was so satisfying every time they replied with an LGTM. Not one of my code reviews was accepted the first or second time which tells you: I still have a lot to learn, Neil and Ellen maintain a high standard of code quality, and that they were both very patient. Code reviews are an incredible way to grow as a developer and as long as you follow Ellen's advice to, "check your ego at the door", you will learn a lot.</div>
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I've pointed out the benefits of <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/09/feedback-refinement-ron-berger.html">feedback and refinement</a> for students over the years but I was unprepared for how much and how quickly my programming skills would improve. I am all the more convinced that anyone who is interested in learning how to do something really well cannot learn in isolation. A mentoring/feedback loop is essential to continue growing.</div>
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Software developers are always learning new technologies, languages, APIs, quirks, <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_idiom">idoms</a>, and styles all the time. Even after all that, things never work like they should, and debugging takes just as much, if not much much more of your time as writing the original code. To be a software engineer is to be very cognizant of how one learns best, where to find answers to abstract questions, and troubleshooting mysterious issues. I am humbled to have worked with both of them, and in general I am inspired by how willing engineers at Google are at helping one another (provided you have done everything you can to figure it out for yourself).</div>
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Based on my experience, I would highly recommend joining an Open Source project:</div>
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<li>You will learn more than you ever could just from reading books or taking classes. It's a great way to put into practice what you are learning.</li>
<li>There is a great deal of satisfaction in supporting a community/project that has a laudable goal.</li>
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I've been told that not all open source projects are created equal so if you are looking to join one, here are a couple of tips:</div>
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<li>Find one you care about. You may end up spending a lot of time on the project so pick one you find worth supporting with your time and effort. There are no shortage of projects out there so whether you pick one because of it's purpose, the programming language it's written in, or whatever else, make sure you have some good reason so you are willing to stick with it.</li>
<li>Are you going to learn from it? Look at the code repository, can you tell what the code does, is it readable? Do they follow a style guide? I was working with two experts in computer science at Google so your results may vary. If you are not going to get valuable feedback then you will not learn as much as you could.</li>
<li>Test the waters. Submit a small patch and see what their feedback is. While personality types differ and some can be more snarky than others, a code review should not be a disheartening experience, feel free to join a more appreciative project if you feel like you're being treated poorly.</li>
<li>Supporting a project does not have to involve writing code, Blockly and other projects are always looking for translators, documentation, etc and you can commit as much time as you have to offer.</li>
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I love that no matter how much I learn, there is more to discover and improve one's skills/knowledge. I hope you will <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2012/12/rediscover-learning-this-year.html">take this perspective</a> into the new year and model it for your students.</div>
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Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-33953396919330075422013-11-19T20:55:00.001-08:002013-11-19T20:55:21.012-08:00My Brother's Experience with the edX Computer Science MOOC<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E51-ZccRFu8/Uow9ocPiMGI/AAAAAAAA4aE/EYwjONM5YA0/s1600/mikeLight.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E51-ZccRFu8/Uow9ocPiMGI/AAAAAAAA4aE/EYwjONM5YA0/s200/mikeLight.JPG" width="150" /></a>Everyone has a unique story to share with regards to learning. It's a lifelong journey that rarely looks like we would expect it to. With my brother's permission, I wanted to share with you a little about my brother Mike's educational experience and how a MOOC made a huge impact on his life.<br />
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The following represents the views of my brother with occasional commentary added by me. None of this necessarily expresses the views of my employer or colleagues.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Formal Schooling</span></b><br />
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<b>Background: </b>My brother and I are very similar but couldn't be more different. He grew up struggling all through school while I chose to "play the game" as my mom called it. I chose to study science and math, where he focused on music and art. While many struggle to find work in the arts, he is lucky enough to tour the world playing <a href="http://www.andrewmcmahon.com/lineup/mikey-wagner/">music</a>.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Can you share about your learning experience when you were in school?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what the cause of my resentment for the educational system stemmed from when I was younger. There were many outside influences that acted upon me and surely had their own respective consequences. As our father is a <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographer">cinematographer</a> (<a href="http://www.royhwagnerasc.com/my-legacy.html">blog</a>), I had seen the world from the traveling circus mentality and was under the impression that I could lead a full and successful life without any formal schooling.<br />
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I recall when I was in second grade, we moved to Vancouver, British Columbia and subsequently went to school there for that period. The system they had in place at that school had the second graders in the same classroom as the third graders. This put me ahead of the learning curve when I eventually returned home to our school in America. I became immensely bored and unchallenged with the material presented to me, and as Jurassic Park had just come out in the theaters, I became obsessed with the works of <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton">Michael Crichton</a> and began to read his entire catalogue. I won't pretend that I understood everything he wrote, because much of his stories deal with complex ideas and science, however in this way I began my journey of self-reliant learning.<br />
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As the years went on, I continued on with the mentality that school was a tedious exercise of frivolous trivia and acted accordingly. That isn't to say that I was still unchallenged by the material presented to me, on the contrary actually. I fell far behind and by the grace of kind and understanding teachers was coddled and gently prodded to pass classes. I grew frustrated with the books assigned in English classes and would prefer to read my own diverse selections, often in class, to the chagrin of my teachers. I remember being scolded for this, and I would reply, "this is an English class, wouldn't you prefer I read, rather than listen to your opinions?".<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>What did you think about math and science back then?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>Math was always a challenge for me and it seemed trivial and obtuse. I needed some sort of tangible way to relate to the material which, by either my frustration or the style of teaching presented to me, I could not find. I adopted the mentality, learned no doubt from a punk rock song, that if I never tried, I couldn't fail. Clearly this logic was flawed, because I consistently failed my math classes. Science, on the other hand, fascinated me, and I worked hard to navigate my way through the lectures and textbooks. I was, however, constantly undercut by the formulas and would end up squeaking by.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The MOOC Experience</span></b><br />
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<b>Background: </b>Almost a year ago, my brother and I were talking at Thanksgiving and he mentioned he was thinking about learning how to program. A few months later, he calls me up and asks me for some help with a programming challenge. After hearing a little of the code he was wrangling with I said, "Wait this sounds like <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C</a>?" After hearing his reasoning for preferring C to other languages he had tried, I could tell that my brother was getting serious about learning how to program.<br />
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A few months later he told me he signed up for the <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/mit/6-00x/introduction-computer-science/586">edX 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science</a> MOOC. He and I had some wonderful conversations over the following months. I would receive a phone call almost every week, then every day. These conversations could last for a few minutes or a couple of hours. My advice would always end with, take a break, take a walk, and write some pseudocode. After a while I would get an email every couple of weeks if at all, and when he did call, the conversations had shifted from tutoring to discussion and feedback. From my perspective, he was quickly picking up the terminology and the skills.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Why did you decide to sign up for the <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/mit/6-00x/introduction-computer-science/586">edX Intro to CS</a> course?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>I have always had a strong desire to understand what makes things work. I often would take apart my toys and gadgets to understand their cogs and mechanics. Computers have always interested me and the fact that I couldn't justifiably open one up or see its underpinnings bothered me, especially because of their intrinsic nature in our society. On a whim, I began teaching myself the basics of C and then upon your recommendation, <a href="http://processing.org/">Processing</a>, but was still longing to learn more.<br />
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As a touring musician, I have, should I choose not to spend it in the thrall of a drunken stupor or the following hangover, an inordinate amount of free time and I made a conscious effort to utilize it to the fullest. The drummer in my band, who has also dabbled with programming since studying CS in college, had told me about the edX course MIT was offering on the <a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> language and I decided to sign up for it, even though it had already started a week prior. I felt that with the support of a friend in the class as well, I could possibly pull it off, even with the distractions of tour-life.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Why a class on computer science / <a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a>?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>As I stated before, the subject matter was very interesting to me, but beyond that, I felt that with enough time and dedication I could begin to earn an income from coding and possibly even supplement my income while I was on the road. After much time and consideration, I see how lofty an ambition this was, especially without a formal education in the subject, but I have always had perseverant spirit, and work towards this goal with daily strides and small victories. The more I learned about Python, the more I liked what it stands for. Aside from being a huge Monty Python fan, I really admire the <a href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/">Pythonic ideals</a> and its desire to be readable. I am constantly amazed at how powerful this language can be.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>What worked for you in this class / what did you do to succeed?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>I feel that the weekly deadlines and set course schedule helped promote the stability and drive I needed to succeed. I was constantly pushing myself to get assignments in on time or in the few cases where I would finish early, reward myself with some hang-time with the band. The forums were a reliable source for help and a sounding board for ideas, examples, venting, site issues, and most importantly, interaction with peers and TAs. In my darkest hours, when no solutions seemed available, I leaned heavily on you, Phil. I am very grateful for your kind insistence and guidance, <i>never giving me the answers directly but helping me to find them on my own. I think having someone to discuss coding with or problem solving in general, without fear of judgement, has been immensely beneficial to my learning experience.</i><br />
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<i>Note: I emphasized the previous point, because I know how this type of pedagogy has helped students who often struggle with school. The best part is, they end up understanding it better than those who absorb it via other means.</i><br />
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<b>Phil: </b>In general how do you learn something new (e.g. new software, new instrument, etc)?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>By exposing myself to this constant stream of information over the past few years, I've come to learn a great deal about how I absorb content. Typically for me, I learn best the old fashioned way - empirically. When learning a new instrument, I would practice constantly, consuming books on scales, patterns and theory until eventually it would all click. Now, 'eventually' is a nice way of saying a really long time, because I'm still in the process of growing, and it is my belief that when you stop striving to get better, you stop being an artist. I have directly applied that philosophy to coding.<br />
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It starts with reading, and although my whole life I've been an avid fiction reader, I am now consistently in the middle of several technical books at any given time (right now the subjects are: Python, open-source, Django, problem solving, Java, and Vim). I am also concurrently taking a few casually paced MOOCs which keep me pretty busy all the time. I have been blessed to have all the downtime that being a musician has afforded me and am so grateful to my fiancé for giving me the support and pep talks, without which, I could never have come this far. As I traverse new paths, I know I must be carefully aware of where I've been and to consistently apply what I've already learned. I like to analogize it with the old expression - If you don't use it, you lose it.<br />
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<i>Note: My entire family have benefited from this method of learning new things, and I've captured some ideas about this in <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/11/how-to-learn-anything-lessons-in.html">How to Learn Anything - Lessons in Neuroscience from Dad</a>.</i><br />
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<b>Phil: </b>What did you like about the course and the environment?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>Once I started with the lectures, I was immediately drawn to <a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/welg/">Professor Grimson's</a> assured and kind demeanor. His style of teaching and the simple ways he had of breaking down complex ideas such as recursion were very comforting, considering the stress the weekly class assignments had on me. Having now taken courses on other MOOC platforms, I have a greater appreciation for the layout and format of edX. First off, I've always been attracted to clean design, and the website and information presented never felt cluttered. Everything was always easily accessible. The Python interpreter they used for quizzes and assignments has a simple interface and gives back informative tracebacks and error messages, which were very helpful in debugging my flawed code.<br />
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6.00x definitely felt very organized in a way that I haven't experienced with any other MOOC yet.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>What didn't work for you? What could have been improved about the course?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>The few bugs that would pop up occasionally, would quickly be addressed in the forum and corrected. There was one time that the grader for a assignment became so overloaded that it crashed the system. They kindly gave us another day to turn in our assignments, "and there was much rejoicing". In hindsight, and though I understand their reasons for doing so, I wish they would have taught us to program in Terminal instead of using a GUI like <a href="https://www.enthought.com/products/epd/">Enthought EPD</a>. I feel like this would have made my skills more translatable to the real world. It is a very user friendly interpreter however, and gives the user instant gratification and comforts galore, especially when it came to plotting graphs with <a href="http://wiki.scipy.org/PyLab">pylab</a>.<br />
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Now I have begun weening myself off of Enthought and am doing my best to become one with the way of the Terminal and <a href="http://www.vim.org/">Vim</a> (I am writing this on it right now).<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Why didn't you give up?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>It would have been very easy to, actually. My friend who had joined the class with me ended up dropping it, due to the restrictions it imposed on his lifestyle. Everyday it was a constant effort to continue and keep prodding through. In order to make the time necessary to complete the course, I imposed a strict regimen on my daily life. I would wake at 6AM every morning (much to the annoyance of everyone who had to hear me snoozing or not hearing my alarm for an hour) and then make a pot of coffee, all while the tourbus was still rolling to the next city.<br />
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Then I would listen to lectures and work on the quizzes till my brain was sufficiently fried, and by that time we would hopefully have arrived at our destination where I would proceed to take a much needed head-clearing walk through town. After soundcheck I would sneak in some more time at the computer till it was time to play the show, and after the show (and after several drinks had been consumed) I would work in my bunk till the wee hours of the morning only to repeat again the next day. This was my life. I felt like I was isolating myself from my friends and they would constantly remark with amazement at my will to continue on in this way.<br />
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When I was home, there were many times when I would say goodnight to my fiancé, only for her to wake up for work the next morning and see me in the exact same place. There was one time, I recall, where I didn't sleep for three days from being completely consumed by an assignment. She couldn't believe it and she coerced me into taking a much needed break, whereupon I returned and found a solution shortly thereafter. I quickly learned the value of stepping away from a problem. In many respects, I think that having everyone constantly seeing me endure this lifestyle gave me a certain gratification. I think they were a bit perplexed at why I would put myself through this and ultimately, to answer you question in my very long-winded fashion - the reason I continued on was the amazing satisfaction and pride I would feel when a program would run without error or when I would solve a problem, after countless efforts, only to find the simplest answer coming from changing the way I looked at the problem.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Do you feel like you understand the topics taught well enough to teach them to someone else?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>Yes and no; I feel there are many things that I have learned repeatedly enough, that are intrinsic and fundamental to all coding languages, which I could easily teach to others and find useful anecdotes for. There are many concepts, however, that I struggled with and continue to struggle with daily. While I can explain recursion in theory, finding practical applications where I use it properly is another story. Other concepts that I find myself struggling with still, and perhaps through lack off consistent application are: search algorithms, pylab graphing and statistical analysis. I really did enjoy learning about <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk">Random walks</a> and <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_method">Monte Carlo Simulations</a>, though. <br />
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<b>Phil: </b>In addition to Python skills, what other skills did you gain?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>For me, there is nothing comparable to the "shout from mountaintop" feeling I get from programming. Of course, there are countless hours of frustration and study, but I believe that only makes the rewards that much more cathartic. Music has always been a great joy and outlet for me, but as a constantly self-critiquing artist, it's hard to find the same true moments of reward. Now with that being said, most times after the brief moments of cathartic splendor, there is still much more testing/debugging/implementation to be done but it's nice to know that there are always those lights at the end of the tunnel. Thats what makes coding so exciting for me.<br />
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I think of all the tools I've learned in the class, the most valuable to me are the self-reliance and realization that math does not have to be an obtuse and highfalutin rite of passage as I once considered it to be. Instead I see math as a tangible and often exciting way to solve problems and extend the possibilities of our world. I did learn a great deal of debugging tools, such as: <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-box_testing">black box</a>, <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/White-box_testing">glass box</a>, using <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_case">edge cases</a> and running tests, though I've extended that learning considerably with <a href="http://norvig.com/21-days.html">Peter Norvig's</a> use of assert statements in his <a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/cs212">Design of Computer Programs course on Udacity</a>.<br />
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I've absorbed many algorithms, discovered the world of <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming">Object Oriented Programming</a>, used <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1988804/what-is-memoization-and-how-can-i-use-it-in-python">memoization</a> and <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function">hashing</a> to optimize designs, and learned <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation">big O notation</a> just to name a few. It was a lot to take in all at once, to be honest, but I feel that the pressure and constant application made me retain a great deal more than I would have expected.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>What advice would you give someone else thinking about taking a course like this and those who are frustrated?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>I would tell them to make sure they set aside enough time to really do justice to the material. Honestly, there were many times when I felt like giving up and just going back to bed with my fiancé or going out to party with my band. I won't pretend to be any sort of genius because I finished this course, it was a combination of sheer will-power and the understanding and support from my family and friends who propped me up when I was literally exhausted and through. I began to realize that <i>taking breaks wasn't giving in, but allowing the mind to wander and explore more possibilities than a screen filled with code and error messages can provide </i>(emphasis by Phil).<br />
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I believe that anyone who sticks with it, through the pain and mind-numbing frustration the intensity this course can provide, will succeed. Use the forums, they are your allies, reach out to friends who are willing to lend an ear or put up with some occasional venting, and definitely get the book the class follows. They lead you to believe that you don't need it, and they do provide an online version (I didn't buy it until halfway through the class), but for me it was so much better to have the book to follow along with in my Kindle.<br />
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<b>Phil: </b>Did your experience as a musician play a role in your ability to learn in this course?<br />
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<b>Mike: </b>I have always thought about music in numbers, and for someone who was as bad at math as I considered myself to be, that system works very well for me. I realized during a class on Orchestration that I was adept and quick at making transpositions because of this system, and it still proves very useful to me when reading full scores or changing keys on the fly. When I was younger and teaching myself different instruments, I would work at it day and night and was obsessed with everything I could hear. I think that same passion to learn has helped me with this class and programming in general.<br />
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I would definitely say I'm obsessed, and though I'm not yet the hacker I long to be, it has helped redefine the way I see the world. I think in code, I look for solutions to problems and enjoy the process of learning and challenging myself. It's hard to say whether being on tour while taking this class helped or hurt me, but however difficult, stressful, and painful it could be, upon reflection it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done and I wouldn't change it. I'd like to think it has made me a better man.<br />
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<b>Phil's final thoughts: </b>The transformation I saw in my brother was amazing. It's difficult to convey how big an impact this has had on his life. I had not seen him apply himself this much except with music and now he can't stop studying CS. It's worth mentioning that throughout his educational career, many teachers expressed their concerns about Mike's study habits and grades and yet about a decade after high school he is studying complex technical subjects. With all of the criticisms about MOOCs, we should not discard experiences that make a huge impact on people like my brother.<br />
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I just want to thank my brother for sharing his experience with me and allowing me to publish it here. I could not be more proud of his work and what he accomplished and learned!</div>
Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-56629983147295891712013-10-03T20:07:00.000-07:002013-10-03T20:07:19.549-07:00Science vs The Bible: A Study in ConflationScience and the Bible are at odds. Intelligence or faith, you have to choose. That's what we've been told. It's not true. Why am I posting this here on an education blog? I don't want anyone, student or educator, to feel like if they are studying or working in STEM, that they cannot also be a person of faith (and vice versa). Since many present this as a two sided issue, I wanted to share my perspective.<br />
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When I first became a Christian I found myself surrounded by people who, upon finding I was studying science, wanted to tell me how to harmonize the Bible with science. I spent the first few years of my faith, reading all of the apologetics and resources I could find in hopes of understanding how the Bible would be compatible with my knowledge of science and math.<br />
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Some of these resources were interesting and enlightening but many raised more questions and issues than they solved. Worse yet, many were attempting to discredit evolution and the like because of the perceived incompatibility with the Bible. It was very frustrating because I felt that the Christian community was forcing me to choose what I observed to be true about the universe and what I believed to be true about God.<br />
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Sadly, this black and white belief is also reflected by many prominent voices in the science community. Making claims like, "if evolution is true then there can be no God" is an untestable statement and is just as much a belief system as any religion.<br />
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The problem with this either/or debate is it leads to unnecessary confusion and frustration. Is the Bible made obsolete by modern theories and discoveries? Can one apply the same intelligence to their faith that they do to their work and other aspects of their lives? I believe it is possible and God's will that we be able to fully use our minds to learn more about the Universe while using that same mind to deepen our understanding and relationship with Him.<br />
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<i><b>Science: An cumulative progression or a series of paradigm shifts?</b></i><br />Textbooks and many historical narratives send the message that science has been a cumulative effort where each previous theory and law builds on the previous. If you consider the stories of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein as an example, each proposed a new theory that was not initially well received within scientific circles. Their detractors were opposed not always based on evidence, as some would have you believe, but because it conflicted with their worldview and paradigm.<div>
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These scientists, as well as Darwin, Crick, and many more in the scientific community continued to have skeptics and detractors long after the theory was confirmed by data and evidence. One day, I stumbled upon the word "conflation" which I found to be very useful in this situation. Conflation is where you take your personal beliefs (e.g. that the world is only a few thousand years old, or that there is no God) and combine them with the Bible or the theory of Evolution to make them say something they were not intended to say. In hermeneutics, the study of texts like the Bible, this is known as eisegesis and one must constantly be on guard against it. If one is to read a text, they must understand what assumptions and worldview they are bringing to it.</div>
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The problem is well meaning and passionate people on both sides of this supposed debate are trying to "save your mind and soul" when they don't realize, or refuse to acknowledge, that they have an "-ism" or a worldview as much as anyone else. You may think it was Galileo vs the church but it was much more about politics and cherished philosophies left over from Aristotle. It's been said that Christians have always opposed evolution and that scientists have always embraced it. Neither are true and it has led to misleading representation about what the theory of evolution actually is (as well as what a "theory" is for that matter).</div>
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If you were writing the book of Genesis for the Jews a couple thousand years ago, what do you think would be the most useful message to them? Remember they were just rescued from slavery in Egypt and are wandering in the wilderness. The writer of Genesis was inspired to write a message about God and creation that explained why God was different than the other gods they had seen in Egypt and would encounter from other nations. The story told in Genesis 1-3 (creation) and 5-9 (Noah and the flood) is not intended to be a literal account of the geological and biological events that took place in the early days of the Earth. A scientific explanation would not have had much value to the aforementioned Jews in their situation. Throughout these narratives and the Bible as a whole, God describes his love for us and why we need salvation. As Galileo, quoting <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_Baronius">Caesar Baronius</a>, put it famously in his <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.asp">letter</a> to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, "The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven. not how heaven goes."</div>
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This post could be miles long, but I feel you will get more value if you check out some of these books:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=xnjS401VuFMC">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn</a>: As mentioned above this is where the term "paradigm shift" is coined and it is an excellent tour through the history of science with examples of how evidence required a complete change in how we perceive the universe rather than an cumulative progression as textbooks would have us believe.</li>
<li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=0Rtu8kCpvz4C">Personal Knowledge - Michael Polanyi</a>: Everyone has a belief system and worldview and it is impossible for one to be 100% objective. Experiments are reproducible, their implications are open to interpretation.</li>
<li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2b3ab2ErEtUC">Galileo Connection - Charles E. Hummel</a>: If you have the understanding that the Bible is incompatible with science, then you may find this book useful. It clarifies the role of Scripture and nature in understanding God and the universe. It also provides an excellent perspective on the politics and disagreements that led to Gailieo being forced to recant his scientific findings.</li>
<li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=sPpaZnZMDG0C">The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins</a>: This book, among others, helped me to better understand the topic of emergent complexity and how very simple rules can lead to diverse behavior. Dawkins is also an interesting read, as a self proclaimed "militant atheist" you will see an example of how a brilliant scientist can see the same data and evidence as others but interpret it differently based on one's own personal belief system.</li>
<li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=-5utmq5m7TAC">Perspectives on an Evolving Creation - Keith B. Miller et al.</a>: A series of articles from Christians who are also scientists on how the we have been misled to believe that one cannot be a scientist and a Christian.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.asp">Galileo's letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany</a> - Galileo was a devout and pious Christian which is why he was so confused and frustrated by those in the Church who opposed his discoveries on theological grounds. In this letter, he describes his faith and how that lives in harmony with his scientific pursuits, his belief that his accusers in the Church were misunderstanding the passages from the Bible and its role, and the role of the natural world in declaring the glory of God.</li>
</ul>
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If you have a strong opinion on this topic, how much of it is based on evidence and how much based on your own personal belief system.? Regardless of your position on the issue, I have always found it helpful to hear other perspectives. I am glad that science is an endeavor I can continue to pursue while maintaining a faith in God. My hope is you will also find harmony on this topic and realize that a universe with evolution, a big bang, or whatever else we discover, are not barriers to understanding God's existence and love (Ps 19:1).</div>
Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-86902747675998120312013-05-29T08:52:00.000-07:002013-05-29T08:52:18.567-07:00Suited for the Thirsty<i>The following is a guest post from <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/100577726569168043293" target="_blank">+Patrick Yurick</a></i><br />
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<img height="177px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MmcjavQ6kHzLJL_BgzTP3Z8jcxD6iFY2v4DXF6wNu-gnujsRB0vkAWrJ46EUrfCRESEJKpVwlmByXDwfO_weeGdnPueuXEt5eIoBmCI7QIl957_Q8_UGUvi5" width="220px;" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Myles Horton & Paulo Freire at the Highlander School</span></div>
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<i><br />
</i> <i>“The people wanted and needed to read and to write, precisely in order to have more of a possibility to be themselves... Because of that, you could start without too much preoccupation concerning methods and techniques and materials because you had the principle ingredient, which was the desire of the people...”</i></div>
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Paulo Freire - 1990 </div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Make-Road-Walking-Conversations-Education/dp/0877227756">We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change</a></div>
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I remember reading that book during my first education course at Plymouth State University seven years ago as I started my path towards becoming an educator. I was completely enamored with the tone of revolutionary thinking involved in educating people who desperately needed education. I did not fully understand the irony, at the time, of studying countercultural education during a government mandated credentialing program. <br />
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It was soon after Freire's words, and my subsequent blog writings and experimentation with emerging communications technology, that I found myself working at one of the most revolutionary educational environments in the world, <a href="http://www.hightechhigh.org/schools/HTHCV/">High Tech High Chula Vista</a>. I spent five years at HTHCV developing collaborative projects and assessments with over 750 students. The campus brought me in as a college graduate and raised me to be an educator. <br />
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Still, Freire’s words above kept ringing in the back of my head. Why weren’t my students universally happy? Why did they care about grades when I was giving them literacy? <br />
Every semester I saw dozens of students who were being pressured to attend school by their parents and society consistently “check out” of their educational experience. Subsequently, I saw them performing miserably in my class setting. No matter what I did as an educator, I could not reach every student. <br />
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<i>“...the oppressed, who have adapted to the structure of domination in which they are immersed, and have become resigned to it are inhibited from waging the struggle for freedom so long as they feel incapable of running the risks it requires.” </i><br />
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Paulo Friere - 1968<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pedagogy-Oppressed-Anniversary-Paulo-Freire/dp/0826412769">Pedagogy of the Oppressed</a></div>
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There was an environment where I witnessed the active fostering of desire derived: an after-school program called the “<a href="http://lfcbs.blogspot.com/2012/10/post-comic-con-reflections-on-vision-of.html">High Tech High Graphic Novel Project</a>”. Populated with students from all grade levels at HTHCV, with a desire for comic/art education, and selected based on choice, I began to see the educational environment Friere spoke of. We would stay for all-nighters, weekend classes, and go to conventions. Parents were involved and would regularly attend sessions to help. Outsiders wanted “in” as well and the students saw a slew of professionals come to donate time just because they had heard about what we were doing. <br />
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<table border="0" style="text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr> <td><img height="266" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_5QHDKUXybNWRGBI6B2gqHZyvBThpRcE0fcAmMh6fMLtEbGAQddxLXOz9wJdoniZFZM8StiQW20MVojYiNVyDAhIzDZ0W4v0o7KqNxSu5u_QB9YlpcC96WN8" width="320" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Victor Flores, now a Freshman at Cogswell University, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre-wrap;">brush inking a page of comic book artwork.</span></div>
</td> <td><img height="266" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/swRq2Q4-EffT9iFFPtGF4OUABz5iMXOP6B01FXxl0g65f6jMhW1DrREGLQHIZdm2k3OdDztJPACaMSAC1oLxB6Z9Ul6MB7Z_sT-Y1utdQL21iWBmZP5r3FcR" width="320" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 11px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 2011 Graphic Novel Project team presenting, as experts, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 11px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">on a panel at San Diego Comic Con International 2011.</span></td> </tr>
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Since the formation of HTH GNP, my principal’s mid-year evaluation would always have this part included: “What you are doing with Graphic Novel Project is amazing. How do we bring it into your classroom?” How could we bring mixed age-level classes into the classroom? How could we create an educational environment based on choice, passion, and commitment? I would always tell my director that unless we can restructure everything that school thinks it is about -- we can’t. At some point, people started going to school because it was expected of them as opposed to wanting education. <br />
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Learning and education became a hopeful byproduct of schooling as opposed to the point. School is about so much more than just education. Cultural requirements like proms, rites of passage, teams, theater, community are not bad! In fact, they seem to be vital to the human experience. It was when school stopped being about a pointed educational environment for the student that it lost its ability to be effective at education as an endeavor. School became about too many things, resulting in the gradual diminishment of all the things it was attempting to serve.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/2Ch1CPOMCCD4vnmEQeOCfuDsHROCvqBH3IEByO6bEiKdI5X0_7VLE9wTkE29_WejmaoYvP_mRFdvdFMGR-B5HMKLOzjMxLd7BGeVIh9DrEr1_vppV9RdX4kY" /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Students selling their comics at </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Wondercon Anaheim 2012</span><br />
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<img height="200" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/8F1FQnqsoaeigLn6H-ws3CwonmAIxAMST0TqjtPjljVit5tLxy0MuzKtzKgaG7CBMkLFOdLakXrGll1Nq8TI6eUmsi-sqLzvQ-V7cqnTeN5wtPEBac2mw4Ev" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Students working on a collaborative comic during a 24 hour work session, during school vacation time</span></div>
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<img height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7BO-_ZydD9UlkfEYU0FJ_XV2IfhwdqY7pZuEQCsw7QkGVAxr12IVX3wuPPmwRxnFn0iXz_JC-BhyhqimPuiB9I9z_crW3UYPKsq6Y4Qinc4tucikhA8Qbger" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Student creating STEM comic books at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington DC</span></div>
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A little over a year ago, the core students in GNP happened to be in the same graduating class and subsequently were all leaving the school at the same time. I had two options: 1) I could continue the Graphic Novel Project and recruit a new roster of workers or 2) I could do something else. I chose something else. Even though I was given incredible freedom to experiment as an educator, I felt that the constraints of working within a system with large numbers of students, grade levels, and bell schedules still constricted the likelihood of a pointed educational environment. I chose something else because creating a new, pointed educational environment was the only option I had if I was going to test my theories about the reasons why GNP was so successful.<br />
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I wanted making comics and teaching to passionate learners to become my full-time job and that meant leaving the standardized education system in all of its forms (including beloved charter schools). In the next incarnation of my educational journey, I had to abandon that idea of school. <br />
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I have seen the power of calling yourself an artist. People react differently to artists. They equally criticize and revere them, and I believe that is because they cannot seem to define them. Where do artists work? In “art studios.” What were we going to concentrate on? Comic books. Thus we knew “Comic Book Studio” was going to be in our name. The last piece of what we were was defining what we were about. When we read the Leo Leonni book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Swimmy-Knopf-Childrens-Paperbacks-Lionni/dp/0394826205">Swimmy</a> we knew our name: <a href="http://www.lilfish.us/">Little Fish Comic Book Studio</a>.<br />
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<img height="280" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Apl491ecLyfn8drjNSJT362cue1ZYw42YlZdui8nWXAyikG5G8ktFeC-Ya35TxVCqJnHlsaJxZHoyCKbrWG7C0RtAX3HRZI5_6bjTa5ZKQcFOjP7Ppp9Ozyj" width="320" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Little Fish Comic Book Studio launch party Friday August 31 2012</span></div>
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<img height="180px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/hTxao2MheSvQyN4ThMNlOltC3Wt66PzN068QiuWT4m4Dt5NrhEtfULQ514lPYE81u0cmaaJLKs1aidV5oilIGoq8mejW-f-saz9mbq5xbuUpNQsVoG-ulPBB" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Teaching comic book theory at </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Little Fish Comic Book Studio</span></div>
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<img height="180px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bH06XWmuOobY34xpe_AQupZRNNGpOobG5cUl1AKYltMjejawdjnDW_jkFvvAEeAwAvJIGGBKZ5tCnjHh7LKVzHOoOsT_4L-7qrs9s-rs7f7_nT1_PVNE3NJ6" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">An all ages created comic book mural led by Little Fish for <a href="http://sandiego.figmentproject.org/">San Diego’s Figment 2013</a></span></div>
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<img height="180px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/zrMYx1YADPd0dDFqQqDhuA29W1BOw2TySwCqPrvPSJTgdajDjEQ8b8br9Lnb1eCg6b0PJQ7N8jBI-5g2w1-XC-Tn-EZRS7DYB2Q3zXDefRiO9ccSSvyXTz-v" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Little Fish members/students range from </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">11-40. Each come in with a comic project </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">they dream of finishing.</span></div>
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I am sitting in my comic book studio a year later looking over at the members who are attending Little Fish. I am tempted to call them students, but they are more than that - they are creators. A 30-year-old who joined to work on his 150-page autobiography, two 14-year-olds who are launching weekly webcomics, an 11-year-old who loves manga but is just starting out, and an early 20-something who has been publishing but is looking to push his work to the next level. They are all making jokes about comics and movies that are coming out soon. You can hear the scratching of pens on paper as they are looking down at the concept art that they are designing for their individual projects. <br />
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They are here because they want to make comic books. They want to learn and they passionately have stories to tell. Each conversation is outlined with this implied expectation that they each share: “We are all brilliant. We all need each other in this moment to continue our journey.”<br />
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In the short seven years since I have read the line: “The people wanted and needed to read and to write, precisely in order to have more of a possibility to be themselves” and I am seeing it before my eyes. When I first read it, I was inspired, but also thought that if Friere tried to teach my students it probably wouldn't occur now because the system will not allow it.<br />
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<i>MYLES: ...you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.</i><br />
<i>PAULO: Yes.</i><br />
<i>MYLES: This is a problem they deal with in academia by hitting the horse over the head and beating on him till they force his nose in the tub, and just to keep the blows from continuing, he'll try to drink. My system is to make him thirsty, so he'll volunteer to drink.</i><br />
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Myles Horton & Paulo Friere - 1990 </div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Make-Road-Walking-Conversations-Education/dp/0877227756">We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change</a></div>
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As I sit in my studio and work with the people who have come to be a part of it, I can’t help but think of the interaction between Horton & Freire above. The creation of Little Fish may have been a fool’s gesture, but I think it was a necessary one. What if educational environments were pointedly suited for the thirsty? What would a place look like if the common denominator between all people was just how much they wanted to be taught? Who would show up? I’d like to think that I would.<br />
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Patrick hosts monthly comic book & education related hangouts, free classes, resources, and more at Little Fish Comic Book Studio Website: <a href="http://www.lilfish.us/">www.lilfish.us </a><br />
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To see more of the kinds of work Patrick has done as an educator check his portfolio/website: <a href="http://theheadcomic.com/">theheadcomic.com</a><br />
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Patrick’s webcomic “American BOOOM!” at <a href="http://american.booom.us/">American.BOOOM.us</a> which uses a superhero story to talk about the ongoing narrative of the US/Mexican Border. Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-15755365961296391782013-05-02T05:47:00.000-07:002013-05-02T05:47:15.664-07:00My favorite learning environment would fail today's education technology standardsI want to tell you about one of my favorite ways to learn new things:<br />
<ul>
<li>It is essentially a lecture, I'm not able to ask questions or get clarification from it, I just sit there in my chair for hour after hour. </li>
<li>Occasionally it is available online, but this option is relatively new, nonetheless I am able to access it from anywhere. </li>
<li>It doesn't cost much money and I often get myself involved in at least 2 at a time. There's rarely an extrinsic motivation for me to learn this way but yet I have a pretty high completion rate.</li>
</ul>
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If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about books. However, these talking points (and many more) have been raised in support/derision of MOOCs. You know, those Massive Open Online Courses everyone is talking about. Its funny to me that people are not raising the same issues about books that they are about education technology. The number of kids turned off to education by bad pedagogy using books is likely far greater than those who have not completed a MOOC. Yet everyone is coming out strongly for or against the idea of MOOCs. I guess books have just been around longer.<br />
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Now about completion rates, a physical classroom has a monopoly on your time. Say you signed up for: Physics 101 for 3 days a week / 1.5 hours a day (plus homework) at your local university. You have likely paid for this class and your ability to get a degree and potentially a job requires that you pass the class. You have a lot of extrinsic motivation and perhaps an equal amount of intrinsic motivation (because Physics is awesome).<br />
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MOOCs have a few things working against it. You signed up for the course (or multiple courses) because you've always wanted to learn more about <u> fill in the blank </u>. You likely have none of the extrinsic motivators mentioned above, in fact you probably have a few working against your completion of the course like your day job, the school you are attending for credit, or other aspects of your life.<br />
<br />
What to do, where/how should we learn? Well that's a question that is different for each topic and learner but here are some of my thoughts.<br />
<ul>
<li>When a student tells me they want to go to college to study <u> fill in the blank </u> because it sounds interesting, I tell them to go buy the book, get an internship, or something else like that. I've heard universities defend their place in society because of the experience and community. That's great and I agree, but I can have a discussion about a topic anywhere. I've said this to students for years, and I'll say it now, "Go to college to get a job (about something you are passionate about)". If you are paying a university tens of thousands of dollars a year just to learn something, with little or no job prospects, you are either fabulously wealthy or out of your mind. Make sure you are going to get a return on your investment.</li>
<li>Semester long courses and video tutorials are not my preferred method of learning but they may work for you. It used to be the only way to learn something was to get a book or take a class. Now you can find all kinds of ways to learn a topic in whatever medium you wish. There are hundreds of videos about the Pythagorean Theorem alone! There's also websites, books written for all levels of learner, MOOCs, forums, meetups, etc.</li>
<li>If you want to learn more about a topic, a long course might not be the best way to start off. Do a little research on your own first to find out if you really want to invest weeks of time and energy into it (plus it would greatly improve the registration/completion ratio).</li>
</ul>
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I love the Web and books because I can get what I need and thats it. But, before you bring up the shallows argument, believe me I read giant tomes cover to cover because once I learn a little, I want to go deeper and understand more. MOOCs are a fantastic resource, but we need to be a little less obsessed with completion rates and as my colleague says determine whether or not <a href="http://learnandperform.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-people-register-for-moocs-moving.html">people are meeting their learning goals/needs</a>. Learning is a messy lifelong process and sometimes it takes weeks/years to fully understand something.<br />
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I've always defended things like this (we seem to have shifted our ire from <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/06/khan-academy-is-our-ally-lets-work.html">Khan Academy</a> to MOOCs) not because of what they are, but because of what they could be. Formal classrooms have existed for hundreds of years, the technology powering these MOOCs are not even a decade old. Technology will catch up with pedagogy and even provide opportunities to learn in ways not easily accomplished otherwise. That's no excuse for a poorly designed class. A poorly designed online course is no better (and often worse) than its live counterpart so please think of your learner experience but also think of how the new medium impacts your content.<br />
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I'm excited that more people are talking about education and technology's role in effectively supporting it. Regardless of your opinion of MOOCs, they have made pedagogy and are making content accessible to learners a part of the national conversation. We should always defend others right to experiment (and fail) and continue to be skeptical of overhyped claims.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-51411099597676645582013-04-13T10:34:00.000-07:002013-04-13T10:34:03.827-07:00Job Posting: Google Teaching FellowHere's what you need to know, <a href="https://www.google.com/about/jobs/search/#!t=jo&jid=1241001&">Google's looking for an awesome educator</a>.<br />
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A couple of years ago, <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/114206725441785242750" target="_blank">+Dan Meyer</a> posted that the Curriculum Fellow job at Google he had previously worked on was hiring again. I saw that post, and immediately posted my resume to the Google Jobs website. I had no idea how much that action would change my life.<br />
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I was very happy as an educator. I worked at an <a href="http://www.hightechhigh.org/">awesome school</a> that used <a href="http://www.bie.org/">Project Based Learning</a> and had a great robotics team. But there were two things that compelled me to apply. First off I told my students and friends that the only two things that would make me leave my classroom were if the Mythbusters or Google wanted me to work for them. The second was how much I wanted to see others use Computer Science and Computational Thinking in their classroom.<br />
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I blogged often about <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/computational-thinking.html">Computational Thinking</a> but I still wanted to reach a wider audience, plus it is difficult to create high quality lessons when you have a class everyday. Since working at Google I've been able to accomplish both of those things (in my humble opinion). The <a href="http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/index.html">Exploring Computational Thinking</a> reaches many educators each month who are starting to implement the lessons but more importantly the philosophy and tools into their classes. I've also had the privilege of working on many other awesome projects impacting education.<br />
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I'm happy to pay it forward and let you know about another awesome opportunity for educators, take a look at the <a href="https://www.google.com/about/jobs/search/#!t=jo&jid=1241001&">job posting</a> and see if it would work for you. You will have amazing managers, an exciting mission, and you will have freedom to create and innovate. Sounds awesome? You have no idea....Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-23387790042529801242013-04-07T07:04:00.000-07:002013-04-12T14:52:37.381-07:00How I Used Google Drive to Create and Host My Web App and Hello OppiaHas this ever happened to you? Back when my students and I were exploring Computational Thinking and developing using Python, and Processing. We ran into a big stumbling block, which was saving, sharing, and hosting our files.<br />
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Even though I had a very supportive IT manager, it was still difficult to have students develop anything substantial. Our students accessed all of their school files on a networked drive which was tricky and slow to access from home, students were not able to create or send zip files, and sharing their work publicly was difficult for numerous reasons. Have you experienced something similar?<br />
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For a project in my <a href="http://edtec.sdsu.edu/index.htm">Masters program</a> we were asked to develop a learning environment. After brainstorming for a little bit, I decided to create a environment where people could determine how well they could recognize the sound of a note and perhaps improve their ability to identify a pitch.<br />
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I realized this was an opportunity for me to <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/sdsu-edtech.html#dangerouslyovercommit">dangerously overcommit</a> and accomplish four additional tasks within this project:<br />
<ul>
<li>Improve my knowledge of web development by creating the environment using HTML and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics like those created in <a href="http://inkscape.org/">Inkscape</a> or Illustrator)</li>
<li>Write higher quality code than I have in the past (<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/10/android-education-science-physicsgizmo.html">Physics Gizmo</a> refactoring is at the top of my list when I graduate)</li>
<li>Develop and deploy 100% in the cloud</li>
<li>Support my colleague's 20% project Oppia (more on that later)</li>
</ul>
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<h2>
Leaving Behind Bad Programming Habits</h2>
I am not a professional programmer and I did not study Computer Science at college, so I've picked up some habits that make it difficult to have code that is easy to update and maintain. I recently read <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Complete">Code Complete</a> which taught me a lot about how to improve how I design and write code. I realize it is a tome, but I would highly recommend it and you can skip to the parts you want or need. I'm learning a lot from my previous creations and like any art, it takes a <a href="http://norvig.com/21-days.html">lot of practice</a> to become good at programming.<br />
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I have been reading up on some of the new fun features HTML5 provides, but based on some advice from my colleague <a href="http://neil.fraser.name/">Neil</a>, I decided to use SVG rather than the canvas. This turned out to be excellent advice and it was fascinating to learn how one can programmatically create graphics. Creating <a href="http://neoparaiso.com/logo/ejercicios-de-geometria.html">shapes using Python Turtle</a> is one of my favorite activities for students to learn how to think computationally and creating your own SVGs is a great next step. In my experience, students love creating their own works of art and will endlessly play with it until they get it just right, then they'll tweak it to see what happens.<br />
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<h2>
Developing in the Cloud</h2>
Why was it so important for me to be able to develop my application using only web-based tools? Well there's the reasons I mentioned above, where my students and I found it difficult to develop, save, and host code (let alone collaborate) from their school laptops. Plus, I have become so spoiled that I like the ability to have all of my files automatically backed up and accessible from any device.<br />
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When I started looking into options for ways to develop software online, there were some high quality paid services but these were more than I needed, were cost prohibitive for a classroom, and sometimes required you to use a command line / terminal which was not an option for students at school. On the other end of the spectrum there are many great websites that allow you to code in the browser, but often lack the ability to save your work, Sage and IPython notebooks are two excellent exceptions that would be great additions to your classrooms.<br />
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Recently it was announced that you could <a href="https://googledrive.com/host/0B716ywBKT84AMXBENXlnYmJISlE/GoogleDriveHosting.html">host a website from Google Drive</a>. I added <a href="https://neutron-drive.appspot.com/">Neutron Drive</a> and <a href="https://shiftedit.net/">ShiftEdit</a> from the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore" target="_blank">Chrome Web Store</a> and enjoyed using them both. They have many awesome feautres like syntax highlighting, <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Lint_(software)">lint testing</a>, and collaborative editing and are each adding new ones all the time. Best of all I was able to write 100% of my code within Google Drive which meant my work was always backed up and I could keep working on it anywhere.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkA4DYjHwfc/UWD5ormtHLI/AAAAAAAAuag/wsnFsWAeB7M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-06+at+9.42.02+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkA4DYjHwfc/UWD5ormtHLI/AAAAAAAAuag/wsnFsWAeB7M/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-06+at+9.42.02+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I highly recommend using this process for students to easily create, save, share, and host their work. I would love to see students collaborating on code much like they do with Google Docs for writing. If your school has <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/edu/">Google Apps for Education</a>, your IT manager can deploy these apps to your students right away.<br />
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On the right is a screenshot of the app I created for my class, click <a href="https://googledrive.com/host/0BybP3F7DhXrUQTlrYkp2cUNpblU/" target="_blank">here to try it out</a>. I plan to continue to develop this after I graduate. I'm also sharing the <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BybP3F7DhXrUQTlrYkp2cUNpblU&usp=sharing">Oppia Opera code</a> if you would like to play with it yourself.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">Oppia</span></h2>
My colleague Sean, who works on the <a href="https://code.google.com/p/course-builder/">Course Builder</a> project, spends his 20% time working with others on a project called <a href="https://oppiaserver.appspot.com/">Oppia</a> that allows you to create branching explorations.<br />
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Think of it like a choose your own adventure tool, but the learner can explore any topic you set up. When I first met Sean almost a year ago, he demonstrated the idea that would later become Oppia using an <a href="https://oppiaserver.appspot.com/learn/2">exploration in combinatorics using three balls</a>. Since then, the team has added more features so you can explore language, music, and more.<br />
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When I was developing the music app for my class, I asked Sean if it would be possible to integrate content from another site into an Oppia exploration. I had the <a href="http://phet.colorado.edu/">PhET</a> tools in mind when I proposed this to Sean and I'm glad to see they were able to pull it off as it opens up many of the simulations and tools that we use and love to have added functionality so students can have a guided exploration through a topic.<br />
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Here's a screenshot of a sample exploration where Oppia provides feedback to help you find a landmark:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u4rBJ860H0k/UWD99jVqUJI/AAAAAAAAuaw/qwiNmB5VXU4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-06+at+10.02.10+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u4rBJ860H0k/UWD99jVqUJI/AAAAAAAAuaw/qwiNmB5VXU4/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-04-06+at+10.02.10+PM.png" width="398" /></a></div>
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The team has worked hard over the last few months to make it relatively easy to create and modify an exploration so try it out and send the team your feedback and ideas. <a href="https://code.google.com/p/oppia/">Oppia is open source</a> so you can run your own instance or modify it to meet your needs. It will be interesting to see Oppia evolve over time and I am excited to see how we can interact with content online so it is more interactive and feels more like a conversation.</div>
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Lots of updates in this post, I appreciate you reading to the end. I've wanted to share these updates with you for a long time but my Master's program is consuming every minute I have these days. I expect to graduate in May at which point I can continue to explore, develop, and share many other projects I am working on. </div>
<br />Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-58889695764525344852012-12-26T23:01:00.001-08:002012-12-26T23:01:34.321-08:00This Year, Rediscover Your Ability to Learn AnythingAs I was reading an <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Dont-Confuse-Technology-With/133551/">article</a> critical of MOOCs and online learning (there seem to be no shortage as everyone likes a good <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man">straw man</a>), I was annoyed by a certain statement made about halfway into the article.<br />
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<em>"Every age has its autodidacts, gifted people able to teach themselves with only their books. Woe unto us if we require all citizens to manifest that ability."</em><br />
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Learning is our natural state of being. We can't help but learn new things. I don't want citizens to manifest the ability to <i>"teach themselves"</i> I want them to rediscover that with resources and support, one can <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/11/how-to-learn-anything-lessons-in.html">learn anything</a>.<br />
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If you are letting someone else set the curriculum and pace for your learning you will inevitably be disappointed. I have enjoyed my formal schooling thus far and have benefited from great educators but I considered them a supplement to <strong>my</strong> learning not the other way around. I've have always kept a stack of books at my desk since I learned to read. When the Internet emerged, I found both resources and community that addressed my questions that books and the classroom could not answer.<br />
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When I was a child, if I wanted to learn about a topic there were two options: learn about it in school, or buy the book. Now I have books, school, videos, forums/conferences, web pages, virtual simulations, online classes, and more. Almost all of these can be found via the Internet from a computer that fits in my pocket.<br />
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In this new world, enriched with technology, Educators are not obsolete, they are more useful than ever before. We no longer need to be disseminators of information, and this should be welcome news. For how could we ever hope to keep up with the rapid increase in information. We must be mentors, and as my colleague <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/117352546500654253244" target="_blank">+James Sanders</a> puts it, curators of quality resources. The author seems to agree with this when she says that education at it's core is, "<i>one mind engaging with another, in real time: listening, understanding, correcting, modeling, suggesting, prodding, denying, affirming, and critiquing thoughts and their expression."</i><br />
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There has never been a better time to learn. Resources and communities are plentiful. Never stop learning.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-14657942193765881162012-09-06T09:15:00.000-07:002012-09-06T09:15:46.311-07:00What programming language should I use/learn?<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh39w9QyyPw/UEjGmd9wmOI/AAAAAAAAi54/Z9M7IHxaiLU/s1600/logoscombined.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fh39w9QyyPw/UEjGmd9wmOI/AAAAAAAAi54/Z9M7IHxaiLU/s200/logoscombined.png" width="200" /></a>I get asked often, "Which programming language should I start with?" or "I teach _______ which language would be the best for my classroom?" My goal is not to promote one language but show you the benefits of each of the more popular choices out there and let you make your own decision. There really is no one "best" language, just the best language for what you are interested in doing.<br />
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As always I promote technology that:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Enhances or encourages learning. Programming is one great way to implement <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/computational-thinking.html" target="_blank">Computational Thinking</a> into your class.</li>
<li>The software is free and open source.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<i>Disclaimer: These are intended to be a summary. They are presented in no particular order.</i><br />
<br />
<h2>
<a href="http://www.python.org/" target="_blank">Python</a></h2>
<div>
<b>Free?</b> FOSS (Free as in zero cost and open source)</div>
<div>
<b>Requires an installation?</b> Yes but there are web based options like <a href="http://sagenb.org/" target="_blank">sage math notebook</a>. Python comes preinstalled on Mac and Linux.</div>
<div>
<b>Strengths:</b> </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The syntax is very high level so you and your students can take your ideas and very quickly turn them into code. </li>
<li>Python is interpreted so as soon as you press enter or run the code you can see the results. </li>
<li>It has a large number of modules and support for graphics (e.g. <a href="http://www.vpython.org/" target="_blank">VPython</a>), <a href="http://code.google.com/p/python-physutil/" target="_blank">physics</a>, math, language parsing and more.</li>
<li>Great for prototyping, web, data mining/processing, and almost anything!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Recommended Tutorials:</b></div>
<div>
<a href="http://interactivepython.org/courselib/static/thinkcspy/index.html" target="_blank">Think Like a Computer Scientist</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://codingbat.com/" target="_blank">Codingbat</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/pgbovine/python/" target="_blank">Online Python Tutor</a></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<h2>
<b>Javascript</b></h2>
<b>Free? </b>FOSS<br />
<b>Requires an installation? </b>No<br />
<div>
<b>Strengths:</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Coupled with HTML5 and CSS allows you to add a lot of power and interactivity to your web pages and applications.</li>
<li>Gives you to access web <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface" target="_blank">APIs</a> (<a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory" target="_blank">directory of available APIs</a>) and use other services.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>FYI: </b>Javascript fails silently (meaning if there is a bug, it just won't work the way you intended, there won't be an error message) so use lots of debugging techniques and logs to debug. This is far easier than it may sound and is useful to learn regardless of what language you are using.</div>
</div>
<div>
<b>Recommended Tutorial:</b></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/js/" target="_blank">W3 School Tutorial</a></div>
<div>
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<br /></div>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.processing.org/" target="_blank">Processing</a></h2>
<div>
<b>Free?</b> FOSS</div>
<div>
<b>Requires an installation?</b> Yes</div>
<div>
<b>Strengths:</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Designed to be very easy to make something visual, beautiful and/or interactive.</li>
<li>With both Processing and Arduino, it provides an introduction to C++ that is less intimidating.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Recommended Tutorials:</b></div>
<div>
<a href="http://processing.org/learning/" target="_blank">Official Processing Tutorials</a></div>
<div>
Examples in the Processing software (Select <i>File</i> and then <i>Examples</i>)</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.learningprocessing.com/" target="_blank">Learning Processing</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.arduino.cc/" target="_blank">Arduino</a></h2>
<div>
<b>Free?</b> </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Hardware:</b> No but Open Source (<a href="http://www.sparkfun.com/" target="_blank">Sparkfun</a>, <a href="http://www.adafruit.com/" target="_blank">Adafruit</a>, and Radio Shack are trusted suppliers)</li>
<li><b>Software:</b> FOSS</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Requires an installation?</b> Yes</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<b>Strengths:</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Works with off the shelf parts (e.g. motors, LEDs) to cheaply and easily build projects that sense, move, light up, etc.</li>
<li>Many "shields" are available to easily add functionality like Bluetooth, Wifi, audio, etc.</li>
<li>Hardware is relatively inexpensive (~$20-30)</li>
<li>Interfaces easily with Processing to add interactivity and data visualization.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Recommended Tutorials:</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<b> </b><a href="http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage" target="_blank">Official Arduino Tutorials</a></div>
<div>
Examples in the Arduino software (Select <i>File</i> and then <i>Examples</i>)</div>
<div>
<a href="http://learn.sparkfun.com/" target="_blank">Sparkfun Education</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html" target="_blank">Subscribe and follow Phil</a> for more on education and technology.</div>
Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-25154606304446580132012-08-09T12:27:00.000-07:002015-03-21T19:51:59.173-07:00Physics Gizmo is Open SourceI've put the source to Physics Gizmo on <a href="https://github.com/brokenairplane/physics-gizmo">GitHub</a>. If you are interested in helping me develop a tool for students to collect and analyze scientific data in an affordable way I encourage you to join the project.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YX9YUyobh6A/UCLwlf8XKkI/AAAAAAAAh5U/7EJp3fQtsfY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-08-08+at+4.04.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YX9YUyobh6A/UCLwlf8XKkI/AAAAAAAAh5U/7EJp3fQtsfY/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-08-08+at+4.04.28+PM.png" height="59" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://github.com/brokenairplane/physics-gizmo">Physics Gizmo on GitHub</a><br />
<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/physics-gizmo-discuss">Discussion Group Forum</a><br />
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<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brokenairplane.physicsGizmo">Physics Gizmo on Google Play</a><br />
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More information on Physics Gizmo can be found at the <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/10/android-education-science-physicsgizmo.html">original Physics Gizmo post</a> on BrokenAirplane.<br />
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Subscribe and Connect</a> to see how educators are innovating.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-58297611341684766472012-08-06T17:18:00.001-07:002012-08-08T16:33:00.597-07:00#CompThinkChat on Twitter - Join the discussionComputational Thinking is showing up in discussions and talks everywhere I look. The <a href="http://www.nextgenscience.org/" target="_blank">Next Generation Science Standards</a> reference them and the skills are implied in the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/" target="_blank">Common Core</a>.<br />
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A few days ago, I saw this tweet from <a href="https://twitter.com/kevin_krenz" target="_blank">@Kevin_Krenz</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bg_x5rCUvcQ/UCBZbV-0kUI/AAAAAAAAh1o/cXQb5cTeTIA/s1600/Kevin_Krenz+CompThinkChat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="46" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bg_x5rCUvcQ/UCBZbV-0kUI/AAAAAAAAh1o/cXQb5cTeTIA/s400/Kevin_Krenz+CompThinkChat.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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and knew that this would be a perfect way to bring the community together to discuss and share experiences with Computational Thinking. Kevin put this <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnFdfmCzzSWovhWQ8SVbUbDEQULSF9Ib3WSgwzBNweM/edit" target="_blank">planning document</a> together and #CompThinkChat was born.<br />
<br />
The first chat is Wednesday Aug 8th at 7pm CST (5pm PST/8pm EST) and continuing every other week. This may not be the best time for everyone who wants to be involved so add your suggested times to the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnFdfmCzzSWovhWQ8SVbUbDEQULSF9Ib3WSgwzBNweM/edit" target="_blank">planning doc</a> and let's see what works out in the long run.<br />
<br />
If this is your first Twitter chat, here's the steps to get started:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Sign up for <a href="https://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</li>
<li>Sign in during the scheduled chat time.</li>
<li>If you are using the Twitter homepage search for #CompThinkChat in the upper right corner. This filters out all tweets except those relevant to the chat.</li>
<li>Chat! Share your thoughts, questions, link, etc. <b>Note:</b> Make sure you add #CompThinkChat to your Tweets so everyone else can see them.</li>
</ol>
<div>
There are many ways to access Twitter, especially on your mobile device. I personally use <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/encaiiljifbdbjlphpgpiimidegddhic" target="_blank">Silver Bird</a> for <a href="http://chrome.google.com/" target="_blank">Chrome</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seesmic#" target="_blank">Seesmic on Android</a> but do a search and try a few out to see what works best for you.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
If you miss out on a chat, they will be archived in the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/general-ect-forum">Exploring Computational Thinking General Forum</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's the <a href="http://goo.gl/63YpC" target="_blank">document of Computational Thinking Resources</a> I share in my presentations about Computational Thinking. All are invited to join the chat whether you have been using Computational Thinking since <a href="http://www.papert.org/articles/AnExplorationintheSpaceofMathematicsEducations.html" target="_blank">Papert</a>, <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/publications/Wing06.pdf" target="_blank">Wing</a>, or if this is the first time you have heard about it. It'll be exciting to hear the community's thoughts on the implications and possibilities and I hope you will join us!<br />
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</div>
</div>Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-83299090678469145302012-07-16T07:30:00.000-07:002012-07-16T09:40:14.953-07:00How many Aces do you need to win at War?Python is a fantastic language for answering life's questions. It's amazing how such a powerful and popular syntax could be so great for prototyping and trying things out. So one day, I was teaching my three year old, the <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/War_(card_game)">card game War</a><br />
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<br /></div>
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<b>Rules (the version I learned as a kid):</b><br />
1. Give each player half of a deck of cards face down.<br />
2. Each player turns over a card.<br />
- The player with the larger card adds both cards to the bottom of their pile<br />
3. If the cards are the same, then it is War!<br />
- Each player adds three face down cards.<br />
4. Repeat steps 2-3 as needed.<br />
</div>
<div>
It's a great way to practice numeracy and comparing values while being simple enough to learn in a minute. He loved getting Aces and was sad when he started to lose (I have no control over this son!). It got me thinking, what is the minimum numbers of Aces needed to have a statistical advantage?<br />
<br />
The trick for this code, was to make it optimized so it could run as many times as I wanted without using up too much memory or taking too long. Additionally, with a couple of data type changes, it became all the more important for me to brainstorm before what my program would look like. It is very tempting to jump right in but with a dynamically typed language like Python you will save a lot of headaches if you plan it out (for more resources on designing programs with your students I direct you to the <a href="http://www.bootstrapworld.org/" target="_blank">Bootstrap Math Curriculum/Program</a>).<br />
<br />
Change <code>num_games</code> to see how many Aces are needed to have a statistical advantage and increase <code>game_limit</code> if you want to enable a game to go on longer (memory warning: some go on for a long time!). I'm really interested to see what fun discoveries you can make from the data in wins_num_hands.<br />
<br />
So what question will you use technology to solve?</div>
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<div style="background: #f8f8f8; background: white; border-width: .1em .1em .1em .8em; border: solid gray; color: black; overflow: auto; padding: .2em .6em; width: auto;">
<pre style="line-height: 125%; margin: 0;"><span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">from</span> <span style="color: blue; font-weight: bold;">random</span> <span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">import</span> shuffle
wins_num_aces <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> [<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>,<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>,<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>,<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>,<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>] <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Each win, keep track of original number of aces</span>
wins_num_hands <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> []
card_values <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> {<span style="color: #ba2121;">'2'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">2</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'3'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">3</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'4'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">4</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'5'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">5</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'6'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">6</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">' 7'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">7</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'8'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">8</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'9'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">9</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'10'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">10</span>,
<span style="color: #ba2121;">'J'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">11</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Q'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">12</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'K'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">13</span>, <span style="color: #ba2121;">'A'</span>:<span style="color: #666666;">14</span>} <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Ace is highest value</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">def</span> <span style="color: blue;">createDeck</span>():
deck <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> []
the_card_values <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> card_values <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#local variable for faster processing</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">for</span> suit <span style="color: #aa22ff; font-weight: bold;">in</span> <span style="color: green;">range</span>(<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>, <span style="color: #666666;">4</span>): <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#iterate through the dictionary 4 times</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">for</span> card <span style="color: #aa22ff; font-weight: bold;">in</span> the_card_values:
deck<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>append(card)
shuffle(deck) <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#From the random module</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">return</span> deck
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">class</span> <span style="color: blue; font-weight: bold;">player</span>:
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">def</span> <span style="color: blue;">__init__</span>(<span style="color: green;">self</span>, halfDeck):
<span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>hand <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> halfDeck
<span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>num_aces <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>hand<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>count(<span style="color: #ba2121;">'A'</span>) <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Count aces in hand</span>
<span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>game_over <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: green;">False</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">def</span> <span style="color: blue;">nextCard</span>(<span style="color: green;">self</span>):
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">try</span>:
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">return</span> <span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>hand<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>pop() <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Returns next card if any left</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">except</span> <span style="color: #d2413a; font-weight: bold;">IndexError</span>:
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">if</span> <span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>game_over <span style="color: #666666;">==</span> <span style="color: green;">False</span>:
winning_num_aces <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">4</span> <span style="color: #666666;">-</span> <span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>num_aces
wins_num_aces[winning_num_aces] <span style="color: #666666;">+=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">1</span>
<span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>game_over <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: green;">True</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">return</span> <span style="color: green;">None</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">def</span> <span style="color: blue;">addCards</span>(<span style="color: green;">self</span>, current_hand): <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Add the cards to the bottom of your hand</span>
<span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>hand <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> current_hand <span style="color: #666666;">+</span> <span style="color: green;">self</span><span style="color: #666666;">.</span>hand
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">def</span> <span style="color: blue;">warGame</span>():
deck <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> createDeck()
game_limit <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">10000</span>
p1 <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> player(deck[:<span style="color: #666666;">26</span>]) <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#split deck in half</span>
p2 <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> player(deck[<span style="color: #666666;">-26</span>:])
current_hand <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> []
the_card_values <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> card_values
times <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">0</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">while</span> <span style="color: green;">True</span>:
times <span style="color: #666666;">+=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">1</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">if</span> times <span style="color: #666666;"><</span> game_limit: <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#restart game if going on too long</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">try</span>: <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Fails if there are no more cards left</span>
current_hand<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>extend([p1<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>nextCard(), p2<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>nextCard()])
p1_card <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> the_card_values[current_hand[<span style="color: #666666;">-2</span>]] <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#2nd to last</span>
p2_card <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> the_card_values[current_hand[<span style="color: #666666;">-1</span>]] <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Last card</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">if</span> p1_card <span style="color: #666666;">==</span> p2_card:
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">for</span> i <span style="color: #aa22ff; font-weight: bold;">in</span> <span style="color: green;">range</span>(<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>,<span style="color: #666666;">3</span>):
current_hand<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>extend([p1<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>nextCard(),p2<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>nextCard()])
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">elif</span> p1_card <span style="color: #666666;">></span> p2_card:
p1<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>addCards(current_hand)
current_hand <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> []
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">elif</span> p1_card <span style="color: #666666;"><</span> p2_card:
p2<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>addCards(current_hand)
current_hand <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> []
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">except</span> <span style="color: #d2413a; font-weight: bold;">KeyError</span>: <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#If a player runs out of cards (None)</span>
wins_num_hands<span style="color: #666666;">.</span>append(times) <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Keeping track of data</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">break</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">return</span> <span style="color: green;">False</span> <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Game is over</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">else</span>:
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">break</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">return</span> <span style="color: green;">True</span> <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Too long a game, restart</span>
numGames <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">100</span> <span style="color: #408080; font-style: italic;">#Number of games to play</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">while</span> numGames <span style="color: #666666;">></span> <span style="color: #666666;">0</span>:
current_game <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> <span style="color: green;">True</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">while</span> (current_game <span style="color: #666666;">==</span> <span style="color: green;">True</span>):
current_game <span style="color: #666666;">=</span> warGame()
numGames <span style="color: #666666;">-=</span> <span style="color: #666666;">1</span>
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Wins with 0 Aces:'</span>,wins_num_aces[<span style="color: #666666;">0</span>]
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Wins with 1 Ace: '</span>,wins_num_aces[<span style="color: #666666;">1</span>]
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Wins with 2 Aces:'</span>,wins_num_aces[<span style="color: #666666;">2</span>]
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Wins with 3 Aces:'</span>,wins_num_aces[<span style="color: #666666;">3</span>]
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Wins with 4 Aces:'</span>,wins_num_aces[<span style="color: #666666;">4</span>]
<span style="color: green; font-weight: bold;">print</span> <span style="color: #ba2121;">'Number of hands:'</span>, wins_num_hands
</pre>
</div>Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-61859879166510569412012-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:002012-06-22T13:54:16.260-07:00Solving Problems at Google Using Computational Thinking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SVVB5RQfYxk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Find curriculum aligned lessons, examples, and resources at www.google.com/edu/ect.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-6433289062116013542012-06-15T17:31:00.005-07:002012-06-15T17:33:19.391-07:00Hello World Part DeuxIt's been a couple of years since I started BrokenAirplane so I thought I would use the opportunity of this <a href="http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/research-education-bloggers/">EdTech Blogger survey study</a> to reintroduce myself and the blog.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Blog URL: </b><br />
www.brokenairplane.com<br />
<br />
<b>What do you blog about?</b><br />
Tutorials, resources, tips, and innovation in education. Technology is often involved but I try to let great pedagogy be the motivation to blog not shiny new gadgets.<br />
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<b>Are you paid to blog?</b><br />
No<br />
<br />
<b>What do you do professionally (other than blog)?</b><br />
I was a math, science, and robotics teacher and now I work at Google as an Instructional Designer as well as get the word out about <a href="http://www.google.com/edu/ect">Computational Thinking</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>How long have you been blogging at this site?</b><br />
Almost exactly 3 years.<br />
<br />
<b>Do you write in other platforms? (e.g. in a print magazine?)</b><br />
I do not but I have been interviewed for articles and publications.<br />
<br />
<b>Can you remember why you started blogging?</b><br />
I was sharing links to <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/software-recommendations_4986.html">resources</a> and teaching classes on using technology effectively in the classroom. I figured that others might want these resources as well and I wouldn't have to repeat myself.<br />
<br />
<b>What keeps you blogging?</b><br />
Education resources and programs exist for students and educators that are truly empowering and incredible. The problem is that it is hard to get the word out so I hope to be another voice promoting great pedagogy. It has also helped me become better at articulating my thoughts.<br />
<br />
<b>Do you have any idea of the size or character if your audience? How?</b><br />
Yes, I gather metrics from social and page analytics. My readership is approximately 10,000/month. The primary readership is educators from the US but there is also a sizable international audience. Some come to the blog for resources others are looking for ideas on ways they can implement <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/10/new-google-computational-thinking.html">computational thinking</a> in their classroom.<br />
<br />
<b>What’s your attitude to/ relationship with people who comment on your blog?</b><br />
I love comments especially when they aren't spam :) If there is a question I respond/fix it as quickly as I can because I want to help anyone who asks.<br />
<br />
<b>Do you feel as if you fit into any particular community, network or genre of blogging? (e.g. schools, science, education, museums, technology)</b><br />
I'm sure I most closely identify with math, science, engineering, computer science teachers since I speak on that topic a lot but I often speak about education revolution which is applicable to anyone who is passionate about the future of learning.<br />
<br />
<b>If so, what does that community give you?</b><br />
Resources, ideas, it's all about connecting the community together.<br />
<br />
<b>What do you think are the advantages of blogging? What are its disadvantages/ limitations?</b><br />
Blogging allows anyone to have a voice and share resources and best practices. It takes time to do it well and get the word out. I often fight against the urge to blog just to blog. I wait until I am dying to say something and then it becomes a labor of love. I hope that 97% of my posts are something that I would be proud of 5 years from now.<br />
<br />
<b>Do you tell people you know offline that you’re a blogger? (e.g. your grandmother, your boss)</b><br />
I don't consider myself a "blogger" because I do many things and blogging is just one way I express my ideas. I do tell people that I blog and point them to it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Hope this was helpful to anyone who is visting and I am glad you are here. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to support you and feel free to <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">subscribe and connect</a> to keep up to date as I often post on Google+.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-6771877666506651512012-05-16T22:14:00.004-07:002012-05-16T22:17:21.232-07:00Physics Gizmo is updated to version 2.2<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brokenairplane.physicsGizmo">Physics Gizmo</a> is updated to version 2.2 for phones running Gingerbread, Honeycomb, or Ice Cream Sandwich.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEcSJqegc3M/T7SHWuYeILI/AAAAAAAALpg/HWfn7BLu5Xc/s1600/device-2012-05-16-115941.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEcSJqegc3M/T7SHWuYeILI/AAAAAAAALpg/HWfn7BLu5Xc/s200/device-2012-05-16-115941.png" width="120" /></a>If you are running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version 4.0), this update brings with it a visual refresh in alignment with the new look and feel.<br />
<br />
For everyone else, Physics Gizmo will no longer close if you choose not to turn on Bluetooth. This is a bug I have wanted to resolve for a while, and I appreciate your patience.<br />
<br />
Bluetooth is necessary to connect two phones as a photogate (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJFhPAkLJgk&list=UU7Qn_0Ejec3tDarmLzJaCVw">video</a>), but if you don't turn on Bluetooth the other sensors work just fine.<br />
<br />
Thanks to everyone who uses and tells others about Physics Gizmo. Please let me know your comments, feedback, and requests and I would appreciate it if you leave positive feedback/rating in <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brokenairplane.physicsGizmo">Google Play</a>.<br />
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See the <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/10/android-education-science-physicsgizmo.html">original Physics Gizmo post</a> for more background and information about the app.</div>
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Subscribe to <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Brokenairplane</a> to see how Education is shifting and educators are innovating!</div>Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-81785390910335927382012-05-09T08:57:00.004-07:002012-05-09T09:04:05.323-07:00Education On Air Robotics SessionWe had a blast presenting at the inaugural <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/home">Google Education on Air Conference</a>. There were so many great sessions I found it difficult to leave one to check out another.<br />
<br />
The session I hosted was entitled, Building Tomorrow's Innovators and Leaders with Robotics and it was great to see so many students, teachers, administrators, and parents turn up to learn or share their experiences on how robotics has impacted their lives.<br />
<br />
Watch the session at the <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/conference-sessions/classroom-examples-of-the-power-of-google">conference page</a> or below, you can check out all of the Education on Air sessions at the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/eduatgoogle/featured">Google in Education YouTube page</a>.<br />
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The best part is Hangouts On Air, the ability to record your hangout and invite an unlimited number of people to watch is now <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/google-hangouts-on-air-broadcast-your.html">available for anyone</a> so now you can host your very own conference (or un-conference) without needing to leave your home.</div>
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If you are interested in starting a robotics team or finding out more, you can check out the <a href="https://plus.google.com/110891307255905847602/posts/NHn1B9ug7KF">comments from the conference</a> but I have pasted many of them below.</div>
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<b>Teams represented in the hangout</b></div>
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<a href="http://bhrobotics.com/">MorTorq</a> - Team 1515, Mentor: Eileen Kahn</div>
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<a href="http://www.team1538.com/">The Holy Cows</a> - Team 1538, Mentor: David Berggren</div>
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<a href="http://www.robokong2493.com/">Robokong</a> - Team 2493, Mentor: Richard Sisk</div>
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<b>Team Resources</b></div>
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<a href="http://informationbots.com/">http://informationbots.com/</a> - A great place to get started</div>
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<a href="http://www.chiefdelphi.com/">http://www.chiefdelphi.com/</a></div>
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<b>Robotics Competitions</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.usfirst.org/">FIRST</a> - First Lego League, First Tech Challenge, First Robotics Competition</div>
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<a href="http://www.vexrobotics.com/">VEX Robotics</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.botball.org/">Botball</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bestinc.org/">BEST Robotics</a></div>
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<b>Videos to Share</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.ktla.com/technology/ktla-high-schoolers-build-basketball-playing-robots-20120323,0,5677281.story">KTLA news story</a></div>
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<a href="http://bcove.me/rmqiy1fr">Beach Bots on Newton Field</a> - 47 sec</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxhKKvkv2u4&feature=youtu.be">FLL Games</a> - 19 sec</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aGibQNZ8BQ&feature=youtu.be">FTC Games</a> - 53 sec</div>
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Subscribe to BrokenAirplane</a> to see how education is shifting and innovating.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-79723904880027880642012-04-10T15:30:00.000-07:002012-04-10T15:33:47.855-07:00Check out the online education conference via Google+ On Air HangoutThere are so many conferences happening throughout the year, it is hard to decide which one to go to. It would seem like there should be a way for us to use the power of the web to share our best practices and what works for students.<br />
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Now there is! On May 2nd from 12pm to 10pm EST, come check out over 40 sessions for teachers by teachers. It is 100% online and 100% free. Using Google+ Hangouts On Air, the educators will have a live video chat and it will accomodate as many people as we can get.<br />
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If you are unfamiliar with a Google+ On Air Hangout, it was used to have a conversation with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTj5qMGTAI">President Obama</a>. Others have included Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, the Black Eyed Peas, and many others using Google+. For more information you can follow <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/103266364845729488839/posts">Google in Education on Google+</a>.<br />
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The topics will include everything from digital literacy to assessment to blogging. I will be collaborating with David Berggren of the <a href="http://team1538.com/">Holy Cows</a> and Eileen Kahn of <a href="http://bhrobotics.com/">MorTorq</a> to share our experiences with robotics and how it has made a huge impact on our students and communities. Our session will be at 8pm EST/ 5pm PST. Be sure to check it out!<br />
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For more information check out the <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/">Education on Air website</a>.<br />
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<br />Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-22484203852695221292012-03-17T14:41:00.000-07:002012-03-17T14:43:22.283-07:00ClassConnect makes sharing resources and collaborating easyBy some estimates there are approximately 4 million teachers in the US. On any given night, weekend, holiday, teachers are thinking about what to do in their classrooms. Some are developing worksheets, others are designing projects, maybe they are searching around for something previously made. The problem is that millions of hours a week are wasted recreating these materials. Educators are professionals and they are also human beings. I believe we have better things to do with our work and personal time than start from scratch every day and with every new teacher.<br />
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Now many of us share resources already, whether it is with your colleagues at work or online but how easy is that and what happens over time? This process doesn't scale, it only helps some. There are repositories of lesson plans all over the web. But how do you separate the good from the...um not so good?<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L9BeGD0QA3M/T2QrWppeghI/AAAAAAAAJtI/9wIrv5gd1RA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-03-16+at+11.08.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="47" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L9BeGD0QA3M/T2QrWppeghI/AAAAAAAAJtI/9wIrv5gd1RA/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-03-16+at+11.08.59+PM.png" width="320" /></a><a href="http://www.classconnect.com/">ClassConnect</a> is driven by a passion to solve this problem. The developer behind this has put every resource he has into making this awesome, and it is awesome. My colleague <a href="http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/03/12/classconnect-github-for-class-lessons/">Audrey at Hack Education</a> has already done a great job of giving an overview and showing how ClassConnect is the Git Hub for Education (a code sharing platform for programmers). What I want to focus on is how easy it is to get started right away. Did I mention it's free!<br />
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We were each taught how to create lessons in our credential programs. We take pride in creating them and making them great. However, each time we create a new lesson we are running an experiment and the results of that experiment (good or not so good) cannot be refined and reapplied for an entire year until you use that lesson/project again. What makes matters worse, is we are independently running that experiment thousands of times each year! The boon of the web is to allow researchers to share their findings and to <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/10/crowdsourcing-definition-education.html">crowd source</a> experiments to solve problems more quickly. There is no reason why we can't do the same, in fact we must.<br />
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ClassConnect makes it easy for you to find and vote up the best stuff so it rises to the top. You can also search by topic, subject, standard, file type, and even type of lesson.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RcJdGITL1Oo/T2QrQA-jvuI/AAAAAAAAJtA/ET8376Ax0H8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-03-16+at+11.09.32+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RcJdGITL1Oo/T2QrQA-jvuI/AAAAAAAAJtA/ET8376Ax0H8/s400/Screen+Shot+2012-03-16+at+11.09.32+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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However, this platform is only as good as the resources we share. For every colleague you add, you get additional storage for your files. But get this, for every file you share publicly, it doesn't count against your quota! A great way to store your files in the cloud and an even better incentive to share. I shared this resource on <a href="https://plus.google.com/110891307255905847602/posts/SvfWMssj3fp">Google+</a> and within a day I had more storage than my Dropbox. Plus I was now able to <a href="http://www.classconnect.com/brokenairplane/shared">share it with you</a> and have you benefit as well! You can even add a class online so you can share the entire curriculum or resources (I used it with my robotics team to maintain shared resources).<br />
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You can add anything: a link to your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp_oyHY5bug&feature=related">favorite YouTube video</a>, a file, Google Doc, or an entire folder. Click the share button to the right of the file and check the box that says Public, you just saved another educator valuable time!<br />
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Don't forget to add tags and a description to make sure we can easily find it.<br />
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Now you have access to some of the best projects and assignments I have found or made over time. Some of it was mentioned on this blog, but having it all in one place and searchable makes it much more convenient. Did I mention that you can claim a url? <a href="http://www.classconnect.com/brokenairplane/shared">http://www.classconnect.com/brokenairplane/shared</a>, head on over and claim yours to easily share. I'll add more as time goes on them, but the important thing is to share the best so over time we can refine and remix it for our own needs and continue to iterate.</div>
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By doing this, over time we can develop a large community developed collection of best resources. Imagine back to when you started teaching, wouldn't it have been wonderful to be able to use others resources (perhaps you were lucky enough to have a great mentor) and focus on your pedagogy and finding your feet? Then as time goes on you make the curriculum your own, refine and share like others shared with you. I would imagine we could crowdsource a lot of our resources and have great lessons, projects, puzzles/problems, etc. ClassConnect is inspiring a movement called <a href="http://classconnect.com/about/UnitedWeTeach">United We Teach</a>, I've joined the movement to help my fellow educators and our students, will you?</div>
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Stay connected with BrokenAirplane.</a>Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-77778945475052622792012-02-03T08:35:00.000-08:002012-02-07T13:19:15.799-08:00Getting rid of old "new" pedagogyDid you know that our way of schooling is only a 100 - 1000 years old? That may seem like a lot but it is less than 1% of human history. We transmitted culture and knowledge for thousands of years before the first school opened its doors. What do you think about that? Should we be nostalgic and go back to the "old ways"? Impossible, none of us were there to see it and too many generations have passed for us to even know what that would look like.<br />
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But, if our pedagogy cannot keep up with technology then we miss out on enormous opportunities for learning. Not because technology drives pedagogy but because technology provides new ways of accessing learning. We have experienced rapid growth and change in our society. In evolutionary terms this signals the beginning of change. However, the transition should not be mistaken for the new form it is just temporary. All of our debates and frustration with how tools are or are not being used is just that, a shifting era in the way in which we learn.<br />
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Although one could not predict what the change will be into, it is possible to see what pressures are driving this change. Examining this will help us pool our resources and focus our energies on what could be lasting.<br />
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<b>Curriculum</b> - The <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">Common Core Standards</a> in the US are slowly being adopted by states as the framework for what students should learn. Much like a cell phone purchased in January, it is obsolete by February. Not to specifically target the CCS but knowledge is growing so rapidly in depth and breadth, our strength will be in the diversity of our experts not the uniformity of our mastery.<br />
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<b>Assessment</b> - Of course one should know how to do what they are expected to be doing, and it should be possible to provide assurance that they are qualified to do so. But what are we doing to ensure they are capable of working with others? I'm not saying play nice and communicate effectively, but if a doctor and an engineer are capable of collaborating, something great will come from that. We need to move away from a liberal education which is a mile wide and an inch deep into a highly interdisciplinary one where divisions of knowledge become blurred.<br />
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We also need to move away from the idea that I am the master and I will always be the master. It should be implied in your studying with me that you will learn what I have to teach but discover and innovate beyond what I understood. If the student never exceeds the master then we have a negative feedback loop and innovation is stiffled. At the same time, one should not consider themselves an educator if their learning stopped when they left the University with a piece of paper in their hand.<br />
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<b>The New Economy</b> - Up until recently, the bulk of our workforce was skill based. If you knew how to do something then you were paid to do it and you could do that skill for the rest of your life. Technology made it possible for industries to change or become obsolete. Suddenly an entire generation was unable to do the thing their family had done for generations and simultaneously industries popped up that had never existed before.<br />
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Knowledge became the new currency and people went back to school to be retrained, students were told an education was critical and the more you had the better. It was about what you knew and how much of it. But with everyone entering the universities, there was no hope of employment for everyone. The bar was raised to make an undergraduate degree the new standard and now more and more employers are pushing towards a graduate degree as the new cutoff. Sometimes employers are not even looking for someone with a degree in a particular field. It doesn't matter, in our system, the more knowledge you have the better worker you must be.<br />
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Whether this is a result of the transition mentioned above or the emergence of the new form, we are seeing the synthesis of knowledge and skill. It is not enough to know anymore you must be able to do. If you have your ear to the ground you will see lots of new institutions of learning. Some of them are online and some of them are grassroots organic but people are flocking to them to apply their knowledge and learn useful skills.<br />
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Now we must continue to learn out of necessity if we wish to stay relevant. There are more and more <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/08/free-online-learning-distance-resources.html">online learning resources</a> for us to continue our education for little or no cost. Yet this is not enough, it will be those who apply their knowledge who create the next big thing or find new ways to live. If we are not showing our students how to create and exclaiming when they do create, "How did you do that?!?" then we are not going beyond the pedagogy we inherited.<br />
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Update: Found Sal making these points in video form (uploaded on my birthday)!<br />
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Convergence is everywhere. <br />
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<br />Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-13107514123002948012012-01-13T06:57:00.000-08:002014-06-22T20:52:53.593-07:00Physics Gizmo 2.0 is in the Google Play StoreI have updated the <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2011/10/android-education-science-physicsgizmo.html">original post on Physics Gizmo</a> with the details regarding version 2.0.<br />
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There are 3 new ways to collect data and a refined user interface.<br />
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Here is the link to <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brokenairplane.physicsGizmo">download it from Google Play</a>.<br />
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Please let me know on the original post if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions and if you like Physics Gizmo, please rate it in the market. Thanks and I hope this enables you and your students to <b>DO</b> science like never before!Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-82944663768426847882012-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:002012-01-08T12:55:56.662-08:00FRC 2012 Game Rebound Rumble - The Year Minds ChangeIf you had a full night of sleep last night, you are not likely involved in the <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc">FIRST Robotics Competition</a>. This year's build season is underway with <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/2012-rebound-rumble">Rebound Rumble</a> and as always the game designers did a great job sparking innovation and <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/gracious-professionalism?id=36">coopertition</a>. Check out the video below for a quick overview of the game:<br />
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Robotics has a cult like following with teams staying up late into the night for weeks on end to create the best robot while learning skills and gaining knowledge usually withheld until university and beyond. Students have just a few short weeks to create robots capable moving across a field and accurately launching basketballs into a hoop, a feat overwhelming even without time, money, and engineering constraints.<br />
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For over 20 years, robotics has made a positive and powerful impact on students and the engineering community, but the wrong lesson to take from this is that we should have robotics teams in every school and require engineering for everyone. Sure, I would love to see a team in every school so the opportunity is open to people who want it, but top down standardization would kill the spirit and fun. Robotics' appeal comes from its grassroots underground and playful nature.<br />
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I claim 2012 to be the year "minds change" because I believe the momentum has
come to a head with all of the opportunities for students to learn and society's perception of their potential. Those who watched the <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/kickoff">kickoff event</a> saw engineers, CEOs, celebrities, presidents and more come out to support the students. What the world is realizing is, students are capable of doing anything with the right <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/11/how-to-learn-anything-lessons-in.html">resources and motivation</a>. Educators are determined to give their students <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144550920/physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool">more than a lecture</a> and a worksheet. Robots are a great example of this, but students are having an impact in every aspect of society.<br />
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Go to a robotics competition and be inspired and hooked. Mentor a robotics team or any program that fits your passions. There is nothing like an <a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/2010/08/after-school-programs-part-3.html">after school program</a> to change a student's life.<br />
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To all of the teams out there competiting: good luck, have fun, and remember the learning is the prize!<br />
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To the mentors: may your coffee cups be full, your pizza be plentiful, and your joy abundant!<br />
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To everyone else, go find a team and check out the amazing work being done at schools all over the world!<br />
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Subscribe to the BrokenAirplane blog</a> to keep up to date with all things awesome in education!Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-38910685599445428392011-12-07T12:04:00.001-08:002012-11-29T17:03:34.285-08:00YouTube for Schools Opens Resources Up to the ClassroomYou're sitting at home, planning a lesson when suddenly you come across the most incredible video to supplement what you are trying to convey. Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked in your school and this is not option. I have encountered this situation numerous times or when I am in the classroom working with students and a question comes up that would be perfectly illustrated with a video.<br />
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It's a shame that so much great content is blocked. The justification makes sense, students might get distracted and some of the content online might be inappropriate. Thankfully YouTube has developed a way that we can have the best of both worlds. With <a href="http://www.youtube.com/schools">YouTube for Schools</a>, it is now possible for schools to unblock and access the large amount of content on YouTubeEdu safely as potentially offensive related videos and comments are disabled.<br />
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I am so honored to have worked with the YouTube team on this project. I knew it would make a huge difference in student's opportunities to learn from all of the excellent quality out there.<br />
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One great feature of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/schools">YouTube for Schools</a> are the hundreds of teacher curated videos aleady aligned with the Common Core Standards for <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy">English Language Arts</a> and <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/Math">Mathematics</a>. For Science the <a href="http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4962">National Science Education Standards</a> were used and for History/Social Studies the videos were aligned to the <a href="http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf">California State Standards</a>. Now you can easily find videos to supplement whatever you are working on.<br />
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With all of the great content available on YouTube, you would think all of the best videos have already been uploaded right? Think again. Every one of you has a great video, lesson, experiment, project, story to share and now you can.<br />
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<b>Here is my favorite part:</b> schools can add their own videos to their personal unblocked playlists. If you would like to suggest your own playlist to add to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/schools">YouTube for Schools</a>, submit it to <a href="http://youtube.com/Teachers">YouTube.com/Teachers</a> where you can see all the playlists without a login.<br />
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With this new tool to support student learning, some examples of how you could use videos in the classroom are:<br />
1) Show a visual representation of a concept after a lesson.<br />
2) Record an important lecture or activity so students can review it later (especially if they were absent).<br />
3) Create a video for when you are absent to help the students and substitute know what to do.<br />
4) Flip your classroom.<br />
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The last one, is really exciting. Upload a video and ask students to watch it at home. Then when they come to class, your time is free to go deeper into the subject, do an experiment or project, and all of the other things you wished you could do if you had more time.<br />
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Don't stop there, use the tools on the web to support your students and have them support each other.<br />
<ul>
<li>With Google+ Hangouts, your students could form a study group and watch the video together to discuss.</li>
<li>Have students add comments to a Google Spreadsheet that can be reviewed the next day (<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibP3F7DhXrUdFVBQ2l1b3RxX21Yb2VCa3pheFRHcGc&hl=en_US#gid=0">example</a>), its really easy to make a column filled with times.</li>
<ul>
<li>Type 0:00:00 into <b>Cell A2</b> and 0:00:01 in <b>Cell A3 </b>(or 0:00:05 to skip by 5 seconds, etc).</li>
<li>Highlight both cells then grab-and-drag the blue box in the corner.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<li>Use <a href="http://www.google.com/moderator/">Google Moderator</a> to take questions <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/">just like the president</a>. </li>
<li>Another option is to use a Google Form and collect data that way.</li>
</ul>
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However you do it, now students have a way to give specific feedback at their leisure (not constrained to class schedule or intimidated by peer pressure). You can refine the video if it was confusing to a lot of students and explain it better the next day in class. This kind of feedback might be difficult to obtain in class but now you have a way to assess student's learning and understanding as often as you would like.<br />
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YouTube for Schools opens your classroom up to the resources of the world. Teachers are empowered to supplement their lessons as well as share the amazing things they do with everyone.<br />
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Original Link from YouTube Blog - <a href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/12/opening-up-world-of-educational-content.html">Opening Up a World of Educational Content with YouTube for Schools.</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Subscribe to the BrokenAirplane blog</a> to keep up to date with all things awesome in education!Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-67455129046650230832011-11-18T16:46:00.001-08:002012-01-08T13:10:03.717-08:00Keeping Plates Spinning is The Best Part of The JobA couple of years ago, someone asked me if Robotics could be done in a hybrid learning environment. Could we do a hands-on project with a combination of virtual meetings as well as physical meetings. At the time, I didn't have a great answer because I had no reason to explore the possibility. I was running my robotics team and focusing on doing everything possible to help the team do well.<br />
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That changed this year when I decided to take a year to go work for Google. My student robotics president looked at me with horror as I told her the news that I would not be there next year. Then after a minute of thought she said, "Oh wait, never mind we'll be fine." It was a fulfillment of something I tell my leadership team all of the time, "I will have done my job when you no longer need me."<br />
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This was the ultimate test, could they succeed without their teacher being there with them everyday? Let me start by defining success for my team. I know many mentors who's goal in life is for their robotics team to win, win, win! I want the best robot our team can possibly make but that is not my only focus as their mentor. My goal is to help them fulfill their goals and make their dreams possible.<br />
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That looks different for each student and it is my job to help them find it and then work with intense fervor to make it possible for them. Mentoring each student individually is what I call it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhoos1oY404">keeping plates spinning</a> because it is exciting, requires one to see the big picture, and also focus on each individual. Some of my students want to go into a STEM related job, but others want to be businesspeople, graphic designers, teachers, and the list goes on. If you visit my team there are many different projects going on at once. That is because if I find someone who I think I can mentor I find a niche for them on the team because it is not just about building robots, it is about building people.<br />
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I am so grateful that <a href="https://twitter.com/mindcollisions">Lisa Davis</a> is able to serve as the physical mentor watching out for the well being of the team while also helping them explore and grow in marketing, entrepreneurship, and service learning. If she was not willing to take on the additional responsibilities this year, there would be no team. It would have been impossible for me to virtually mentor the team a few years ago but with daily emails and weekly Google+ Hangouts I can talk to my team and support the individuals.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/QN38vHZjWXw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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All year long I am looking at students to see where they have areas to grow. My decisions on who should lead our team are not necessarily based on who is a "leader" on the team but who could become a leader. Each of my presidents have been shocked when I asked them to step up but each time they have exceeded all expectations.</div>
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Presidents are chosen in their Sophomore year. I let the current president know who I have chosen and they usually disagree with me. That's ok, I have expected and planned for this. I don't select for talent but potential.<br />
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The reason the student is chosen in the Sophomore year is so they can serve as President in their Junior year while being mentored by the previous President who's now in their Senior year. When others teams chose their seniors to be leaders, the skills and lessons are lost each year. With this process, the previous President can spend the whole year reflecting on the experience helping the new President through their struggles.</div>
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This has resulted in an ever increasing improvement in our team and what it is able to achieve. I also select Presidents based upon what they are able to learn from the outgoing President and vice versa. Sometimes it is humility, or organization skills, maybe public speaking skills. I have the luxury of focusing on helping people grow.</div>
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Could we not do this with mainstream education? Teachers are repeating themselves multiple times a day, and again each year for 40+ years. This is horribly inefficient, let students teach students and have the teacher support the process. The inexperienced students will <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development">learn more easily from their peers</a> and the teacher can look for ways to challenge the tutors and grow in their own understanding. Imagine advanced classes happening concurrently with regular classes within the same classroom!<br />
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Subscribe to the BrokenAirplane blog</a> to keep up to date with all things awesome in education!<br />
</div>Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-12419298772384473552011-11-01T16:24:00.000-07:002011-11-01T21:48:09.309-07:00TED Videos with Computational ThinkingCross posted on the <a href="http://services.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/forum.html?place=forum/general-ect-forum">Exploring Computational Thinking Forum</a>:<br />
<br />
A colleague of mine wanted to understand more about one of the <a href="http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/">projects I am working on at Google</a>. He is an Artist and felt that Computational Thinking was something he used everyday but still a little unsure. I decided to send him a bunch of <a href="http://www.ted.com/">TED videos</a> showing how much we use and rely upon Computational Thinking everyday.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oiMjj8HjU4s/TrBXdWWzO3I/AAAAAAAAHRs/s7Erg3E3cls/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-11-01+at+1.32.29+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="46" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oiMjj8HjU4s/TrBXdWWzO3I/AAAAAAAAHRs/s7Erg3E3cls/s200/Screen+shot+2011-11-01+at+1.32.29+PM.png" width="200" /></a>When I began to look through the TED Videos, I was amazed at how many of them relate to computational thinking in some way or another and that is why these videos amaze us. TED videos showcase people doing extraordinary things and seeing the possibilities when we look at the big picture.<br />
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See if you can find the 4 aspects of Computational Thinking in each video:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Decomposition - Breaking down the data</li>
<li>Finding the patterns in the data</li>
<li>Generalizing your findings and discovering the big idea</li>
<li>Turning them into a set of instructions that others can reproduce</li>
</ol>
<br />
Whether you are an artist, scientist, Engineer at Google, or student, Computational Thinking is present and makes possible the world we see. I hope these videos are equally useful to you in explaining to others what Computational Thinking is:<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_slavin_how_algorithms_shape_our_world.html%20">How Algorithms Shape Our World</a> - If you thought Algorithms were only used by computer scientists, think again.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html">The Best Stats You've Ever Seen</a> - Hans Rosling shows how big data and patterns can tell humanity's story.
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_warns_on_latest_climate_trends.html">Al Gore did something similar</a> with big data to show humanity's impact upon the planet.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_making_a_car_for_blind_drivers.html%20">Making a Car for the Blind</a> - You may have heard of Google's Autonomous Car but what about a car that allows the blind to drive?<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life.html">Synthetic Life</a> - Craig Venter started the human genome project and they used that information to make the ultimate algorithm, a synthetic cell<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/what_we_learned_from_5_million_books.html">What We Learned from 5 Million Books</a> - Hilarious as well as inspiring as we see what happens when we start looking for patterns in our books. This is the power behind <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdSC1Z1Kzs">Google Translate</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pawlyn_using_nature_s_genius_in_architecture.html">Nature in Architecture</a> - Many of our most useful innovations have come from emulating nature.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html%20">Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers</a> - In this viral video, Conrad Wolfram says that math > calculation and with Computational Thinking we can teach students far more than we ever thought.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.html">Computing a Theory of Everything</a> - Stephen Wolfram, shows how knowledge is related and can be used to better understand the universe.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_theory">The End of Theory</a> - Not a video, but a revealing article about why students need to learn how to work with data and statistical analysis.<br />
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<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Connect with BrokenAirplane</a> to stay up to date with all of the latest in Education and TechnologyPhil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4248683490037852665.post-79234023875785047272011-10-31T08:40:00.000-07:002012-01-25T08:38:08.820-08:00Stop Saying I Don't Know to Student's Questions<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Albert Einstein</i></span><br />
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The above quote is the challenge of every science teacher. My professor once told me that Einstein would walk up to people on the street to tell them about his theories and if he was unable to explain it to them or answer their questions sufficiently, then he felt he did not understand it well enough himself.<br />
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I am a big fan of the Mythbusters as well as books like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0962781592/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=brokena-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0962781592">There Are No Electrons</a> which show us when our conceptual models are too limiting to our understanding. So when <a href="https://twitter.com/Science_Myths">David Rudel</a>, editor of the excellent <a href="http://www.explorelearning.com/">ExploreLearning</a> site (home of the awesome science Gizmos) asked me to review his book <a href="http://misconceptions.science-book.net/"><i>Science Myths Unmasked</i></a>, I couldn't wait to check it out. I have to say I was not disappointed, in fact I would have written this review sooner but I was enjoying the book too much to stop.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpAx-IKGm-w/Tq6_zFUTD0I/AAAAAAAAHRk/HWC09eb9o7I/s1600/124052816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EpAx-IKGm-w/Tq6_zFUTD0I/AAAAAAAAHRk/HWC09eb9o7I/s1600/124052816.JPG" /></a><i>Science Myths Unmasked </i>takes the most common experiments and models that every middle and high school student encounters. In <i><b>Vol 1: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935776010/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=brokena-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=1935776010">Earth and Life Science</a></b>, </i>Rudel challenges some of the big questions that teachers encounter every day from students.<br />
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If you have ever had students question the genetics and evolution curriculum they are right to do so. Textbooks ask students to go from Mendel's pea pods and variation within the species to evolution into new species which leaves them wondering how Dominant and Recessive genes can accomplish this. With clarity and research to back it up, the book explains how evolution can occur as well as the modern viewpoints on the mechanism for evolution.<br />
<br />
There are many other topics covered in the book like:<br />
<ul>
<li>How do clouds form?</li>
<li>Why do my veins appear to be blue?</li>
<li>What is the "greenhouse effect"</li>
</ul>
These topics are those that keep coming up in classrooms and from our own children, unfortunately the canonical explanations are often half true or completely false (the blood in your veins is not blue). These books read like a mystery novel rather than a textbook and you will find it hard to put it down. <br />
<br />
I especially enjoyed<b> </b><i><b>Vol 2: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935776029/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=brokena-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1935776029">Physical Science,</a></b></i> having spent time as a 8th grade physical science teacher. Students are wonderfully skeptical and with encouragement will have no problem speaking out about it. When something doesn't match their view of reality they must ask WHY?<br />
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Unfortunately, our textbooks in an attempt to make things simpler often omit or erroneously explain natural phenomena. I have reviewed most of the textbooks out there and there is always one or two places where I reread a paragraph over and over because it just doesn't seem right. <br />
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I must admit there were a couple of times in Rudel's book where I thought, "Oh that's why, that never made sense before!" I too have misconceptions that I have explained away and it has been a great week to reaffirm and test my own understanding of Physics.<br />
<br />
Some of the explanations include:<br />
<ul>
<li>Why does the water in an overturned jar rise when the candle inside burns out?</li>
<li>Does electricity only flow in a "closed circuit"?</li>
<li>What do we mean when we say a wave of light and why do we draw a sine wave to describe it?</li>
</ul>
The best part about these books is how accessible they are. They contain no additional math and the descriptions are clear enough to be read by anyone with an inquisitive mind. Rudel takes all of the questions teachers and textbooks sweep under the rug and finally bring them to light.<br />
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If you go to the <a href="http://misconceptions.science-book.net/">book's website</a>, you can download sample chapters. At the price these books are being offered, they make a great gift for the science teacher in your life. <br />
<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_247377996"><br /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.brokenairplane.com/p/subscribe.html">Connect with BrokenAirplane</a> on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.Phil Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08938707552495871086noreply@blogger.com