Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson
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Alfred Thompson's blog about teaching computer science at the K-12 level. Alfred was a high school computer science teacher for 8 years. He has also taught grades K-8 as a computer specialist. He has written several textbooks and project books for teaching Visual Basic in high school and middle school. Alfred is the K-12 Computer Science Academic Relations Manager for Microsoft and is trying to be the Microsoft Education Blogger.
Top Posts From October
Well October was an interesting month. In some cases I was pretty good at predicting which posts would get the most interest and in others I was pretty far off.
I did think that the free download book on creating websites that sell would be popular but I had no idea how popular. (My write up here - the download itself here) Apparently a lot of the professionals in my audience linked to it big time and hundreds of people followed the link.
My Game Builder which is a web site that lets beginners make cute and interesting games was also a big hit. That didn't surprise me. The site itself is just very well done and the potential for future growth is impressive. I was surprised that there were not more comments left on the post though.
Speaking of comments, my post on things that guidance should know received a good number of comments. Lots of people have opinions about the value of computer science (or lack there of) in schools and in preparation for a career. A lot of people also weighed in on my somewhat process oriented post on what the right rate of posting is. So far 58 of you answered my readership survey which I appreciate quite a bit.
My commentary on Mark Guzdial's post where he said that learning a second programming language was harder than learning the first received a lot of visits and attracted a surprising number on in links. For all that attention there were few comments left locally. Don't be shy people - tell me what you think!
Security was a big topic this month with the SQL Injection post (Do Your Students Understand this Cartoon) getting a lot of traffic. Many people seemed to find the Microsoft article I linked to on SQL Injection to be interesting. I also posted a link to a series of articles on threat modeling that seemed to strike a cord with people.
With all the apparent interest in security I expected more interest in the "Phun with Phishing" post that linked to an online game that teaching students about phishing sites. Well if the people who were interested got value from it then its still all good.
The really cool and different use of PowerPoint as a teaching tool/random access method was also interesting to a lot of people showing the range of interests among my readers.
A couple of posts from the end of September were still getting attention through October. Randy Pausch's last lecture continues to spread through the web. I even received a link to the version on YouTube from someone I hadn't heard from in months the other day. I do believe that the version at CMU is the best and most complete because it includes people who introduced and followed Randy.
People also continued to be interested in the IEEE special Issue on Tablet PCs in education. I'm not sure how much longer it will be available though. I saved a copy on my local PC and would be willing to share in the future.
Well that is my review of October posts. As always comments, suggestions and links to things you think I should be talking about or linking to are always welcome. Thanks for reading.
Published Friday, November 02, 2007 5:10 AM by Alfred Thompson
Filed under: teaching, Computer Science Education, Careers, Internet Safety, education, Programming, fun, first programming experience, Tablets, Security
Top Posts From October
Well October was an interesting month. In some cases I was pretty good at predicting which posts would get the most interest and in others I was pretty far off.
I did think that the free download book on creating websites that sell would be popular but I had no idea how popular. (My write up here - the download itself here) Apparently a lot of the professionals in my audience linked to it big time and hundreds of people followed the link.
My Game Builder which is a web site that lets beginners make cute and interesting games was also a big hit. That didn't surprise me. The site itself is just very well done and the potential for future growth is impressive. I was surprised that there were not more comments left on the post though.
Speaking of comments, my post on things that guidance should know received a good number of comments. Lots of people have opinions about the value of computer science (or lack there of) in schools and in preparation for a career. A lot of people also weighed in on my somewhat process oriented post on what the right rate of posting is. So far 58 of you answered my readership survey which I appreciate quite a bit.
My commentary on Mark Guzdial's post where he said that learning a second programming language was harder than learning the first received a lot of visits and attracted a surprising number on in links. For all that attention there were few comments left locally. Don't be shy people - tell me what you think!
Security was a big topic this month with the SQL Injection post (Do Your Students Understand this Cartoon) getting a lot of traffic. Many people seemed to find the Microsoft article I linked to on SQL Injection to be interesting. I also posted a link to a series of articles on threat modeling that seemed to strike a cord with people.
With all the apparent interest in security I expected more interest in the "Phun with Phishing" post that linked to an online game that teaching students about phishing sites. Well if the people who were interested got value from it then its still all good.
The really cool and different use of PowerPoint as a teaching tool/random access method was also interesting to a lot of people showing the range of interests among my readers.
A couple of posts from the end of September were still getting attention through October. Randy Pausch's last lecture continues to spread through the web. I even received a link to the version on YouTube from someone I hadn't heard from in months the other day. I do believe that the version at CMU is the best and most complete because it includes people who introduced and followed Randy.
People also continued to be interested in the IEEE special Issue on Tablet PCs in education. I'm not sure how much longer it will be available though. I saved a copy on my local PC and would be willing to share in the future.
Well that is my review of October posts. As always comments, suggestions and links to things you think I should be talking about or linking to are always welcome. Thanks for reading.
Published Friday, November 02, 2007 5:10 AM by Alfred Thompson
Filed under: teaching, Computer Science Education, Careers, Internet Safety, education, Programming, fun, first programming experience, Tablets, Security
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