-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
index.html
500 lines (270 loc) · 21.2 KB
/
index.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if IEMobile 7 ]><html class="no-js iem7"><![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 9]><html class="no-js lte-ie8"><![endif]-->
<!--[if (gt IE 8)|(gt IEMobile 7)|!(IEMobile)|!(IE)]><!--><html class="no-js" lang="en"><!--<![endif]-->
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>My Octopress Blog</title>
<meta name="author" content="Linda Sandvik">
<meta name="description" content="“just let volunteers do it” is not a sensible computing education strategy In a follow up comment to that article in the Telegraph, Willard Foxton …">
<!-- http://t.co/dKP3o1e -->
<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True">
<meta name="MobileOptimized" content="320">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://drtortoise.github.com/">
<link href="/favicon.png" rel="icon">
<link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<script src="/javascripts/modernizr-2.0.js"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/ender.js"></script>
<script src="/javascripts/octopress.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<link href="/atom.xml" rel="alternate" title="My Octopress Blog" type="application/atom+xml">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cloud.typography.com/7418032/773782/css/fonts.css" />
<!--Fonts from Google"s Web font directory at http://google.com/webfonts -->
<link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Serif:regular,italic,bold,bolditalic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Sans:regular,italic,bold,bolditalic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35967871-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
</head>
<body >
<header role="banner"><hgroup>
<h1><a href="/">My Octopress Blog</a></h1>
<h2>because wordpress isn't hipster enough and tumblr is too easy</h2>
</hgroup>
</header>
<nav role="navigation"><ul class="subscription" data-subscription="rss">
<li><a href="/atom.xml" rel="subscribe-rss" title="subscribe via RSS">RSS</a></li>
</ul>
<form action="http://google.com/search" method="get">
<fieldset role="search">
<input type="hidden" name="q" value="site:drtortoise.github.com" />
<input class="search" type="text" name="q" results="0" placeholder="Search"/>
</fieldset>
</form>
<ul class="main-navigation">
<li><a href="/">Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/archives">Archives</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<div id="main">
<div id="content">
<div class="blog-index">
<article>
<header>
<h1 class="entry-title"><a href="/blog/2013/11/01/the-problem-with-code-club/">the problem with Code Club</a></h1>
<p class="meta">
<time datetime="2013-11-01T10:57:00+00:00" pubdate data-updated="true">Nov 1<span>st</span>, 2013</time>
| <a href="/blog/2013/11/01/the-problem-with-code-club/#disqus_thread">Comments</a>
</p>
</header>
<div class="entry-content"><p><strong>“just let volunteers do it” is not a sensible computing education strategy</strong></p>
<p>In a <a href="http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/2/2013/10/25/Drewc_Coding_suitable_for_exceptionally_dull_weirdos/#c_2002234">follow up</a> comment to <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100011290/the-government-wants-to-teach-all-children-how-to-code-heres-why-its-a-stupid-idea/"><em>that</em></a> article in the Telegraph, Willard Foxton suggests instead of teaching everyone how to code we should rely on voluntary after-school schemes for the specially interested like <a href="https://www.codeclub.org.uk/">Code Club</a>. Here’s why he’s wrong:</p>
<p>We don’t just teach maths to those kids who are interested. We teach it to everyone because it is necessary to understand how the world works. The same is true for computing. Sure, there will be some kids who won’t like it, just like there are some kids who don’t like English, maths, music, arts, or maybe all the subjects taught in school. This is not a good argument not to teach coding.</p>
<p>Code Club can’t teach everyone. At the time of writing there are <a href="https://www.codeclub.org.uk/start-a-club/volunteers#map-uuid-1">over 500 primary schools in the UK looking to start a code club</a> who can’t because they haven’t found a volunteer.</p>
<p>Code Clubs are oversubscribed. Typically after a Code Club has started in a school and run for a few weeks, practically everyone wants to join. I get heartbreaking emails from parents saying their kids really want to learn how to program, but they’re on a waiting list, and what do they do now?</p>
<p>I regularly see tweets like:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/CodeClub">@CodeClub</a>, I did assembly last week, 40 kids signed up! only have room for 12!</p>— Nigel Stirzaker (@nrstirzaker) <a href="https://twitter.com/nrstirzaker/statuses/394781357584306176">October 28, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/CodeClub">@CodeClub</a> volunteers what's your average group size? I've 28 subscribed, but I know 12 is recommended..don't want to turn many away</p>— Irina (@IrinaBasrawi) <a href="https://twitter.com/IrinaBasrawi/statuses/393021505757405185">October 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Gave an <a href="https://twitter.com/CodeClub">@CodeClub</a> assembly to 360 kids this morning. Show off hands at the end indicated AT LEAST half want to join; I have a big job to do!</p>— Rebecca Summer (@thefunnythings) <a href="https://twitter.com/thefunnythings/statuses/392615888543055872">October 22, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>We recommend 12 children per volunteer. Of course, school teachers usually have much larger classes than this, but they are professionals. Standing in front of a group of kids can be quite intimidating, and smaller group sizes are more manageable for volunteers who often have no experience in teaching, let alone teaching kids. This means we turn many kids away. The average club has 15 kids. We have some large ones with 30-45 kids, these are almost always led by teachers.</p>
<p>We operate on a very limited age range. Due to limited resources we can only cater for children in year 5 & 6 (ages 9-11). Children younger than that normally have to wait and it’s a shame that older children will have missed their chance. It is my strong belief that every kid should get a chance to learn computing. Those who do will have a significant advantage over those who don’t. The only solution to disseminating subject knowledge to 100% of the child population is for teachers to teach it.</p>
<p>Foxton thinks Code Club is doing a good job. I do too (obviously, as co-founder of Code Club, I may be a bit biased). He seems to think the government won’t do as good a job. I don’t see why this has to be the case. I mean sure, we have it relatively easy. We teach only to kids who want to be there, in small groups, and we don’t have any exam boards or national curriculum to adhere to. But only the government can ensure that everyone will get the chance to learn computing.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<header>
<h1 class="entry-title"><a href="/blog/2012/12/12/geeky-gifts-for-non-geeks/">Geeky gifts for non-geeks</a></h1>
<p class="meta">
<time datetime="2012-12-12T18:53:00+00:00" pubdate data-updated="true">Dec 12<span>th</span>, 2012</time>
| <a href="/blog/2012/12/12/geeky-gifts-for-non-geeks/#disqus_thread">Comments</a>
</p>
</header>
<div class="entry-content"><p>Here’s what I’m getting my (non-geeky) family and friends for christmas.</p>
<h2>MaKey MaKey</h2>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rfQqh7iCcOU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>The video explains it all really, the <a href="http://www.makeymakey.com/">Makey Makey</a> is a very easy to use thingamabob that lets you replace a computer keyboard with anything that conducts electricity.</p>
<h2>LadyAda coloring book</h2>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vxdX2vJzwXc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Why settle for a normal colouring book when you can sneak in some geeky vocabulary in there. <a href="http://www.adafruit.com/coloringbook">E is for Elecontronics</a> is both fun and educational.</p>
<p>And if you want crayons to go with the set, I reccomend this one which have super cute and awesome chemical names:
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/QueInteresante"><img src="http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5578066/il_570xN.204691949.jpg" alt="crayons" /></a></p>
<h2>Bare Conductive Card set</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.bareconductive.com"><img src="http://www.bareconductive.com/file/christmasforest-homepage-gif" alt="bare conductive christmas cards" /></a></p>
<p>For the sort of people who like to do scrapbooking or make their own cards, add a bit more bling with this Bare Conductive LED Xmas card set. <a href="http://www.bareconductive.com">Bare Conductive</a> does paint that conducts electricity, which can be used on loads of materials, not just paper/cardboard.</p>
<h2>Lego creationary</h2>
<p><a href="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4147/5003539403_5c8f16db0a.jpg"><img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4147/5003539403_5c8f16db0a.jpg" alt="Lego creationary" /></a></p>
<p>One of my favourite family friendly board games, it’s like pictionary but instead of drawing you have to build it in lego. Available from the likes of amazon, argos, waterstones etc.</p>
<h2>Makie Doll with brains</h2>
<p><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7275/8155512612_d4948a7ec3.jpg"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7275/8155512612_d4948a7ec3.jpg" alt="makie doll" /></a>
<a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8199/8155480921_0d3d8c1864.jpg"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8199/8155480921_0d3d8c1864.jpg" alt="electronics can fit inside the head" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://makie.me">Makie Dolls</a> let you design your own doll, but the coolest bit is the head has room for electronics, and can easily fit a lilypad arduino kit so you can also program your doll :D</p>
<h2>Sugru</h2>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8fOSo_EN-y4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>What to get the person who has everything? <a href="http://sugru.com">Sugru</a> is the perfect answer. I belive everyone would benefit from some sugru in their lives. I’m getting this for my parents, aunt, uncle, cousins, grandma ++</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<header>
<h1 class="entry-title"><a href="/blog/2012/10/30/c-is-for-computing/">C is for Computing</a></h1>
<p class="meta">
<time datetime="2012-10-30T10:54:00+00:00" pubdate data-updated="true">Oct 30<span>th</span>, 2012</time>
| <a href="/blog/2012/10/30/c-is-for-computing/#disqus_thread">Comments</a>
</p>
</header>
<div class="entry-content"><p>Last week I jokingly tweeted that someone ought to teach Michael Gove the difference between ICT and Computing. Also, this week I discovered Adafruit’s lovely <a href="http://www.adafruit.com/products/1000">“E is for Electronics” colouring book</a>. It’s a wonderful colouring book for children, that sneaks in some geekyness into their vocabulary. This is their entry for <strong>D</strong>:</p>
<blockquote><p>A <strong>diode</strong> lets electrons flow in only one direction. It works like a switch:
when current is flowing one way, the switch is on, but when current tries
to flow the other way, the switch turns off. <strong>Sir John Ambrose Fleming</strong> is
best known for inventing the <strong>diode</strong>, originally called the kenotron.</p></blockquote>
<p>Add a slightly stressed/tired/frustrated Linda on a Monday afternoon, and voila “C is for Computing” was born.</p>
<p>My first task was finding what words to illustrate. I certainly had fun coming up with possibilities. If anything, the problem was choosing what to illustrate for each letter.</p>
<p>For instance, for ‘<strong>B</strong>’, I could do George <strong>B</strong>oole, <strong>B</strong>oolean logic, Charles <strong>B</strong>abbage, Tim <strong>B</strong>erners-Lee, and many more, I’m sure. Boolean logic is perhaps the most important with regards to computer science, but as an illustration in a children’s book perhaps not the most suitable. I could of course go with George Boole the person, and introduce him as the inventor or Boolean logic, still mentioning the concept but with more meat to colour. On the other hand Charles Babbage is also a very important figure in computing history. Then again I could possibly fit Babbage under another letter, under A for Analytical engine or under D for Difference engine. And as much as I love Tim Berners-Lee, I think I’ll save him for W.
I also thought of illustrating “bugs” for B. Children love colouring in animals (and insects), and I could sneak in a history lesson about how when computers used to be big machines that filled entire rooms sometimes bugs would be attracted by the light and trapped inside tubes or relays causing a malfunction, and how we still use the term “bug” today to describe a software
failure. For a serious intro to computing I’d definitely go for Boolean, but as a children’s colouring book, bugs is more fun.</p>
<p>At first I thought “E for Electronics” had it easy, all those gadgets and gismos to draw. Most of the words I could come up with for computing were abstract concepts, and difficult to illustrate. Of course, some proved quite fun to illustrate, Yak-shaving being my favourite one.</p>
<p>Here is the list of words I had, the one I think I’ll illustrate is emphasised. If none is emphasised it means I haven’t decided yet.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>A</strong> Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, agile, Arduino, automata, the Analytical Engine, analog, API</li>
<li><strong>B</strong> Boole, Boolean, <strong>BUGS</strong>, Charles Babbage, Tim Berners-Lee, bit, byte</li>
<li><strong>C</strong> computing, computer, C, <strong>CPU</strong>, CERN, Code Club</li>
<li><strong>D</strong> data, difference engine, digital, deep blue</li>
<li><strong>E</strong> ENIAC, EDSAC, Enigma</li>
<li><strong>F</strong> Fortran, Failwhale (children like animals!)</li>
<li><strong>G</strong> Giga, gigabyte, Grace Hopper, GO TO, Git(Hub), geek</li>
<li><strong>H</strong> HTML, hyper links, <strong>Grace Hopper</strong></li>
<li><strong>I</strong> <strong>Internet</strong>, IDE</li>
<li><strong>J</strong> Java, <strong>Javascript</strong>, Jobs</li>
<li><strong>K</strong> Kenbak-1, <strong>Donald Knuth</strong></li>
<li><strong>L</strong> <strong>Lovelace</strong>, Linux, Lyon, loop, LOGO</li>
<li><strong>M</strong> microcontroller, Manchester baby, Mark I, Mark II, <strong>memex</strong>, mars curiosity rover, markup, markdown</li>
<li><strong>N</strong> NAND, nerd</li>
<li><strong>O</strong> open source, object orientation, <strong>Octocat</strong></li>
<li><strong>P</strong> <strong>programming</strong>, programming languages, processor, punch cards</li>
<li><strong>Q</strong> quicksort, <strong>query</strong></li>
<li><strong>R</strong> resistor, relay, <strong>robots</strong>, regex, RESTful, recursion, RAM, rasberry pi</li>
<li><strong>S</strong> semiconductor, silicon, source code, sinclair ZX80, scripting, switch, <strong>Scratch</strong> (advert for Scratch rather than a history lesson hmmm)</li>
<li><strong>T</strong> tubes! turing, Turing machine, turing-complete, <strong>transistor</strong></li>
<li><strong>U</strong> unix, universal machine</li>
<li><strong>V</strong> Vannevar Bush (B is taken), variable, von Neuman (should be under N I guess)</li>
<li><strong>W</strong> <strong>world wide web</strong>, Watson</li>
<li><strong>X</strong> XOR XNOR XCODE X64</li>
<li><strong>Y</strong> yak-shaving</li>
<li><strong>Z</strong> ZX Spectrum/ZX80</li>
</ul>
<p>If you have any better ideas please let me know :)</p>
<p>One of my problems is I want both Turing and transistors to be in the book somehow. I know transistors was in the E for Electronics book, but people might not have both, and it <em>is</em> the most important invention, ever. It is possible to sneak Turing in under U for universal machine or A for Alan or E for Enigma, but he deserves better. Dilemmas, <em>sigh</em>.</p>
<p>Next steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>I’m not an illustrator, I’ll try converting some of my sketches to vector files and see if they are good enough. If not it might be worth getting a professional illustrator to do them.</li>
<li>Write the little infoboxes to go with the illustrations</li>
<li>Investigate publishing - it would be cool to do a physical book that people could buy. It will of course be available free to download and print out yourself, with some form of Creative Commons license (might be difficult finding an illustrator who agrees to this).</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="http://distilleryimage5.instagram.com/d0f0dc92229b11e2959322000a9e0b2a_7.jpg" title="O is for Octocat" alt="octocat rough drawing" /></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<header>
<h1 class="entry-title"><a href="/blog/2012/10/30/Hello_World/">Hello, World!</a></h1>
<p class="meta">
<time datetime="2012-10-30T10:54:00+00:00" pubdate data-updated="true">Oct 30<span>th</span>, 2012</time>
| <a href="/blog/2012/10/30/Hello_World/#disqus_thread">Comments</a>
</p>
</header>
<div class="entry-content"><p>This is just a test</p>
</div>
</article>
<div class="pagination">
<a href="/blog/archives">Blog Archives</a>
</div>
</div>
<aside class="sidebar">
<section>
<h1>Recent Posts</h1>
<ul id="recent_posts">
<li class="post">
<a href="/blog/2013/11/01/the-problem-with-code-club/">the problem with Code Club</a>
</li>
<li class="post">
<a href="/blog/2012/12/12/geeky-gifts-for-non-geeks/">Geeky gifts for non-geeks</a>
</li>
<li class="post">
<a href="/blog/2012/10/30/c-is-for-computing/">C is for Computing</a>
</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section>
<h1>GitHub Repos</h1>
<ul id="gh_repos">
<li class="loading">Status updating…</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://github.com/drtortoise">@drtortoise</a> on GitHub
<script type="text/javascript">
$.domReady(function(){
if (!window.jXHR){
var jxhr = document.createElement('script');
jxhr.type = 'text/javascript';
jxhr.src = '/javascripts/libs/jXHR.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(jxhr, s);
}
github.showRepos({
user: 'drtortoise',
count: 0,
skip_forks: true,
target: '#gh_repos'
});
});
</script>
<script src="/javascripts/github.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>
</section>
<section>
<h1>Latest Tweets</h1>
<ul id="tweets">
<li class="loading">Status updating…</li>
</ul>
<script type="text/javascript">
$.domReady(function(){
getTwitterFeed("@hyper_linda", 4, false);
});
</script>
<script src="/javascripts/twitter.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>
<a href="http://twitter.com/@hyper_linda" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="true">Follow @@hyper_linda</a>
</section>
</aside>
</div>
</div>
<footer role="contentinfo"><p>
Copyright © 2013 - Linda Sandvik -
<span class="credit">Powered by <a href="http://octopress.org">Octopress</a></span>
</p>
</footer>
<script type="text/javascript">
var disqus_shortname = 'drtortoiseblog';
var disqus_script = 'count.js';
(function () {
var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true;
dsq.src = 'http://' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/' + disqus_script;
(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);
}());
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(){
var twitterWidgets = document.createElement('script');
twitterWidgets.type = 'text/javascript';
twitterWidgets.async = true;
twitterWidgets.src = 'http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(twitterWidgets);
})();
</script>
</body>
</html>