About Me
Swansea University lecturer. Web enthusiast; dabbler in software engineering and control systems; PLENK2010 ds106 and cck11 participant; EG-353 coordinator. Squirrel and meerkat.
More on the Year of Code
My Progress on the Code Academy Code Year Open Course
Last week I followed along with Michael Kölling’s introduction to Java (I’ve not had chance to catch up with this week’s yet) and I also worked through the first four exercises published by the Code Academy (see Bragging Rights on post image). Neither were too challenging to me as I already teach this stuff, but it’s still surprisingly satisfying to earn badges and points!
Of course The Guardian and Google’s and now the UK Government’s definition of Digital Literacy doesn’t match JISC’s, and therefore my University’s, so there’s a whole debate waiting to be had there!
366 Things and a Bad Joke
I’ve just started another 366 photos project and I’ve also got a “366 days of origami” calendar. In addition, Alan Levine and Jim Groom are about to launch a “Daily Create” project. I think it’s in testing (there’s a hint about it in Thinking in Photos on the CogDogBlog). In anticipation, here’s a video I made of one of my dad’s oldest and worse jokes:
If I manage to keep all these extra curricula balls in the air it should be a busy year!
Update
- I now have a Tumblr blog to showcase these 366 things at 366 Crispy Things.
- The Daily Create assignments are part of the about-to-be launched Digital Story Telling open course DS106.
my bookmarks 01/07/2012
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As it’s Friday, and it’s lunchtime, more Google fu
As it’s Friday, and it’s lunchtime, more Google fun – here’s one i used to like: confidential “internal use only” filetype:pdf site:ac.uk
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mik's blog – Thoughts on Programming Education
Out now: Joy of Code, Episode 4: Finally – some code! http://t.co/wdA0o1pa
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2012: Year of Code?
Last October Aleks Krotoski, presenter of of The Guardian’s Tech Weekly podcast, chaired a series of special “Tech City” talks. The first of these was on Skills and Education (Audio recording here) and the panelists, which included David Willets, all criticised to current Schools ICT Curriculum by stating that it didn’t actually include any coding. This issue has been raised recently by many commentators but was highlighted by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s criticism of British Education at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, and the fact that it was the “Google View” perhaps gave it more prominence than it would otherwise have had.
Well, perhaps by coincidence, there are now two free online initiatives that are trying to change this. The first that I came across was the Joy of Code — an online tutorial from Michael Kölling of the University of Kent at Canterbury that is using Greenfoot and Java and is aimed at people who:
Want to find out how to write a computer game; [are] Interested in learning programming; Curious about object-oriented programming and Java; Heard about Greenfoot, but don’t really know what it is [or are] Teaching programming to others.
The course was announced on January 1st and there have already been 7 episodes!
The second is a sort of online correspondance course from US-based Code Academy called Code Year. You just need to go to the site and leave your email address. The course will start on 9th January. I suspect it will use JavaScript but I could be wrong.
As a teacher of coding and developer of code throughout my career, I shall be watching both with interest and playing along. And if you want to learn to code, why not join me?
my bookmarks 01/06/2012
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Why 3D TV Went From CES Darling to Consumer Reject | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
It’s CES season, so _of course_ we’re forced to talk about 3D TV. Again. Sigh … http://t.co/waviFU72
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An interesting experiment in a development tool for teaching Java programming. Aimed at Pre-University students and teachers it is similar in to Squeak and Logo in that it aims to “grab” interest by geting kids to program game-like simulations. Still, it’s Java under the Skin which makes it more immediately transferrable to Further and Higher Education where Java is commonly used as a first language in computing and engineering courses. The lead developer has just started an on-line open tutorial which can be found at http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/mik/category/joy-of-code/. From the ‘About’ page: “Greenfoot teaches object orientation with Java. Create ‘actors’ which live in ‘worlds’ to build games, simulations, and other graphical programs. “Greenfoot is visual and interactive. Visualisation and interaction tools are built into the environment. “The actors are programmed in standard textual Java code, providing a combination of programming experience in a traditional text-based language with visual execution.”
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The Joy Of Code: Join us for a free online programming course with Java and Greenfoot – mik’s blog
I will be following this with interest: “Want to find out how to write a computer game? Interested in learning programming? Curious about object-oriented programming and Java? Heard about Greenfoot, but don’t really know what it is? Teaching programming to others?” Not because I need to lean Java, but because coding has dropped out of favour in ICT at schools and several people have recently asked for it to be added back.
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my bookmarks 12/22/2011
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Definitive reference to the JavaScript language. Bookmark so you have somewhere to lookup the properties and methods of the JavaScript objects you are working with. Part of the Mozilla Developer Network, which is a useful resource in itself. The “learning” resources are worth a look.
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my bookmarks 12/21/2011
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haz.io › HTML5 & CSS3 Browser Capabilities
A site which tests and reports your browser’s support for new and forthcoming Html5, Css3 and JavaScript APIs and presenting the results in a simple grid. Where a feature is missing, haz.io links to a fallback resource.
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HTML5 Forms Readiness Chart · Wufoo
Nice test page for HTML5 form support. Includes browser charts and fallback (graceful degredation) resources in JavaScript and using widget libraries.
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html5shiv – HTML5 IE enabling script – Google Project Hosting
“Public repo for the latest HTML5 JavaScript shim for IE to recognise and style the HTML5 elements. ” Small picce of JavavScript that assigns new HTML5 elements to DOM for older IE browsers. Allows them to be displayed and styled.
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my bookmarks 12/20/2011
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RSC Wales Teaching and Learning Blog
Improving accessibility: don’t leave it to the fairies! http://t.co/0Ipmy1eg. My thoughts, with links to some training opportunities.
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my bookmarks 12/16/2011
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Doceri Remote – The Interactive Whiteboard for the iPad – iPads in Education
Wow! You have got to try Doceri Remote for the iPad and Doceri Desktop for the PC/Mac. This app has one feature that I have not found on any other desktop remote. It allows you to annotate on anything. Basically, your iPad, PC/Mac and Projector becomes your digital smart board. There is no need to pay for expensive and bulky smart board systems. Nor any of the wireless pen based whiteboards. Doceri is all you need. Doceri gives you the freedom to teach from anywhere in the classroom. You can annotate, open and close programs, surf the web, play flash video, control and annotate on your power points wirelessly from your iPad. It even allows you to record your annotations and play them back. For more information please visit Doceri.
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