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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Different High School Computer Science Strands
A recent talk by Bjarne Stroustrup at Stanford has sparked some conversation in the Computer Science Educators Facebook group. The talk itself doesn’t seem to be...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Hardware–Heat and Cold
Not all computer problems are caused by software. Sometimes the hardware is the problem. It’s not always easy to tell where the blame lies. One underappreciated...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Software Learning Stories - Comments
Continuing my software learning stories series, I will talk a bit about commenting code.One customer I supported many years ago was a Jewish cemetery. In the Jewish...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Software Learning Stories–Bugs are Undependable
There is a joke in the software development community that “it’s not a bug. It’s an undocumented feature.” It’s typically used when a bug is too hard to fix or...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Software Learning Stories–Constants
I am a big fan of using stores to teach. Stories are more memorable that contextless theoretical statements. In my career, over fifty years of programming, I have...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Teaching The Writing of Secure Code
One of the great problems of teaching computer science is that there is a limited amount of time to teach and an unlimited amount of things that can be taught....
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
High School Cybersecurity Course–What Belongs
The last few years have seen a huge expansion in the number and types of cyber security courses in high schools. Much of this has been driven by a growth in the...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Should K-12 CS Education Be About Belonging in CS
I’ve been rather wrapped up in moving the last few weeks so haven’t been thinking about high school, or K-12, computer science education as I intended since mySchool...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Rethinking High School Computer Science
I love programming. I took a computer science course as an undergraduate and really fell in love with programming.While I made my living writing code for many years...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Writing Directions Is Hard
I finished assembling a new bed frame yesterday. I seems solid with good quality materials and seems well designed. The directions on the other hand left something...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CSTA Ends Free Membership
I suppose it was inevitable. In the beginning, CSTA only had a free membership. The organization was originally funded by outside sponsors. An NSF grant covered...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
H1B AI and the Future of Computer Science education
H1B visas are back in the news these days. One one hand we have some loud calls for more H1B visas with a claim that US native workers are not up to snuff. Or at...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Three Keys To Being A Great Teacher
For the last 20 years or so I have been able to meet some truly great teachers. Some I visited in their schools. Some I met at conferences. Some I have become good...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
December Adventure–Write some Code Everyday
Eugene Wallingford let me in on A December Adventure From the website “The December Adventure is low key. The goal is to write a little bit of code every day in...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Hour of Code and Corporate Involvement in CS Education
An interesting article was shared on Facebook recently -Is the 'Hour of Code' the New 30-Minute Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercial? Take a look at it. It may make...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning and Hexapawn
A presenter at the recent New England CSTA New England Conference mentioned the game Hexapawn. Hexapawn is hardly new. It was first introduced in 1962. I first...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Interested in Industry Visitors to Your CS Class?
I get interesting messages from all sorts of places. Recently, I received this message on LinkedIn. I love the idea of bringing industry professionals in to talk...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Online Programming Environments are Poor Preparation
Got your attention didn’t I? More and more teachers are using online coding environments to teach computer science. I used one myself to teach Advanced Placement...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Does AI Mean The End Of Teaching Programming
The tl;dr of it is no. At least not yet. As more and more people use artificial intelligent agents to help write code we’re learning that AI is not quite all there...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Changes in Social Media Where to Find Me
It appears that a lot of people are leaving X (formerly Twitter) I confess to being one of them. Frankly, X isn’t the same for me. A lot of people seem to be moving...12