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CSTA New England Regional Conference #cstaNE2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

CSTA New England Regional Conference #cstaNE2022

This year’s CSTA New England regional conference is at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) school of Education. It’s a great venue. There are around 150 people...

The Computer Science Professional Development Problem
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

The Computer Science Professional Development Problem

Mike Zamansky is stirring up trouble again. OK not really his intent I’m sure but people can get defensive. I have to say that I agree in principle with most of...

Micro:Bit Programming for Grades K to 3 With #MicroCode
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Micro:Bit Programming for Grades K to 3 With #MicroCode

The Micro:Bit is a pretty cool piece of hardware being used in a lot of schools. It’s mostly used in middle school and above but that may be changing. New fromMicrocode...

How Far We Have Come With Programming Languages
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

How Far We Have Come With Programming Languages

Last night I had a dream during which someone suggested that COBOL would make a good first programming language. They tried to promote the data division and English...

Dealing With Student Misconceptions
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Dealing With Student Misconceptions

I was reading through The Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, as one does, the other night. Specifically, the section on student misconceptions. Misconceptions are...

Coding It Yourself Can Be Fun
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Coding It Yourself Can Be Fun

Every couple of weeks I bake a couple of loaves of bread. The bread mostly gets used for breakfast sandwiches. Now my bread does not look as perfect as what I could...

Names Have Power – Names and Programming
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Names Have Power – Names and Programming

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" William Shakespeare.There are cultures where people have a sort of public name and a secret or true name that is...

A Spoon Full of Computer Science
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

A Spoon Full of Computer Science

I was thinking about data science lately. The problem is that I don’t know much about data science. I learned about data bases in school and worked with them some...

Artificial Intelligence and CS Education
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Artificial Intelligence and CS Education

It;s seems like artificial intelligence has been “10 years away” for the last 40 years. Back in the mini computer days every computer was custom and configurations...

Cyber Security and CS Education
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Cyber Security and CS Education

Way back in time, cybersecurity was all about controlling access to the computer in the locked room with the raised floor. Well, you had to trust the people you...

Jacdac and Micro:Bit 2.0–First Look
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Jacdac and Micro:Bit 2.0–First Look

Learning about Jacdac devices was my incentive to buy a Micro:Bit 2.0 The Micro:Bit 2.0 has a number of upgrades and new features from the original. These include...

Freedom To Teach Computer Science Our Way
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Freedom To Teach Computer Science Our Way

Mike Zamansky had another interesting post (CS - it isn't all that) that got me thinking. The last three paragraphs started me going. For exampleAs CS becomes more...

A Summary Look Back at #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

A Summary Look Back at #CSTA2022

CSTA 2022 was energizing! After three years of not seeing people in person it was awesome to reconnect with people. And to meet new people. The energy level was...

My Day Four at #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

My Day Four at #CSTA2022

It’s a short day today but with plenty to learn. Last night was a great party at the Museum of Science and Technology. I left early (age?) but I know that a lot...

My Day Two at #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

My Day Two at #CSTA2022

Day two started off great as I connected with several people from my home CSTA Chapter –CSTA New Hampshire. The CS community in New Hampshire is growing and the...

Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft at #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft at #CSTA2022

I blog about what interests me or stirs my curiosity. One thing that fits that is what are the really big tech companies doing to support CS education. So I amAmazon...

Day One #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Day One #CSTA2022

Well it was day one for me. I know that some people got in yesterday or earlier either because they were taking a workshop today or were part of the Chapter Leadership...

Dice, Simulations, and Math
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Dice, Simulations, and Math

My friend Andrew Parsons send me this link to an interesting video The unexpected logic behind rolling multiple dice and picking the highest. Now I love simulating...

Getting Ready for #CSTA2022
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Getting Ready for #CSTA2022

The CSTA Annua Conference is only days away. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s my first plane ride since CSTA in Phoenix in 2019. That’s a long time for me. OrJacdac...

Teaching Computer Science–Moving atoms not pixels
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson

Teaching Computer Science–Moving atoms not pixels

On my first visit to the Lifelong Kindergarten Group and the MIT Media Lab, I notices a message on the windows. “Some people would rather move atoms than pixels...
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