Category Archives: Coding, Software Engineering, Computer Science

Programming, along with Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic – start NOW

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Matt Ruzicka wonders what could have happened if his school was visited by someone who shared how programming has less to do with something he could learn in college, and more to do with what he was actually doing in class in his post “School, Math, and Code”. (via “Life and Code”)

More than a few of us from CIM are active in our communities, including my former manager Aaron Held, who received this note from a thankful student who needs more support from others.

Knowledge of programming, not the use of specific kinds of software (word processors for example), is a necessary part of literacy today.

Related:

MIT Scratch

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

Google: Exploring Computational Thinking

Program or Be Programmed

Computer Programming for Everybody

Knowing and Doing: “Programming for Everyone — Really?”

MediaShift: Aran Levasseur: “Learning in a Digital Age: Teaching a Different Kind of Literacy”

Virtualenv, Fabric, and Pip: a coding post

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Alex Clemesha wrote a blog post back in 2009 that points to 3 elements of the Python ecosystem that I’ve made part of my toolbox that if you haven’t read, is worth a read: “Tools of the Modern Python Hacker: Virtualenv, Fabric and Pip”. I’m pretty sure that without these 3 (and Jenkins/Hudson), recent projects of mine would have been far more complicated to accomplish with teams that have been variable in size from day to day. They reduce complexity, and like Maven on the Java side, I wouldn’t want to do a project in Python without them now.

Change By Us Philly in Beta: civic media & software

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“Change by Us Philly” recently launched in beta, part of the “Change By Us” effort started by “CEOs for Cities”, “Local Projects” and “Code for America” and is funded by The Knight Foundation and The Rockerfeller Foundation. It describes itself (and lives up to it!) as “an online marketplace for community projects that allows you to share ideas for making the city better, and to turn those ideas into projects that have real impact. From tools to network and manage events to helping you connect with local resources, the site supports a number of ways to get involved.” Check out the ideas posted, get involved in making one happen, or share your own.

For more on getting involved with the site, check out OAPCivicFusion on Google Groups.

Beginner’s Eyes: on storytelling and growth

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John D. Cook, in a short, poetic post, describes how experts end up where they started, as beginners, and why, in his blog post “Coming full circle”. A few folks in his comments thread make the connection with Zen’s concept of “Shoshin”, the Beginner’s Mind, and it does, but I hear echoes of another journey just as strongly.

YouTube: “The Hero’s Journey / Monomyth”

Programming, Math, and Computational Thinking: on education

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Actually, this post will feature a few reads and resources for you that are part of a theme – the need to change K-12 education to face the realities of today and tomorrow, instead of preparing them for a world that has already turned. To do so will require children to gain a working understanding of the use of, and creation of, software. This is as important today as reading, writing and mathematics and it helps provide invaluable tools to build on, and strengthen, those foundational parts of children’s education.

Google Edu serves a terrific resource for educators and students that brings together many of these concepts – “Exploring Computational Thinking”. The lesson plan includes Python exercises that help illustrate computational thinking while strengthening math skills.

Why this is important

Over 10 years ago Lawrence Lessig exclaimed, “The Code Is the Law”, and in a series of articles, presentations, and an influential book spread the idea among the digerati, but interestingly enough, those outside of technology didn’t adopt the idea as a truism.

Douglas Rushkoff recently released his most recent book, “Programed or be Programmed” that took the concept further and declared a course of action for future educators.

Kevin Slavin: Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world:

YouTube: “TED: Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers”:

Visualizing the news: on storytelling

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Matthew Ericson of the New York Times (and former co-worker of mine) put together slides of his recent presentation at AIGA Pivot. The presentation must have rocked because the slide deck, while short on details, is rich in thought provoking: PDF.

For a recent example from his team, check out today’s interactive on the Euro debt crisis.

The Transformation Priority Premise: on coding

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One of the highlights of Bob Martin’s recent TDD class at Comcast was watching him use tests and a set of transformation patterns to evolve and transform code to eventually achieve its aims. By using a set of refactorings he called Transformations, you not only get to something that works, it will be easier to maintain, modify, and use.

RIP Dennis Ritchie

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Economist.com: “Dennis Ritchie, a father of modern computing, died on October 8th, aged 70”

Tim Bray: “DMR, 1941—2011”

A post to mark the passing of someone not so well known outside of technology, that should be, because so much of what they use today is founded upon his work. We owe so much to him.