Randall Degges: “How I Learned to Program”

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Randall Degges has a great post on how he, and you, can get started programming: “How I Learned to Program”:

Programming is, without a doubt, the most mentally rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Programming taught me that life should be fun, filled with creativity, and lived to the fullest. Programming taught me that anything is possible; I can do anything I want using only my mind.

Programming also taught me that learning is fun. It showed me that the more you know, the more power you have. Programming showed me that a life filled with learning is a life worth living. Programming revealed to me who I am inside, and has continuously helped me work towards my goals.

Is Programming The New High School Diploma?

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Daniel Markham makes the case for incorporating programming into what we consider literacy in his post “Programming is the new High School Diploma”.

I’m not sure I’d go as far as he would, but this is not an idea to dismiss out of hand as quite a few folks did in a Metafilter thread I was following that led me to post the following:

Actually there are many, many folks circling in on the idea that programming *is* part of a new definition of literacy.

I believe people should have basic programming skills, in as much as they have basic writing skills.

NOT simply to ‘know how a computer works’. Programing is far more than the act of giving instructions to computers to do things.

The idea isn’t to create more programmers/software engineers/computer scientists, just as teaching writing isn’t done for the sole aim of creating more authors (although it more easily opens the door). Instead, programming should be taught as a means to explore science, health, social studies, history, and math. Just as reading and writing are. Instead of creating a book report, create an interactive story with visualizations. Maybe work with other students in its production.

Even the most rudimentary programming skills enable us to better communicate with one another, to tell stories, to create our own games, and to better participate in the networked world we live in.

New tools like MIT’s Scratch are coming along to make much of this possible. Check it out.

Related:

Bret Victor – Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo.

Missing Doctor Who 2: What to Watch: The Caves of Androzani

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Continuing my series of posts on what Doctor Who episodes to watch while it isn’t on the air, I give you “The Caves of Androzani”.

Voted the top Doctor Who episode ever by fans back in 2009, it is claustrophobic, fast paced, and leaves you wanting to know more about Peter Davidson’s Doctor. He is in way over his head, with villains who have complicated motives, that are more than one dimensional, in a life or death situation that is personal and not universe shaking. I think this may be the last episode featuring a Doctor that is ‘just another Time Lord’ and the stakes feel very high, without needing a story having the entire galaxy on the precipice along with him.

“The most creative spaces are those which hurl us together. It is the human friction that makes the sparks.”

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Jonah Lehrer in the New Yorker lays out how Brainstorming exercises don’t add up to what we think, and shows us that diversity leads to more innovative ideas in “Groupthink: The Brainstroming Myth”:

The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions. The lesson of Building 20 is that when the composition of the group is right—enough people with different perspectives running into one another in unpredictable ways—the group dynamic will take care of itself. All these errant discussions add up. In fact, they may even be the most essential part of the creative process. Although such conversations will occasionally be unpleasant—not everyone is always in the mood for small talk or criticism—that doesn’t mean that they can be avoided. The most creative spaces are those which hurl us together. It is the human friction that makes the sparks.

Read the whole thing.

Rebuttal: Scott Berkun: “In Defense of Brainstorming”.