I picked up an IGo Bluetooth keyboard pretty cheap from Amazon.com — it arrived today and works pretty well.
Yes, I would probaby rather have an 810 but I wasn’t even sure I wanted an internet tablet when I ordered it and didn’t like the price on the 810. It’s nice to have the internet but not be chained to a computer.
It took a couple of attempts to pair,but it seems to be working okay now.
Give me a few days to see how I really like it.
Every once in a while, I get to wondering if there would be a market for holding private lessons in Computer Science. Frankly, I have all the resources one would need to hold small group programming classes in my home — basically a good wireless network, and could even set up a good wired network.
Here’s why I got to thinking about it last night — one of my agility friends has a teen age boy who is not only interested in games, but in how they are written and is completely self taught. They do not offer any type of programming class in his school and she thinks it would be good for him. Of course, they live on the other side of the planet from me, and while I don’t mind losing my entire evening to dog training, I doubt she’d want to drive here.
The other reason is the time factor. I just don’t have any more hours in my day. I might have a few this summer, but since I’ve already decided to teach summer school to keep people out of my lab … I might not.
Alfred tagged me at Computer Science Teacher’
The thing I think my students should learn about is software design. That’s why I picked a flowchart template. In fact, I’ve been having my students flowchart but by using Raptor, not an old fashioned template.
Oh, and I had to use one of those in my first job. I think we were supposed to in the second, but we were always so pushed to get it done, we didn’t get there.
My internet heroes are:
Scott Hasselman
Clint Rutka
Alfred Thompson (sorry, but i have to link back)
CSTA Blog
Kathy Schrock
One of my new heros did this interview — actually an old hero, as I have been reading his blog, but met him in person at the Games Conference. I’m really excited about being able to show this video in class — hopefully I can reach some of my spanish speakers, several of them are quite good at code.
Quoted from http://betterthaneveryone.com/archive/2008/03/10/i-interviewed-miguel-de-icaza.aspx:
At Mix ’08, I had the privilege to interview Miguel de Icaza.
My next trip is to San Antonio — the last day of June. I am going to CSTA which is a one day event, breakfast and registraton at 8:00, first session at 8:45. I’m kicking around the idea of flying in that day — first flight in is at 7:55 and the hotel is 7 miles from the airport, and both are on a major highway.
If i do that, I do not have to travel with my CPAP machine, making the whole trip much more TSA friendly. Also cheaper, hotel rooms are $100+ a night.
Any thoughts?
What does "name your large 5A high school in the suburbs" do when there is a fire?
They evaluate the entire building.
What do we do at Dallas ISD?
Put the fire out.
Seriuosly. I’ve helped put a couple of fires out, mostly restroom, one Home Ec. Last month, we had two fires in the district, and in both cases, we put the fire out and went
Fire Damages Lincoln High Camus in Dallas, classes to be held.
This is one of my lost posts from the DNS problems, but VERY revelant
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22686809/
This is really true in the computer science classroom, as the best I can hope for in a sub is a babysitter. Physically things are not too bad. The hall pass is missing and I’ve alerted the administrators AND replaced it.
As for learning — not as many assignments got turned in as I would like.
This six weeks was very hard for my webmastering students. We did Flash, and it is not a piece of software I am comfrtable with. We’re using an older version and the online tutorials do not work as well as they could. Plus we don’t have a book or other reference. Debugging Flash is hard for me. Doing Flash is hard for the kids. The good news, is that now we are doing Dreamweaver and I am very comfortable with it.
My computer science kiddos are just not putting the time and energy into the class they need to. The majority are not taking it seriously and are not asking for help. They waste a lot of class time.
The good news is that the PreAP kids are doing the best.
And my favorite CS kiddo has gained an new appreciation for me, because she got stuck on Monday, and i called in on Tuesday and got her unstuck over the phone.
I still think the trip was worth it, but it did make the week even harder — I was gone Thursday and Friday, which were the end of the six weeks. Also gone Monday and Tuesday. Monday traveling and Tuesday recovering and grading(and I did work all day Saturday and Sunday!). I never would have gotten the work graded if I had came in , as it was, I finished about 2:00 pm.
Wednesday was ELA testing day and only 7th period met.
And now we are out for spring break….
So, here’s the WIkipedia entry. There is actually a binder that was published, that has lesson plans. I know, because it is sitting on my desk.
I’ve downloaded a copy and a program called DOS Box and am working on getting it setup so that the kids can play it easily.
If I got nothing else from the workshop — I’ve gotten this! A program that entertains while teaching problem solving.
Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine:
The Incredible Machine – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Incredible Machine (aka TIM) is a series of computer games that were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell
I agree with the entire article and she says it so well. It was very nice to meet Barb there.
Computer Science Teachers Association
I have just returned from the Game Development in Computer Science Education (GDCSE) conference. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 10 Electronic Arts Scholars. The conference was sponsored by Microsoft and Electronic Arts in cooperation with ACM and SIGCSE. It was an intense conference and I did learn some interesting things.
One of the presenters at the Conference mentioned "The Incredible Machine", and one of the first things I’ve done today was to look for it in my closet in my classroom. I found it and I found the original Teacher’s Guide.
I couldn’t help it, when the presenter mentioned his company owned it, I had to comment on how cool it was. So now I’m going to try to get it to run.
Company was GarageGames and they make TorqueX which I am planning to play with.
Unfortunately the floppy doesn’t work, and my current mission is to find it on the web — we "own" 28 copies!
