coding your way through school! dr. martine ceberio associate professor of computer science the...
TRANSCRIPT
Coding your way
through school!
Dr. Martine Ceberio
Associate Professor of Computer Science
The University of Texas at El Paso
Today’
s agenda
What is Coding? Computational Thinking?
Resources out there available for everyone
Some inspiring Efforts
Some Demonstrations
Brainstorming and Q&As… all under 50 minutes…
Codin
g?
Usually understood as:
writing in a language
that can be processed
by a computer (possibly
via computer software)
The process of writing
instructions – to achieve
a given task / solve a
given problem – so that a
computer can understand
Codin
g…
… in t
he
class
room
???
Tasks can be varied… not
necessarily science related Computer used as a
support for computations
(science?), for coded presentations (social
sciences? languages? etc.)
How hard is that????
… we’ll get to that point
Why c
ode?
Computers are everywhere! Computer literacy: we
know how to read, why not
know how to talk to a
computer? Understand how computers work… so it is
not black magic! And more: see below…http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/coded-success-benefits-learning-programhttp://www.codeconquest.com/what-is-coding/benefits/
Why
code?
In n
um
bers
!
Everybody in this country should learn
how to program a computer… because it
teaches you how to think
—Steve Jobs
Com
puta
tional
thin
king?
= problem-solving
process It can be: Algorithmically solving
problems of scale Formulating problems such
that computers can assist
Analyzing and logically
organizing data Generalizing and applying this
process to other problems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_thinking
Codin
g a
nd
Com
puta
tional
Thin
kin
g?
Coding teaches: Understanding the
problem to be solved Posing a problem /
defining tasks to be achieved Problem-solving
Being able to list steps to
be taken to solve a problem = breaking
problems into smaller
ones
In y
our
class
room
Computers as just another
support Like a notepad Like a camera Like a poster Examples: Math: design of experiments,
playing with expressions
Languages: coding, rather than
recording, videos Social Studies: researching apps
ideas for some area of
improvement / research
Also:
http://scratch.mit.edu/starter_projects/
http://www.alice.org/HourOfCode/introduction.html
http://studio.code.org
How
can y
ou d
o
it? How easily? Using which tool?
How steep is the learning
curve? Is this expensive? Does this involve math?
(Alm
ost
) Endle
ss
reso
urc
es
Tools: Alice: http://www.alice.org/index.php
Snap: http://snap.berkeley.edu
Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tip_bar
=getStarted Light-bot: http://lightbot.com
Processing: http://hello.processing.org
Code Studio: http://studio.code.org
Many more at http://code.org/learn
Others?
Endle
ss
reso
urc
es
Curricula: Code.org: http://code.org/educate
Exploring CS:http://code.org/files/ECSonepager.pdf
CS principles: http://code.org/files/CSPcurriculumflyer.p
df
CSTA.acm.org Engage CS: http://www.engage-
csedu.org
Opport
unit
ies
Code.org Professional development District partnerships Inspire students The Hour of Code
NCWIT.org Aspirations in Computing Data, best practices,
etc.
Ideas Let us look at what
can be done… … and then brainstorm about what
we can do
Sum
mary
Computers as just another
support (beyond paper,
cardboard, videos) Computers as just another
skill (in addition to reading,
writing, arithmetic) And it is not even hard:
Plenty of resources No need to prior knowledge
in most cases
And t
o c
oncl
ude
… Since I hear there is a
Super-Hero theme
at this conference!...
My
superh
ero
!C
odin
g is
like
havi
ng
super
pow
ers
!
