Social Nets in Education @ U. Michigan

Dr. Charles SeveranceUniversity of Michigan School of Information

www.dr-chuck.com

Social Nets in Education Workshop - July 8, 2010

• My previous job: Sakai Chief Architect and Exec Director

• My research topics: Software For Teaching and Learning, Web Lecture technologies, and High Performance Computing.

• I also work in developing standards for learning software interoperability

• Hobbies: Hockey, Off-Road Motorcycle Riding

www.si.umich.edu

informatics.umich.edu

Class of 20106 Women / 4 Men

6 Employed / 3 Graduate School

Python Courses

• SI301 - Social Computing / SI124 - Networked Thinking

• SI/EECS 182 - Introduction to Information Environments

• SI502 - Networked Computing

• SI539 - Design of Complex Web Sites (AppEngine)

www.pythonlearn.com

SI301 - Social Computing (SI124)

• Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowecki

• Networks, Crowds, and Markets by David Easley / Jon Kleinberg

• Chapters 1-18 - Avoiding all "Advanced" material

• Student's choose additional book for group project / presentation

SI301 - Projects...Crowdsourcing 

The Tipping PointInfluence: Science and Practice

WikinomicsThe Cathedral & the Bazaar

Viral LoopLong Tail

...

SI182 - Building Applications

• Textbook: Think Python by Allen B. Downey

• Optional Text: Using Google App Engine - Severance

• Completely cover programming in first 9 weeks

• Special topics and projects - Twitter API / Google App Engine / HTML etc

Taught by EECS and SI alternate semesters

I don’t like programming.I am not so good at math.

SI 182

CS Degree

Tech?

Other Degree

We don’t assume that just because you are in

a computer class - that you intend to pursue a computer

career.

EECS/SI182 - EECS Curriculumn

• Allows EECS to expreiment with a new programming sequence

• Current: C - C++

• Informatics: Python - Java - C++

• The question is a combination of how many courses toteach and how not to "lose" students in the process

SI502 - Networked Computing

• No pre-requisites

• Python for Informatics - focus on data analysis

• Internet History

• Internet Architecture

• Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)

• HTML and CSS

• Servie Oriented Architecture and REST Web Services

• Structured Query Language (SQL)

• Search Technology

• Security Issues and Technology

Python Textbook

• Python for Informatics: Exploring Information

• Author: Charles Severance

• Thanks to Allen B. Downey and Jeff Elkner

• http://www.py4inf.com/

• Free as a PDF

• Available the the Espresso (Shapiro Library) $10

SI539 - Google App Engine

• Aimed at beginner - includes Python, HTML, CSS, and AppEngine

• Focus is on building a interactive, lively, and creative personal portfolio hosted for free on Google's infrastructure

www.appenginelearn.com

Gender/Technology Issues

• MSI is 65% female - B.A. Informatics is 50% female - Design Goals

• Don't teach past the breaking point - focus on core/useful skills

• Multiple learning paths / styles - lecture / recording / discussion / lab

• All examples and problems must be relevant - when in doubt use data-driven examples about people - never number games

• SI502 W10 Averages - Female (n=63) = 95.5 Male (n=24)

I was always a humanities-type. Until I took SI502, I never knew home much I loved to code. I am thinking about becoming a

digital archivist.

I am currently taking SI502 and am shocked to find that I actually like it and want to do more. I see that you are not on

the faculty adviser list for the Fall but I was wondering if I could meet with you to discuss future courses.

Thanks so much for everything in 539. I learned SO much! I honestly was absolutely petrified of programming before 502 and liked it so much I felt

confident going into 539. And look what I can do now! (abby-bedford.appspot.com) Thanks for making programming not scary!

Thank You

• informatics.umich.edu

• www.si.umich.edu

• www.si502.com

• www.py4inf.com

• www.dr-chuck.com

All of my lecture slides for the courses I teach are

available as CC-BY. Please contact me at

csev@umich.edu