From kirby.urner at gmail.com Mon Jul 9 06:39:34 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 21:39:34 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] guide to learning decorators Message-ID: Re: http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Learning-Python-Decorators-ebook/dp/B006ZHJSIM I got the Kindle book on Python decorators. Quite inexpensive. I didn't give it my highest rating though, for two reasons: (a) there's some representing that an exhaustive treatment of the function arguments and parameters topic, but the use of * (asterisk) on its own, to section off keyword-only parameters, is not mentioned and (b) the authors hint at the many useful and wonderful things decorators might do, but are somewhat shy on examples. One would think just a few more pages of clever examples would round out the treatment. Other than those two omissions, I thought it was pretty strong. The main goal was to get to where your decorator function might itself take arguments, what that means. There are no examples of using a class as a decorator that I recall, nor of decorating a class. I should double check that. Kirby From matthewharrison at gmail.com Mon Jul 9 07:03:17 2012 From: matthewharrison at gmail.com (Matt Harrison) Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 23:03:17 -0600 Subject: [Edu-sig] guide to learning decorators In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hey Kirby- Author of said book replying :) On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 10:39 PM, kirby urner wrote: > Re: > http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Learning-Python-Decorators-ebook/dp/B006ZHJSIM > > I got the Kindle book on Python decorators. > > Thanks! > Quite inexpensive. > Yep, that might change as I'm in the middle of revamping my books. > > I didn't give it my highest rating though, for two reasons: > > (a) there's some representing that an exhaustive treatment of the > function arguments and parameters topic, but the use of * (asterisk) > on its own, to section off keyword-only parameters, is not mentioned > > I'm not sure I'm parsing this correctly. Could you elaborate? > and > > (b) the authors hint at the many useful and wonderful things decorators > might do, but are somewhat shy on examples. One would think just > a few more pages of clever examples would round out the treatment. > > Yep, this is a common complaint, and one that I'm addressing in the revamp. > Other than those two omissions, I thought it was pretty strong. The main > goal was to get to where your decorator function might itself take > arguments, > what that means. > > There are no examples of using a class as a decorator that I recall, nor > of decorating a class. I should double check that. > > You are correct. That is an omission that is somewhat on purpose. To have properly behaving decorators using classes requires understanding of descriptors. So it would complicate the book a bit. As people already cower when they hear decorators, I wanted to have a method that was approachable and worked reliably. Using classes as decorators is more grokable in some's opinion. But not reliable. I'm of the opinion that closures are useful and understandable on their own and that once they are understood, decorators fall out quite easily. And if closures make sense, then parameterized decorators are pretty easy as well. As decorator blog posts pop up quite often I like to keep abreast of this stuff. It seems to be a topic that interests many Python developers. I've used this method of teaching closures first to great success at my PyCon tutorials and have gotten good feedback. Part of my revamping is to include my iterator/generator book, decorator book, and a forthcoming book on functional programming constructs and list comprehensions/generator expressions in a larger tome. I'll probably include descriptors and classes as decorators in that. I'd love feedback from anyone on this list, and would get them a review/beta copy in return. thanks again for the review! -matt Kirby > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Mon Jul 9 07:50:27 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 22:50:27 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] guide to learning decorators In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 10:03 PM, Matt Harrison wrote: > Hey Kirby- > > Author of said book replying :) > Wow fast. I wondered if you'd spider over here for a chat (smile), sensing vibrations in the Web. >> >> I didn't give it my highest rating though, for two reasons: >> >> (a) there's some representing that an exhaustive treatment of the >> function arguments and parameters topic, but the use of * (asterisk) >> on its own, to section off keyword-only parameters, is not mentioned >> > > I'm not sure I'm parsing this correctly. Could you elaborate? > There's this new syntax that allows you to specify that certain parameters may only be set with keyword syntax (not positionally), yet they don't have default values. I don't think your book covered that wrinkle. >>> def hodgepodge(a, b, *, c, d, e=1, f='f', **g): # note asterisk alone as a parameter print(a, b, c, d, e, f, g, sep="\n") >>> hodgepodge(1, 2, 3, 4) # try to reach c, d positionally Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in hodgepodge(1, 2, 3, 4) TypeError: hodgepodge() takes exactly 2 positional arguments (4 given) >>> hodgepodge(1, 2, c=3, d=4) # fill them in, the rest have defaults or aren't mandatory (**g is happy to stay empty) 1 2 3 4 1 f {} >>> hodgepodge(1, 2, c=3, d=4, e=5, cat="dog") 1 2 3 4 5 f {'cat': 'dog'} >>> hodgepodge(1, 2) # c and d can't be left alone though, unlike typical keyword parameters, which have defaults Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in hodgepodge(1, 2) TypeError: hodgepodge() needs keyword-only argument c >>> hodgepodge(1, 2, c=3) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in hodgepodge(1, 2, c=3) TypeError: hodgepodge() needs keyword-only argument d >>> hodgepodge(1, 2, c=3, d=4) # gotta mention 'em both Thanks for sharing more about your plans. I am excited to get up to speed on a Kindle (recent acquisition) in a way that boosts my Python and Bucky worlds, also Portland. In chronological order, my downloads have been: The Lost Inventions of Buckminster Fuller and Other Essays Blake, Trevor June 30, 2012 Portland Memorials Blake, Trevor June 30, 2012 Guide to: Learning Python Decorators Harrison, Matt June 30, 2012 The Time Machine Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) July 1, 2012 The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Includes Essay About the History of the Horror Genre) Poe, Edgar Allan, Golgotha Press July 1, 2012 Kirby From mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us Mon Jul 9 12:00:26 2012 From: mamckenna at sch.ci.lexington.ma.us (Marianne McKenna) Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 06:00:26 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 108, Issue 1 Message-ID: I will be out of the office today. If you need immediate help please contact the computer center. Thanks. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kirby.urner at gmail.com Wed Jul 11 08:45:24 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:45:24 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Education Room (Pycon 2013) Message-ID: Vern and I have been chatting off list about his plans for an Education Room (ER? -- name collision) at Pycon 2013 (US). I've been thinking of exhibits, independently of the poster space, giving a sense of Python's span, as well has history, vis-a-vis the education systems. We've talked about Raspberry Pi and the RaspberryJam meetups these inspire, and OLPC -- I thought we should exhibit an XO tablet or two, running Sugar. Could we have those as prizes? Vern talked about his sense, chatting with educators, that we still lack a great set of resources for K-12 use. 'Mathematics for the Digital Age' is great, but couldn't we have more along these lines? 'How To Think Like a Computer Scientist' has also come a long way since Jeffrey Elkner helped bring it into Python culture, where it has remained. http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/ I find myself recommending it to students pretty often. Regarding the future of Python in K-12, I think there are other discussions going on that will have an impact. STEM is a buzzword these days, but more than that it's the old school idea of a more integrated curriculum, wherein S, T, E and M have much less of a "standalone" or "stand offish" attitude. For quite awhile, I was hoping to get a blend of CS and math topics (like in 'Digital Age') accepted for math credits in the State of Oregon. I wasn't the only one with this hope. We had that workshop / planning meeting about it 3 years ago now. [1] The "Digital Math" or "Computational Thinking" or Discrete Math" topics were floated. I was pushing a 4 year track parallel to established "analog math" so we could have some green field development. That's still a useful vision for me, but I've more recently been attracted to STEM as a way to bring more Python in particular into more student spheres. The idea of a machine as a "formal system" is strong enough to keep the math purists from retaliating too concertedly. It's not like we're getting off topic.[2] We shall see. I joked we should call it the World Domination Room in light of Python's evident success, a tongue-in-cheek allusion to a perennial theme within free software and open access movements. Speaking of World Domination, Michelle's experiment in an all-mostly women Python class went well per reports, with more maxed out sessions already scheduled. The PSF has been financially supportive. I joke that a lot of my students might be veiled when in public, given the distance ed protocol.[3] I evaluate between 100 - 200 projects and quizzes a day, from around the Global U. Anyway, some brain storming on the big picture and how it's going might help us steer the direction of the Education Room in 2013. Feel free to share overview. Kirby [1] Chris Brooks went on to WebMD and I lost touch with SAO, so I'm not sure if anyone meets about this still. I've stopped getting those emails. [2] http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/logsys/machines.htm [3] http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2012/07/ppug-2012710.html ("perhaps some of them veiled in Tehran") From ntoll at ntoll.org Wed Jul 11 13:36:10 2012 From: ntoll at ntoll.org (Nicholas H.Tollervey) Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:36:10 +0100 Subject: [Edu-sig] Education Room (Pycon 2013) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4FFD652A.4070308@ntoll.org> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, I'm a former teacher currently working as a Python developer and I've stepped up to help organise the "Education" track at this year's PyconUK (happening in September - see http://pyconuk.org). Given this fact and the OP, education is making more in-roads to conferences so perhaps we could pool resources and / or share tips, ideas and so on..? In any case, my current thinking for PyconUK is to concentrate on teachers. Many ICT (information and communication technology) teachers do not have a background in computing - often they're business studies teachers who have side stepped into the subject. Furthermore, in the UK at least, Python has a good reputation among the CAS (Computing At School) group of teachers and there's a lot of interest from teachers to find out more. I have four aims: 1) Run an "Introduction to Python" tutorial a la open-hatch with an emphasis on welcoming teachers. 2) Following #1, run a code dojo (see http://ntoll.org/how-to-run-an-awesome-code-dojo.html) so teachers and developers get to interact with each other in solving a programming problem. This is important because it'll allow teachers to observe Python being used "in anger", encourage them to ask questions and get a peek into some of the machinations of development. 3) Facilitate the creation of schemes of work (perhaps a UK term, but basically a block of lessons concerning a specific topic). The final day of the conference is earmarked "sprints" and I see this as an opportunity for colleagues to get their heads together and start working on producing teaching resources released under a CC type license. One problem I foresee is that UK teachers have to make lesson plans OFSTED proof (OFSTED = UK education thought police / inspection monopoly). This usually results in an over-abundance of jargon, keywords and box ticking that probably isn't relevant to the wider educational community. 4) Just let teachers soak up Python by being at the conference, attending talks and chatting to developers. There's also a conference meal and various social events planned and I feel it important that they report back to the teaching community that the Python community is a nice place to be. Anyway, I see this as an opportunity to promote an international "teachers who use Python" type collaboration. Thoughts, comments, suggestions and critique most welcome! Nicholas. On 11/07/12 07:45, kirby urner wrote: > Vern and I have been chatting off list about his plans for an > Education Room (ER? -- name collision) at Pycon 2013 (US). > > I've been thinking of exhibits, independently of the poster space, > giving a sense of Python's span, as well has history, vis-a-vis > the education systems. > > We've talked about Raspberry Pi and the RaspberryJam meetups these > inspire, and OLPC -- I thought we should exhibit an XO tablet or > two, running Sugar. Could we have those as prizes? > > Vern talked about his sense, chatting with educators, that we > still lack a great set of resources for K-12 use. 'Mathematics for > the Digital Age' is great, but couldn't we have more along these > lines? > > 'How To Think Like a Computer Scientist' has also come a long way > since Jeffrey Elkner helped bring it into Python culture, where it > has remained. > > http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/ > > I find myself recommending it to students pretty often. > > Regarding the future of Python in K-12, I think there are other > discussions going on that will have an impact. > > STEM is a buzzword these days, but more than that it's the old > school idea of a more integrated curriculum, wherein S, T, E and M > have much less of a "standalone" or "stand offish" attitude. > > For quite awhile, I was hoping to get a blend of CS and math > topics (like in 'Digital Age') accepted for math credits in the > State of Oregon. I wasn't the only one with this hope. > > We had that workshop / planning meeting about it 3 years ago now. > [1] > > The "Digital Math" or "Computational Thinking" or Discrete Math" > topics were floated. I was pushing a 4 year track parallel to > established "analog math" so we could have some green field > development. > > That's still a useful vision for me, but I've more recently been > attracted to STEM as a way to bring more Python in particular into > more student spheres. > > The idea of a machine as a "formal system" is strong enough to > keep the math purists from retaliating too concertedly. It's not > like we're getting off topic.[2] > > We shall see. I joked we should call it the World Domination Room > in light of Python's evident success, a tongue-in-cheek allusion to > a perennial theme within free software and open access movements. > > Speaking of World Domination, Michelle's experiment in an > all-mostly women Python class went well per reports, with more > maxed out sessions already scheduled. The PSF has been financially > supportive. > > I joke that a lot of my students might be veiled when in public, > given the distance ed protocol.[3] I evaluate between 100 - 200 > projects and quizzes a day, from around the Global U. > > Anyway, some brain storming on the big picture and how it's going > might help us steer the direction of the Education Room in 2013. > Feel free to share overview. > > Kirby > > [1] Chris Brooks went on to WebMD and I lost touch with SAO, so > I'm not sure if anyone meets about this still. I've stopped > getting those emails. > > [2] http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/logsys/machines.htm > > [3] http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2012/07/ppug-2012710.html > ("perhaps some of them veiled in Tehran") > _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing > list Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJP/WUqAAoJEP0qBPaYQbb6L/QH+wRG8kjJx4u6V/zbPEIvBZOc 6ED4l8NZRFgll/3HdZFoZxbND/4AiKyRq8OjZ8x9X9ZOSC5lurLnaTS3hsUZryXE Npku+d1XlzBNeNL8uKpxRnVK8Y6DG11ZzhBOlVwmxqmv2uHv0c0fVtJqou0RU8TH 4LWQ/sGJzBGBtDHwqCusb8lRCALFJM9t+br168E0IWw2tSFOd6Y4z5wMx2GdbDN8 ugMB2uw4UcbrknnJN4Zxu1inyuACAiITyYLy5Lw5ex7BokmCo90HyfzD3H+L+ZgW YslyWLrUN3xNmdrwKxKFadLflsnWtolKIV/a1iN5YKz3F0vl+1GhqGVncKmqC10= =Xixr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Jul 13 05:53:23 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:53:23 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] more pix of Raspberry Pi Message-ID: Steve Holden is fresh back from the UK and had one of these in his pocket (yes they're quite tiny). Had it working in studio within minutes: some happy tweeting across the room. Steve Holden ?@holdenweb The @Raspberry_Pi looks pretty neat projected on my living room wall. Pictures coming courtesy of @thekirbster 5m Kirby Urner Kirby Urner ?@thekirbster @holdenweb here's the blog post, w pix http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2012/07/from-open-bastion.html Kirby From zevlg at yandex.ru Fri Jul 13 13:43:10 2012 From: zevlg at yandex.ru (Evgeny Zajcev) Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:43:10 +0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] more pix of Raspberry Pi In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: 2012/7/13 kirby urner : > Steve Holden is fresh back from the UK and had one of these in his > pocket (yes they're quite tiny). > > Had it working in studio within minutes: some happy tweeting across the room. > > Steve Holden ?@holdenweb > > The @Raspberry_Pi looks pretty neat projected on my living room wall. > Pictures coming courtesy of @thekirbster > > 5m Kirby Urner Kirby Urner ?@thekirbster > > @holdenweb here's the blog post, w pix > http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2012/07/from-open-bastion.html I've been able to make RaspberryPi smoothly play FullHD video, here is the screenshot - https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yd7QUT3ujlQ/T-2QzuE5POI/AAAAAAAACGs/_JeF_q3YAzQ/s1024/P1010060.JPG > > Kirby > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig -- lg From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Jul 13 18:19:49 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:19:49 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] more pix of Raspberry Pi In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > I've been able to make RaspberryPi smoothly play FullHD video, here is > the screenshot - > https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yd7QUT3ujlQ/T-2QzuE5POI/AAAAAAAACGs/_JeF_q3YAzQ/s1024/P1010060.JPG > >> >> Kirby Way cool. Looks like 'Bugs Life' on screen maybe. We figured out how to modify /etc/default/keyboard to make it "us" instead of "gb" (Great Britain) -- didn't get as far as audio out yet. The x gig boot / storage device is not included in the $30 price tag. These can be swapped around with different distros. Kirby From kirby.urner at gmail.com Fri Jul 13 23:59:59 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:59:59 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Education Room (Pycon 2013) In-Reply-To: <4FFD652A.4070308@ntoll.org> References: <4FFD652A.4070308@ntoll.org> Message-ID: On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 4:36 AM, Nicholas H.Tollervey wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hi, > > I'm a former teacher currently working as a Python developer and I've > stepped up to help organise the "Education" track at this year's > PyconUK (happening in September - see http://pyconuk.org). > That all sounds like excellent thinking and planning Nicholas. My experience is a minority will seize on the new toys / tools and share their delight with peers. Many will only be swayed if they see student enthusiasm tick up as well, but that requires getting that far (so where's the door to get in again? -- not math class they say). The idea of a classroom especially outfitted for computer-based learning is still new and undeveloped. The idea of "passing a terminal around" or better, having students enabled to share their screens in real time, front projected, or to join the teacher at the command line (two keyboards feed the same console), or to split the console among screens... we don't try enough such experiments. I always thought HP would get into that, but then "selling classrooms" is not quite like "selling cath labs" (more GE's line of business) -- could be though, if schools were built more like hospitals. PythonAnyhwere: https://www.pythonanywhere.com/ http://python-in-the-lab.blogspot.de/ (Lantz is looking interesting) More open sorcery needed. The economic bottleneck in my state of Oregon is that CS is an elective meaning it doesn't count towards requirements. The idea that getting serious at the command line, learning all that open source jazz, could count towards the math requirement was what we floated, as three years of math is required, by order of the state. The lawyers who write such standards *may* know computers exist but this should not be taken for granted. Remember, Oregon is home to places like Boring, Fossil and Remote. And Dufur: >>> "Ask not what Dufur can dufur you, but what you can dufur Dufur".replace("dufur", "do for") # Heh. So say you've done your algebra / geometry and need one more year of math, and maybe calculus isn't quite your cup of tea. We've got this other thing for you then. Piece of cake. Didn't fly yet though, except informally it's what half the kids are doing anyway. Like my daughter (18) got help rooting her phone to upgrade the OS, but don't expect any classes in your high school to help with that. You're lucky if there's one dusty room with Ubuntu somewhere. If you wanna learn fast, make up excuses to stay home, where the bandwidth is better. Sad but true. But with teachers coming up to speed more.... could be a whole new ballgame. School could become relevant again, maybe! Kirby From kirby.urner at gmail.com Sat Jul 21 20:36:24 2012 From: kirby.urner at gmail.com (kirby urner) Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:36:24 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] first thoughts after OSCON Message-ID: I've been to a number of OSCONs in my day, this being the 2nd wherein a participated behind the scenes on the talks selection committee, a pretty big commitment actually. I've also been a speaker, which is pressure of a different kind. OSCON is like a weather sensing device, very sensitive, but of patterns to complicated for the solo brain to grok, at least in the short time -- takes time to consider. Like this year the Cloud was big, with both Rackspace and HP about to get more public about their support for the OpenStack solution, which is very much a Python project, which is not to say Java can't be spun up in a virtual server just like anything else i.e. a commitment to Python as a platform language has nothing to do with limiting the freedoms of developers. Yes, we have a lot of Java programmers out there, thanks in large degree to a chapter wherein people went gaga for Java, especially in CS. And why not? It's a good and capable language. I worked at upping my level of appreciation for Go, no not the board game, the computer language. Yes it's open source and yes the talks and tutorial were well attended. I bought a book on Go as well, got it compiling on the Air. Could there be an implementation of Python in the Go language someday? That was my first question when Go started to get press, whereas the more computer illiterate were asking dumb questions like was Go the new Python killer. One's a system language the other's an agile. If history is any guide, there'll be be a GoPython someday. The Python and Perl tracks were both strong this year. You can't beat Damian Conway for drawing an audience. I'm a huge fan of Perl mongers. Sorry but that divide and conquer thing didn't work. We agiles are soul mates. OSCON got going thanks to Perl. What was kinda weird though was the education track in F-151 (kinda of like Area 51). The Common Standards buzz is a new one at OSCON, reminiscent of OLPC in terms of reaching a peak, feeding a frenzy, but I didn't sense the same levels. To be fair though, I didn't make it to either Texas Pycon, when OLPC was flying high. Pearson was there, and the Shared Learning Collaborative. http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012/public/schedule/detail/26434 What were they there for, mostly? To recruit? To share source code? To attend others' talks? These are questions to take back for further analysis. I guess one could ask a similar question about O'Reilly School of Technology, but no, not really, as (a) OST presented no talks and (b) we're just O'Reilly Media (part of) anyway, but with a Red Leaf logo, so we're an expected presence, with an already obvious agenda. In the case of the FERPA talk, it sounded like university admin might like more help with their dino sinking ship codebase, and I agree, they could use some. No question. What I took away from my brief work with Portland State (vicariously, not a direct contract) was that universities should do a lot more to eat their own dog food when it comes to administrative software. Start from the open source "clay" the real world economy uses, and take this as a teaching opportunity, with lessons about how closed data is still quite possible in this environment and in fact security is more robust as computer literacy improves across the population. I look forward to more university presence someday. They should be getting their faculty from us. We do STEM, not just computer science. The focus on outdoor sports, quantified self, camping (for real), planting sensors and enviro-cams around the world (oreilly/animals) is already well entrenched. The idea this is a group of cola drinking nerds eating pizza in windowless basements is way too 1970s. If that's your picture, time to hit fast forward on that antique VCR of yours. Kirby From calcpage at aol.com Mon Jul 30 01:10:16 2012 From: calcpage at aol.com (A. Jorge Garcia) Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:10:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Edu-sig] Updated Blog - Khan Academy: Savior of the American Educational System? In-Reply-To: <5ac7889a-4901-4082-a1b9-671dff6d47c4@email.android.com> References: <5ac7889a-4901-4082-a1b9-671dff6d47c4@email.android.com> Message-ID: <8CF3BF67340C1B4-1340-3560C@webmail-m035.sysops.aol.com> I blogged about Khan Academy recently. If you've seen my post, you may want to revisit it as I've been updating it over the last few weeks. I've been getting a lot of email queries about SmartBoarding and ScreenCasting so I've been adding them to this blog post: http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2012/07/kahn-academy-savior-of-american.html HTH, A. Jorge Garcia Applied Math & CompSci http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com http://ww.youtube.com/calcpage2009 From kurner at oreillyschool.com Mon Jul 30 04:16:52 2012 From: kurner at oreillyschool.com (Kirby Urner) Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:16:52 -0700 Subject: [Edu-sig] Updated Blog - Khan Academy: Savior of the American Educational System? In-Reply-To: <8CF3BF67340C1B4-1340-3560C@webmail-m035.sysops.aol.com> References: <5ac7889a-4901-4082-a1b9-671dff6d47c4@email.android.com> <8CF3BF67340C1B4-1340-3560C@webmail-m035.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 4:10 PM, A. Jorge Garcia wrote: > > I blogged about Khan Academy recently. If you've seen my post, you may want to revisit it as I've been updating it over the last few weeks. I've been getting a lot of email queries about SmartBoarding and ScreenCasting so I've been adding them to this blog post: > > http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2012/07/kahn-academy-savior-of-american.html > > HTH, > A. Jorge Garcia > Applied Math & CompSci > http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com > http://ww.youtube.com/calcpage2009 > > I've been writing about Khan Academy too sometimes: """ Keith Devlin's idea at the Oregon Math Summit (1997) was that basic competence in computation and numeracy needed to diffuse throughout the curriculum, so that these generic life skills would not be overly confused with "mathematics" in particular. I support that idea, but in part I see the process ("cultural osmosis" you could call it) happening outside the school. 'Sesame Street' marked a turning point in elementary education in many ways. 'Khan Academy' is just code for didactic content in short clips, i.e. 'Sesame Street' at a higher level (might still feature animation and puppets -- Khan's are one aesthetic among many). In other words, if we're talking about how to advance the level of STEM sophistication in the broader culture, among youth and oldsters alike, it's not a given that "aligning the the Common Core" is where to focus -- more a side show than a big tent activity. We have far more leverage in other areas, such as in the content of Saturday morning cartoons. Bill Nye the Science Guy made a big difference to STEM and yet those silly DCers don't award "best teacher" to TV personalities, because they're too busy inspiring a different set of vocations as encoded in Department of Labor catalogs (i.e. "TV personality" is not coded as "Teacher"). Katie Couric is not considered a "teacher". She's an "anchor". Such are the exigencies of the English language and its many calcified / codified grammars (language games). """ http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7854797 Kirby