|
|
||||
|
Toronto, Ontario Helping scientists build better software since 1997 Areas of Expertise:
Greg blogs at: Audrey Watters on Software Carpentry February 10 2012 Audrey Watters is a prolific, insightful writer on all things related to technology and education. I recently asked her to take a look at this course, and tell us what sorts of things might be worth trying. Her first post on the subject asks some questions about educating end-user programmers… read moreAdvanced Scientific Programming in Python February 10 2012 Advanced Scientific Programming in Python A Summer School by the G-Node and the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have evolved, only few scientists actually use them. As a result,… read moreComparing Software Carpentry to CS Principles February 09 2012 A lot of new educational initiatives in computing have sprung up in the past couple of years, ranging from Mozilla’s Hackasaurus to the UK rethinking its grade-school curriculum. One of the biggest is the “Computer Science: Principles” project in the United States, which, with backing from the National Science Foundation,… read moreFebruary 09 2012 Based on the feedback we’ve had on my first attempt at Software Carpentry in 90 Seconds, it seems as though we should actually create three videos: one aimed at potential participants, i.e., students, workshop organizers, and content creators (since we’re hoping these will largely be the same people); one for… read moreWhy We Don’t Teach Parallel Computing in Software Carpentry February 07 2012 Konrad Hinsen recently wrote a blog post that explains why teaching parallel computing with Python is hard. To make a long story short, Python’s multiprocessing module can fail on simple problems in a whole bunch of ways that require fairly advanced understanding to diagnose and repair—and that’s even before you… read moreFebruary 03 2012 Here are the workshops we have lined up for the next few months: International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, February 18 – March 2 University of Toronto, February 23-24 Indiana University, March 7-8 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, March 26-27 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, March 28-29 University of Chicago, April… read moreFebruary 03 2012 Our first online tutorial with the folks at the Space Telescope Science Institute via Skype, and I think it worked well. Our setup was: The students got together in a meeting room. Each student brought their own laptop. One extra laptop was connected to the projector; its webcam was pointed… read moreSoftware Carpentry in Ninety-Five Seconds February 03 2012 I posted a ninety-five second explanation of Software Carpentry on YouTube today. Feedback would be very welcome. read moreSoftware Carpentry in a Minute and a Half February 02 2012 I’ve recorded a first draft of the quick introduction I mentioned yesterday. Feedback would be very welcome. read moreWhere To Host Q&A and Discussion? February 02 2012 People have questions and want answers, or ideas and complaints they want to share. Right now, the only ways for them to do this on our site are: Mail us. Add a comment to a page or blog post. Um… that’s it. We experimented with forums last year, but they… read moreBullshit, Appropriation, and Technology in Education February 02 2012 A few weeks ago, a former student who’s now a friend asked me to teach him how to bullshit. At first I couldn’t decide whether I was flattered or offended, but then I decided I was more curious than anything. What did he mean by that? And why did he… read moreFebruary 01 2012 “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya I recently sat in on an online discussion with Cathy Davidson, whose work focuses on technology, collaboration, cognition, and learning. She recently wrote a blog post titled “Why We Need a… read moreRe-doing the Three-Minute Pitch February 01 2012 It’s time to revise Software Carpentry’s three-minute pitch. Here’s what I think I need to say; as always, comments would be welcome. Opening slide: large logo, the title “Computing Skills for Scientists and Engineers”, and a small block at the bottom with the date and license. Our mission is to… read moreFebruary 01 2012 In a recent podcast, the always-interesting Audrey Watters talks about the tension between innovators who want to use technology to disrupt existing models of education built around top-down sales to school districts, rather than direct delivery to learners, and the big “educational” companies’ desire to subsume those technologies into their… read moreJanuary 31 2012 It’s time to reorganize this web site. Here’s my plan; comments would be welcome. In particular, WordPress might not be the right tool to use going forward, but I’m not sure what else would be as easy to set up and maintain. Overall design: the logo and “Software Carpentry” always… read moreI Hope Someone Has Already Built This January 31 2012 Over the next few months, I want to experiment with at least four new learning formats for Software Carpentry. The baseline is what we have now: each topic is covered in 6-10 lessons, each of which has its own page. Most of those pages have a voice-over-slideshow video lasting 5… read moreJanuary 29 2012 I originally wrote these descriptions as part of a post on formats for learning material. I’m finding them useful in other contexts as well, so I’m re-posting them separately. Our description of our audience describes four scientific users in more detail. Zuzel likes textbooks. More specifically, she likes prose that… read moreJanuary 29 2012 Before going further with the redesign of the Software Carpentry curriculum, I need to define a few terms and their relationships: A concept is an atom of learning. It can be a fact (e.g., what a call stack is), a technique (e.g., how to pass parameters to a function), or… read moreA Browser-Based Programming Tool That’s Better Than Many Desktop Tools January 29 2012 I don’t know who Philip Guo is, but I think he’s amazing—at least, the software he creates is. Like several other tools, his Online Python Tutor lets you write and run code in the browser; unlike others, though, his allows users to step forward and backward through program execution, and… read moreWork As Though You Lived in the Early Days of a Better Nation January 27 2012 Cam Macdonell teaches computer science at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. Last September, he had to deliver a software engineering class for the first time. Instead of giving his students the kind of throwaway project such classes are usually built around, he put them to work on Ushahidi, a humanitarian… read moreJanuary 26 2012 Frequency a page is viewed (as a percentage of total views) vs. pages (ordered by frequency); data taken over the last 90 days. I guess there’s something to this “long tail” stuff after all. read moreJanuary 26 2012 It’s amazing what you can learn when you don’t have cable TV: peaceful.com says “coming soon”. joyful.com is a one-man software shop. At least he’s Irish. disappointed.com tells you to get over it. angry.com and sad.com are both for sale. happy.com redirects to Walgreen’s pharmacy. read moreNever Mind the Content, What About the Format? January 26 2012 I’m still gnawing on the problem of how to construct content for 21st Century learning—or, more prosaically, what I should use to build the next version of Software Carpentry. My starting point is the need to serve several different kinds of users [1]: Zuzel likes textbooks. More specifically, she likes… read moreThinking Through a 21st Century Replacement for PowerPoint January 26 2012 Over on the Software Carpentry site, I’ve posted another set of musings on what a 21st Century learning content creation tool (i.e., a PowerPoint killer) would look like. Comments welcome… read moreJanuary 25 2012 I’ve taken a stab at rewriting the high-level description of Software Carpentry; I think what’s below the fold is still jumbled, but feedback would be very welcome. In particular, I need to cross-check that: The dozen questions that scientists most often ask are answered by the core syllabus. The dozen… read moreJanuary 24 2012 Based on the feedback we’ve received so far (both as comments and by email), it looks like we should take development methodologies (i.e., agile development) out of the core curriculum and replace it with two hours on: Nothing: there’s already too much in the core. Spreadsheets: because many scientists use… read moreJanuary 24 2012 Once again, Cameron Neylon explains things much better than I ever could: “The impact factor of a journal is a better predictor of the chances of a paper being retracted than…of the number of citations.” read moreJanuary 24 2012 Apple’s announcement, blah blah blah—I think Audrey Watters’ “Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-revolution” sums it up best. So what should a “textbook” for a webified world look like? David Andrade’s description of what he does in his physics course, and Frank Noschese’s “Vision for a Physics iBook” are much… read moreJanuary 24 2012 One of the things we need to do in the next six months along with running boot camps and updating our online content is to create some sort of badging to recognize people’s skills and contributions. As we said in the proposal to the Sloan Foundation, “A badge program will… read moreA Better Solution to the Final Problem January 23 2012 I enjoyed the first three episodes of BBC’s Sherlock. I was disappointed by how episode 4 (the first of the newest trilogy) resolved episode 3′s hangover, but immediately forgave the writers as A Scandal in Belgravia unfolded. But then came episode 5, The Hounds of Baskerville, which was frankly awful.… read moreJanuary 23 2012 OK, so on the one hand we have online education growing by leaps and zounds, until anyone who really wants to do a quality university degree can do so from the comfort and security of their parents’ basement. On the other hand, we have the quite natural desire of 18-year-olds… read moreJanuary 23 2012 I’ve been thinking some more about what the foundation and core of Software Carpentry actually are (and not just because Jon Pipitone keeps pestering me to do so). My last attempt had a foundation of seven principles and dozen topics in the core. I think I can slim that down… read moreThe Life I Did Live…the Breath I Breathed January 21 2012 Sylvia Jane Cotton (née Wilson), November 7, 1964 – January 21, 2012 When I die, I shall breathe back the breath that made me live. I shall give back to the world all that I didn’t do. All that I might have been and wasn’t. All the choices I didn’t… read moreJanuary 20 2012 We just wrapped up the first boot camp of 2012 at the Space Telescope Science Institute. 14 scientists with a wide variety of computational backgrounds spent two days learning about testing, version control, program structure, the basics of Python, and the psychology of learning and programming. We’re following up with… read moreJanuary 20 2012 I was passionate about politics when I was in my twenties, mostly because I was desperate for something to be passionate about. (I had friends who felt as strongly about Hibs and jazz as I did about apartheid and nuclear weapons, for much the same reason.) And while I’d never… read moreJanuary 17 2012 The P2PU course I’m leading on teaching programming to free-range learners [1] officially kicked off this week. The first two challenges are up. First, compare the way you teach (or the way you’ve been taught) to the research-based best practices in this IES report. Second, describe who you’re trying to… read moreJanuary 15 2012 I’ve been teaching scientists to program since 1998 (or 1986, if you want to start with my first lunch-and-learn for grad students in physics at the University of Edinburgh). Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in that time, but I don’t think it’s any easier than it used to… read moreSo, Greg, What Are You Up To These Days? January 14 2012 I’m glad you asked: Today was my last day at Side Effects; thanks to a grant from the Sloan Foundation, I start work on Software Carpentry again on Monday. I’m running an open course on how to teach programming to free-range learners over at P2PU, which also starts on Monday.… read moreThe What, Why, and How of Boot Camps January 13 2012 We’ve just added a single-page description of the two-day boot camps we’re planning to run in the next six months. In brief, their aim is to ensure that people have a few core skills, so that they can tackle our online material productively, and to help them get past startup… read moreJanuary 12 2012 The Internet of Things is already here: it’s just strangely distributed. (I’d probably exercise more if I had one of these, and yeah, a gym full of them would be cacophonous, but imagine getting your whole aerobics class to punch four-part harmony?) read moreSloan Foundation Grant for Software Carpentry January 12 2012 I’m very pleased to announce that the Sloan Foundation has generously agreed to fund six months of work by Software Carpentry and the Mozilla Foundation. You can read more on the Software Carpentry blog; it’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to it. read moreSloan Foundation Grant to Software Carpentry and Mozilla January 11 2012 We are very pleased to announce that the Sloan Foundation has generously agreed to fund six months of work by Software Carpentry and the Mozilla Foundation. The proposal we submitted, which outlines what we’re going to try to do, is included below—it’s a lot of work, but we’re very excited… read moreI Have a Cunning Plan (or, Making Money by Doing Good) January 07 2012 If you’ve ever posted an ad for a programmer, you’ll know just how much haystack you have to sift through to find a few needles. At least half of the people who send in resumes cannot write a simple FizzBuzz program, and filtering the ones who can is always a… read moreHow to Teach Webcraft and Programming to Free-Range Students December 07 2011 I will be running a P2PU course starting in January on teaching free-range learners how to program and build stuff on the web. The blurb is below; anyone who wants to can sign up to follow along or take part (we expect it will require 3-4 hours/week from mid-January to… read moreAlso find Greg on:  Recent Twitter posts: Buy Now and Save
Buy 2 books, get the 3rd FREE
Use discount code: OPC10  All orders over $29.95 qualify for free shipping within the US. See details. |
||||
© 2012, O’Reilly Media, Inc. (707) 827-7019 (800) 889-8969 All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on oreilly.com are the property of their respective owners. |
