Computer Science Taught through Games

Play Games at AddictingGames

Here is a cute little game that helps teach programming. I think that it does a great job of teaching functions. My students picked up the idea right quick.

In case the embedded game does not work here is the link.

The Laptops are Coming, The Laptops are Coming!!!

I feel a little bit like Chicken Little. This just arrived.

Now we have not been told anything about the laptop lab yet but the big bulky cart is a good sign. It is all sorts of rolling power bar happiness.

One problem - it is a great, awesome, amazing, and practical solution - for another school. Here is our problem.

And here is the rest of our problem. All of our highschool classrooms are not accessable by the rolling lump of laptop happiness.

I am not sure what to do about it. We need to find a solution that works with stairs. I am going to email the head of our tech support and see what we can do. (I am going to try the collaborative approach.) I would like some sort of tub that we can carry up the stairs with one person. Anybody have any suggestions?

Concentration and Video Games

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/21/magazine/1194833565213/immersion.html

Watch that video. Then watch your kids playing video games. Then tell me how it compares. (My son just turned 2 so he isn't into video games yet - I am living vicariously through you other parents.)

To tell the truth the video doesn't really surprise me a lot. Just watch other people when they are concentrating on driving - we tend to focus like that too (at least we had better).

Do schools today kill creativity? (Ken Robinson, TEDTalks)

An intern and one of the other (non-teacher) staff member shared this video with me today. Who would have guessed! Bah - these ideas get in the way of the system.

Warm and Fuzzy Sharing

Well, I finally got around to it. This blog is officially licensced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. I mean that I had always operated under that kind of sharing philosophy but I guess that I never told anyone else. Okay - for the record - I am sharing.

Oh, and since I haven't made any money off of this blog please don't show me up by finding a way (unless you ask nicely).