#codehs is better for learning

[violexides]

so what coding language are you doing? java? bc felt

java yeah, fucking around on CodeHS and trying to do objects and inheritance, trying to get it done within the next two days and am thoroughly losing my shit

why are default constructors one of the horsemen of the apocalypse

[flowcodes]

Hello! You can call me Flow and I made this side blog to teach some simple coding. Whether that is because you are interested, or you want to use it for Tumblr or Ao3 or build your own website! Either way, I am here for you to learn and I will learn in the process.

Along with dealing with ao3 tips and tricks along.

I Take Questions and or Requests to help make the code for you to use!

I am here to try it and research if it would work for certain platforms or browsers. If you want to ask me about how something works or what to do, I will try to figure it out or point you to some other source if I can't find it.

Resources For Coding On Ao3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56793364/chapters/144389428 Shows all the code you can use and what it gives out.

A Complete Guide to 'Limited HTML' on Ao3 by CodenameCarrot https://archiveofourown.org/works/5191202/chapters/11961779

Resources To Learn More Coding Above Me:

w3schools.com: https://www.w3schools.com/default.asp. This website is good for looking into something you want to do but don't remember how or see other ways to do something. They have a great thing where it has all the colors you can use with names with code which is a God send.

CodeHS: https://www.youtube.com/@codehighschool. Here you find their youtube videos since you need to be in a school program for their website. If you are having trouble with something they might have published one of their bodies.

The Odin Project: https://www.theodinproject.com. Here is a free curriculum to learn more about website coding like HTML and CSS.

My Other Blogs:

FlowGeeksOut: This is for me to geek out about some fandoms I am in and make content for them and just have fun with them.

FlowWritesFanfictionAnnoucemnets: This is for me to post my fanfiction so more people can read it!

On Other Social Media, I am in:

Ao3: Flowrites: This is where I am posting my reguluar fanfiction

Ao3: Flowcodes: This is where I make guides to how to use Ao3 along with showing other fans what you can do with coding to help express your fanwork to the best of your abilities. Along with fanworks that involve a kind of game/website expreinice that has a lot of coding going into it

Ao3: EspañolPractice: Where I use my love for fandoms and learning español and watching as I grow a better understanding of the language

I hope we all have a good time!

[kswilkens]

#SIGCSE2017 Reflections

Mark Sherriff, UVA CS professor, recommended SIGCSE to Zach and I as a great opportunity to tap into CS education at it’s best and he wasn’t wrong. It’s been awhile since I’ve been “just an attendee” at a conference and I must admit I really enjoyed the less stress, more learning opportunity feeling. For me the experience started off on just the right note with Gail Chapman’s keynote. She’s one of my CS edu heroines as a part of Exploring Computer Science. I share many hopes for the future of CS education and frustrations with its current reality with Gail. Here are some thoughts from her talk that resonated with me:

Learning is a uniquely personal experience. How we teach matters. Students need choice of the context, not just the interest of the teacher.

Tool after tool, language after language - what do I remember, I remember how to solve problems.

Rigor is often equated with harder code, teaching the same thing in a different language. It should be about solving problems.

Whether students build it or not, they need to engage in conversations about how tech is affecting their lives.

To date, CS has not been the great equalizer we hoped it would be. Providing new tools and not changing what we teach, just perpetuates inequities.

Make CS required and we think we’re done. It’s not enough to provide access, it’s about what happens in those classes, whose voices are we listening to.

We don’t have any idea of where CS will be in 20 years, not even 5 years.

Therefore, we continue to have a chicken & egg problem, how can you teach it well, if you don’t know what it is?

CSK8

A Literature Review through the Lens of Computer Science Learning Goals

This literature review compared CS learning goals that have been theorized as important vs. what is actually being done by students in K-8 classrooms.

Matched goals:

implementing code - natural language to coding language

evaluating solutions - efficiency

matching problems to solutions - identifying patterns & algorithms

code reading - interpreting

abstracting away details 

conditionals and flow of control

loops

variables, data structure & input

Unmatched goals:

designing solutions

using computational tools

matching problems to devices

To me the matched vs. unmatched goals could also relate to standalone CS vs. integrated/applied CS education. The unmatched goals are also the more open-ended ones that I think increase student engagement, but are more challenging to assess.

Arts Coding for Social Good: A Pilot Project for Middle-School Outreach

A group of students at Grinnell College wanted to explore whether introducing CS early to underrepresented students would increase their self-efficacy towards computing. They created a summer camp to explore this question. What they learned after their first year:

making tech camp more inclusive - offer early drop-off & late pick-up, low fee/subsidize, lunch & snacks included, all tools freely available

tech camp surprises? kids have opinions & want to share; some kids just want to code; rename code camp because it limits girls interest

CSDiversity

Diversity Barriers in K–12 Computer Science Education

What are some barriers?

learning curve, accessibility, structural change in school

interest in CS is correlated with teacher/parent recommendation, confidence & envisioning a job in CS

twice as many girls as boys say they are NOT AT ALL interested in studying CS

black & hispanic students are more likely to learn CS outside of the classroom in after-school clubs or groups

31% of girls say they NEVER see someone in the media doing CS who represents them

What are some barrier interventions:

move from lecture to active learning

culturally responsive teaching through POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning)

using browser-based computing tools is important for equity

ask students to reflect on their work & to give you feedback on which assignments resonate with them

There are many awesome resources shared in the TIDES: Teaching to Increase for Diversity & Equity in STEM presentation. Unfortunately this program is no longer running.

CS4All

Mitch Resnick, another CS edu hero of mine, shared the impact of Seymour Papert’s legacy on the work at the MIT Media Lab, Lego Education & beyond.

Interested in Class, but Not in the Hallway

What are the goals for #CS4All?

program implementation

teacher training

student tracking

longitudinal lens

student assessment

How student interest impacts CS edu?

interest is not a binary switch - situational interest (prompted by a place or environment) & individual interest (brought into environment by individual)

within there is triggered interest (engagement of a person with the domain) & sustained interest (ongoing, long-term seeking of activities over time)

move from triggered interest to more sustained individual interest

Designing and Developing A Modern K–12 CS Framework

#CS4All is at it’s heart, an education reform movement

why do I have to learn this (loops, conditions, fill-in-the blank standard)? the K-12 CS framework provides the answer

diversity is built into the framework

How to Plan & Run Effective Teacher Professional Development Finally on Saturday afternoon, I attended a train-the-trainer workshop facilitated by Barbara Ericsson (another CS heroine) & Ria Galanos (a new CS heroine). They provided a wealth of information in an easily digestible format. The timing couldn’t be better as we prepare to launch Learn to Learn IV: CS Institute this summer at STAB.

It was also fun to meet some folks in person who inspire me on twitter: @DuPriestMath (CS educator, read her SIGCSE reflections), @lsudol (CS edu advocate), @zgalant (co-founder of @CodeHS), & @MrYongpradit (Chief Academy Office at code.org).

[cr2brooklyn]

A Platform to Stand On: CodeHS strives to give more students the chance to learn how to use code.

Understanding code provides abundant creative opportunities across a wide variety of industries. CodeHS strives to give more students the chance to learn how to use code. In school we study reading and writing, but most people do not become professional readers. Many jobs, though, require basic literacy. CodeHS founders, Zach Galant and Jeremy Keeshin, say "Read, Write, Code" represent the most crucial foundational skills for the 21st century. Clever Tech Digest sat down with Zach Galant, to learn more about the platform CodeHS is building for the next generation stand on.

CodeHS implements high quality computer science programs around the world by providing great curriculum, tools, training, and support to public, charter, private, and international schools. CodeHS is a comprehensive and interactive computer science education platform that can be scaled and adapted for different schools' needs.  

For readers unfamiliar with CodeHS, how did this coding “class in a box” concept begin and what inspired your unique curriculum?

When we started CodeHS, we spent a lot of time visiting schools and working with students and teachers. We've visited over 100 schools across almost every state to see what schools and computer science classes are like, so we can learn what is actually helpful for teachers and what works for students. We speak with teachers and students every day who spend all of their time teaching computer science and try to make the necessary tools to help them succeed. Our goal is to have everything you could possibly want or need all available in one place.

What are some computer science occupations outside of becoming a programmer for students to explore? Why should educators expose students to computer science and how it relates to their future before they go to college?

I believe that coding can be applied to any industry. We actually started a blog called Coding in the Wild (https://codinginthewild.com/) to highlight real people who use coding in their jobs across many industries from economics to music to chemical engineering. The thing to realize is that software is taking over many industries and if you know how to code, you can have a hand in shaping that. You don't even need to be a professional programmer. Even just knowing what it's about and what possibilities it opens can give you ideas that can make a difference in whatever field you care about.

What are the main limitations and obstacles you face developing a fun, engaging, and flexible education platform for computer science? How have you overcome them?

Education is very local. In different regions, schools and teachers do things differently and their needs can vary drastically. Some teachers want a curriculum that they can use as a turnkey, others want to make everything from scratch every year, and many lay somewhere in between. It's a challenge to make a product that effectively accommodates all of these varying demands. Every day we think about how to build a product that is flexible enough for any computer science teacher to use and get value from.

What principles guide your team while creating computer science education tools and growing the business?

Our main guiding principle is to build a comprehensive computer science education service. We do whatever necessary to ensure our customers’ success. This may include visiting their schools, talking on the phone weekly, having conversations about how to help a struggling student, or building exactly the resources and tools teachers need. We want CodeHS to be indispensable to teachers. CodeHS should be so helpful that you couldn't imagine running your classroom without it.

How will increasing computer literacy bring more people together, and change the structure of our economy?

Think about an economy where the majority of people don't know how to read or write. That leaves them completely without the opportunity to be successful or have any influence. A similar gap exists between those who can understand code and those who can't. You don't necessarily need to be an expert programmer, but if you know enough, you'll be able to see opportunities in ways you couldn't have imagined otherwise.

What is your dream for a better global education system?

Right now, I'm focusing on making an amazing experience for teaching computer science in schools. However, I think that there are many significant areas of improvement for the education system as a whole. I think it all starts with teachers. In the US, teachers are overworked and underappreciated, but they are often the most influential people in young people's lives. Teachers should be celebrated and revered. I think that the key to improving education for the most people in the most effective way is to get the best and brightest to be teachers and to take an interest in the lives of young people, inspiring them to love learning and do good.

What question do you wish I had asked?

I'd be happy to talk more about why we care about making CodeHS an awesome place to work for our employees and how we think about doing that. It's less related to our external facing product or market per se, but I think it’s very important to make the organization a great place that attracts the best people who will create the most impact with their work. This relates back to my thoughts on teachers and improving the education system.