I am, at this moment, the epitome of the blogger.  I’m in my pj’s.  I’m in Educon recovery mode.  Apparently, some of my Twitter friends are as well.  I’ve seen a number of people talking about being in pj’s or being exhausted, etc.  This was my 3rd Educon.  It’s my second as a K-12 educator. [...]

A lot of people have been pointing me to this article on using blogs in writing classes instead of term papers.  For an extensive answer, see my dissertation from 2007.  Just sayin’.  But yeah, communication forms change.  That doesn’t mean we do away with argument and evidence and critical thinking.  I mean, we used to [...]

For my How to Teach Webcraft and Programming class, we are supposed to describe our students.  So, below are some of my descriptions of students present and past as well as myself as a student.  I’ve had a wide range of students, but interestingly, they do sort of fit into categories. The Artist I’ve had/have [...]

What kind of computer should I get for my (parent/kid/aunt/me)? Should my kid learn to type? Do you teach typing in tech class? Do you teach (name your basic office application)? That’s about it.  Here’s what I wish people would ask: What should I be doing to educate myself about the Internet? What skills do [...]

Jackie and I have been having a bit of back and forth via our blogs and Twitter about keeping up with our resolutions.  She writes: Newsflash: resolutions also often involve stopping doing things that are easy, and replacing with things that are hard. Yep, yep, yep.  Decluttering has been hard but I’ve managed to keep [...]

In a recent Georgetown University report on employment, one of the key findings is that those who invent and create technology do far better unemployment-wise and salary-wise.  This is something I’ve been touting for a long time and which organizations like CSTA and NCWIT try to emphasize.  Sure, it’s good to know the ins and [...]

A discussion arose on an email list about teaching/using Google docs vs. Microsoft Word.  That discussion actually made it to Google+.  A teacher posted reasons why he teaches Google docs, the most important of which is about teaching concepts because applications change.  The conversation on Google+ is interesting and one I participate in at nearly [...]

Yesterday in my intro to CS class, I introduced dictionaries.  My students started on some “simple” text-based game projects before the break and when I looked them over, I decided they could all use dictionaries even though that’s not something I had planned on teaching this year.  To explain dictionaries, I went back to lists. [...]

I’m participating in a P2PU course that examines teaching programming to “free-range” students vs. teaching programming in more formal settings.  I’ve long been fascinated by teaching methods, and, of course, focused on teaching in my dissertation.  But back in those days, technology and programming were in support of another subject rather than a subject unto [...]

Yesterday I kicked off CS Ed Week by bringing in two hip Computer Science-y women to talk to our high school students.  Kimberly Blessing and Lindsay Lindstrom joined us to talk about why they like Computer Science and what they do.  They also showed off some resources for students who are interested in learning about [...]