Once again, I return to the technique of using a metaphor created by a recent South Park episode (Season 13, Episode 10) to illustrate the way things are (in an entirely different subject). Warning: There is adult, offensive language in the video clips I use below. My usual admonition applies. If you are easily offended, [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
The challenge of trying to get a real science of computing in our schools
Posted in Analysis, Education, computer science, tagged computer science, Education, south park on November 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Why I do this
Posted in Art, Education, tagged julie & julia, plato, plato's cave on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Following an inspiration
I went to see the movie Julie & Julia yesterday, and I really liked it, way more than I expected. I remember Julia Child from her TV show when I was a kid. I can’t remember. Either my mom or my grandmother (or both) used to watch her show regularly. I wanted to [...]
Does computer science have a future?
Posted in Analysis, Education, History, Information Technology, Math & Science, flame, tagged alan kay, computer science, data processing, science, scientific computing on August 12, 2009 | 12 Comments »
Update 8-17-09: I’ve revised this post a bit to clarify some points I made.
I received a request 2-1/2 weeks ago to write a post based on video of a speech that Alan Kay gave at Kyoto University in February, titled “Systems Thinking For Children And Adults”. Here it is. The volume in the first 10 [...]
“I’m not a scientist, but I play one on TV…”
Posted in Education, Math & Science, flame, tagged Boulder, daily camera, global warming, pseudo-science on July 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A man must learn on this principle, that he is far removed from the truth”
– Democritus
Science is a way of thinking. As Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, “It is a philosophy of discovery.” I reflected recently on what being a scientist is really all about. Good scientists are constantly trying to change their perception of [...]
The beauty of mathematics denied
Posted in Education, Math & Science, tagged aesthetics, Art, mathematicians, mathematics, school, university on June 19, 2009 | 5 Comments »
“So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?”
– from “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
I’ve taken some time to get back into the subject of mathematics, and secondarily math education. This [...]
Boulder High students protest teacher layoff
Posted in Education, tagged Boulder High School, protest, students, teacher layoff on May 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
video courtesy of The Daily Camera newspaper, Boulder, CO.
Boulder High School (or perhaps it’s the Boulder Valley School District) has laid off a social studies teacher, Chris Barnes, because of budget cuts. Such are the inevitable and in this case cruel losses of a severe recession. Apparently he’s not just any [...]
Inexcusable: BVSD teachers walk out just before finals
Posted in Education, News, tagged boulder valley school district, bvsd, teacher protest on May 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t have a dog in this fight, since I graduated high school more than 20 years ago, and I don’t have kids in school. I am a citizen who’s concerned about educational issues though. So I thought I’d weigh in.
I saw this story yesterday that 80 BVSD teachers in Broomfield, CO. had called in [...]
Getting an education in America
Posted in Education on April 26, 2009 | 8 Comments »
I like keeping myself informed about what’s going on with education. I’ve been increasingly alarmed about what is happening at our universities. It began first with a sense of alarm several years ago when I read that at universities like Princeton and Harvard, going back to the 1980s, the arts and humanities had been taken [...]
The benefits of CO2
Posted in Education, Government policy, Math & Science, tagged carbon dioxide, EPA, photosynthesis, plants, science on April 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“We will restore science to its rightful place”
— President Barack Obama at his inaugural address
I heard this past weekend that the EPA has classified carbon dioxide as a pollutant that is hazardous to public health, and therefor needs to be regulated. What I feel is being left [...]
My journey, Part 3
Posted in Education, History, Programming, tagged computer as medium, computer history, computer science on December 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
See Part 1, Part 2
College
I went to Colorado State University in 1988. As I went through college I forgot about my fantasies of computers changing society. I was focused on writing programs that were more sophisticated than I had ever written before, appreciating architectural features of software and emulating them in my own projects, and learning [...]
