Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Having Fun With Computer Science
There is no question that there are a lot of ways to have fun with computer science. Some of them are inexpensive. Some of them cost a lot of money. You can doComputer...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
How Do Teachers Without CS Experience Debug Student Code
My Programming Honors students are wrapping up their semester projects today. Actually they should all have been handed in by now but I’ll give them until the end...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
What does “doesn’t work” mean?
Every computer science teacher has heard it “My program doesn’t work. What is wrong with it?” Sometimes they will show you the code without any more explanation...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
A Brief Career Memoir
Blame Mike Zamansky for this one. In my last post I mentioned that I am planning on retiring from the classroom this spring. Mike wondered how my perspectives have...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
A 2020 Vision
Sorry. You may be as tired of the 2020 jokes and puns about the new year as I am. I’ll try to avoid them in the future. This is the time of year I look at the last...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Looking Back on Blogging
Both Doug Peterson (https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/10-years-ago-2/) and Mike Zamansky (https://cestlaz.github.io/post/10-years-blogging/) posted to their...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Looking Back on Computer Science Education 2019
Christmas break for me until 6 January 2020 and with Christmas over I have some time to think. 2019 was an intere3sting year in CS education. States continue to...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Explain This Confusing Code
My major task today has been finishing off the semester exam for my Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles students. They’re not happy about having an exam...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Coding Without a Net
My Programming Honors students are struggling with creating classes in C#. They really wanted me to code up a project live (again) and have them follow along. But...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Coding for Fun and Advent of Code
My friend Mike Zamansky is a big proponent of the Advent of Code – 25 days of coding problems leading up the Christmas. Since I have been thinking I want to write...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
What’s In A Name?
Naming things seems to be a continual problem with programming students. I’ve written about this before (two years ago A Rose By Any Other Name Gives An Error )...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Coding For Fun
As with so many things, it started with Doug Peterson. Doug recently posted about something called 100 days of code. This got me started about the need I feel (some...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Teachers Helping Teachers For Free
I understand the appeal of sites like Teachers Pay Teachers. Really I do. Some teachers are awesome at creating resources and the idea of getting paid to shareAmazon...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Not Too Easy and Not Too Hard
We’re covering Classes and Objects in my Programming Honors course this week. Specifically we are learning how to program classes in C# and use them in programs...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Define Better
Someone posted an interesting question on Facebook.Is using ++i(pre-increment) better than i++(post-increment) ?My reply was to ask for a definition of “better....
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
AI-assisted Programming
As I said in yesterday’s blog post,Microsoft has been running their big MSIgnite event this week and making all sorts of announcements. One interesting announcement...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Visual Studio Online–Possibilities for Education?
Microsoft has been running their big MSIgnite event this week and making all sorts of announcements. One of them was a cloud-based development environment called...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
CSTA at 15 #CSTAat15
The Computer Science Teachers Association is now 15 years old. I’ve been a member from the start and I have to say that in some ways it feels like it has always...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Magic 8 Ball and Projects From Real Life
There has been a 12 inch tall Pez dispenser on my desk for a couple of years now. It’s a great visual aid for talking about stacks. Today I got a Magic 8 Ball as...
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson