2019-11-13

CSCW 2019 was “Champion Sponsored” by Facebook, and their closing keynote was from an EFF rep. 🤔

2019-11-13

I’m reading an article comparing ant colonies to the human brain for class. The article is fine; the comment section is GOLD. Pure, too-bad-about-the-Internet gold. I want ReplyAll to find these two guys and interview them.

This goes for PAGES. ReplyAll mid-episode plot twist: they’re the same dude.

2019-11-07

Not sure if it’s more unhealthy to write little quips with the possibility that no one ever reads them or to write little quips with the hope that millions of people of who didn’t ask for them read them.

2019-11-07

Ok, so it wasn’t an original idea. So what? When me, my wife, and a few friends sat down at Garfield Brewing near a stop of Indianapolis’ brand-new Red Line rapid transit system, we were beginning what we called the “Red Line Pub Crawl”. And… so were the folks at the table next to us.

Inevitably, we had friends that couldn’t come for the entire crawl but wanted to meet us later along the way. So they wouldn’t have to call us, I made a little app so that we could post our location with a timestamp.

As you can see, we deviated from our plan almost immediately 😀.

First take-away: using the browser API to get my current GPS location is not as scary as I thought! Now I know why every stinkin’ site asks for it.

I didn’t have time to learn how to use MapBox, so I made each entry link to a Google Map centered on the location. Feel free to remix and extend it!

2019-05-03

These are the design principles that I try to use to guide decisions at Rovercode

1. We are not gamifying an otherwise dull activity. We are not wrapping a shiny layer of “fun” around a chore. We are creating a playground in which students learn about code by exploring and embracing its constraints and peculiarities. We can’t and shouldn’t try to make writing a reflection journal a delight, but we should make sure that it’s a safe, purposeful, and rewarding experience. Further reading: Ian Bogost’s Play Anything.
2. We design for great teachers. While we hope that Rovercode will be effective for solo learners and students in understaffed schools, we are not afraid to design experiences that require a skilled and active teacher. We do not shy away from activities that require the adult to devise student groups or find open gym space. We recognize that the most authentic positive feedback comes within the real-life learning environment the teacher has already established. A positive call home is usually more powerful than a fake badge in a web app.
3. Remix culture does not preclude authentic assessment. We take a step back and assess the student’s entire process and their ability to communicate their own unique ideas using code. Further reading: Boud, Cohen & Sampson and Carter.
4. Learning coding is not fundamentally different than learning other things. Many strategies that work for teaching other subjects (especially other languages) also work well for teaching programming. While we’ll also provide opportunities for higher-level problem solving, we are not afraid of quizzing on basic syntax or doing code read-aloud exercises. Further reading: anything by Felienne.