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Computer programming for all: A new standard of literacy — from readwriteweb.com by Dan Rowinski
From DSC:
Dan Rowinski brings up some solid questions and points here, and I’ve heard others wrestle with the question whether we should require all students to take programming courses.
I’ve taken some computer programming courses and I’ve had some experience with scripting.
Bottom line:
I find it to be a very different way of thinking. Programmers have their shortcuts which are intuitive to them and work very well for them. But the syntax loses many of the rest of us:
The reason programmers make a pretty good coin is because most people don’t like programming and don’t want to do it. The manner of thinking doesn’t work for them. It’s highly-detailed and very unforgiving. Along these lines and by way of example, I find that people in the web world fall into 1 or 2 camps: either they are web developers (i.e. the back end world of programming, databases, infrastructure, etc.) or they are web designers (i.e. the front end world of graphic design and layout, interface design, interaction design, etc.). It is a rare person who excels at both the front and back ends.
If we are going to make programming required, we had better do a better job with providing higher-level languages that are more intuitive for the masses. Or we’ll just discourage many who try their hand at it. And it’s not that I don’t value programming — I do! In fact, I wish that manner of thinking came much easier to me. But it doesn’t.
In Silicon Valley, designers emerge as rock stars — from Reuters.com by Gerry Shih
Excerpt:
The new breed of “user experience” designers – part sketch artist, part programmer, with a dash of behavioral scientist thrown in – are some of the most sought-after employees in technology. Entry-level interactive designers at startups are commanding salaries easily topping $80,000, almost twice the median pay for primarily print designers of about $45,000, according to a recent survey by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
From DSC:
From my experience with Internet-related work and careers, most people are either gifted in the front end of things (interface design, graphic design, web design, etc.) or in the back end of things (programming, databases, scripting, e-commerce, security, etc.). I have seen individuals who can do both…but it’s rare that someone is deeply versed in both sides of the coin.
What are we doing in higher ed to foster more cross-disciplinary skills/assignments/projects/teams like this?
Code wars: PHP vs Ruby vs Python – Who reigns supreme? [Infographic from Udemy]
Source: Udemy Blog
KidsRuby is for underage programmers — from etechmag.com by Sara Williams
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Excerpt:
Computer programming is very tough no doubt but it is very interesting when you see your work is appreciated on a big platform. If you’re a kid by yourself or have kids who want to be programmers but wondering from where to start this early career then Ruby is your answer.
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Learn the Basics of Coding — from lifehacker.com
Greenfoot teaches object orientation with Java. Create ‘actors’ which live in ‘worlds’ to build games, simulations, and other graphical programs. Greenfoot is visual and interactive. Visualisation and interaction tools are built into the environment. The actors are programmed in standard textual Java code, providing a combination of programming experience in a traditional text-based language with visual execution.
Scott Hanselman’s 2011 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
Best of the Web Blogs re: Programming
Marc Andreessen: Predictions for 2012 (and beyond) — from cnet.com by Paul Sloan
Excerpt:
Software has chewed up music and publishing. It’s eaten away at Madison Avenue. It’s swallowed up retail outlets like Tower Records. The list goes on.
No area is safe–and that’s why Andreessen sees so much opportunity.
Fueling his optimism: ubiquitous broadband, cloud computing, and, above all, the smartphone revolution. In the 1990s, the Internet led to crazy predictions that simply weren’t yet possible. Now they are.
The Application Island: Gaining Mobile Developer Mindshare — from readwriteweb.com by Dan Rowinski
IBM sends Watson supercomputer to business school – from wired.com by Eric Smalley
Excerpt:
There have been four waves of technological innovation that disrupted the labor market over the last two and a half centuries starting with the Industrial Revolution, and we’re beginning the fifth, said IBM Chief Economist Martin Fleming. “We’re now beginning to enter into, in my view, a period where the economy is beginning to open up opportunities for the deployment of very significant innovation … We’re going to see many new industries get created, radical new technologies being deployed, but being deployed in the context of new business models,” he said.
“This will have significant implications from an income and income distribution point of view.”
The MIT economists generally agree that we’re at the beginning of a technology-driven shift in the economy and ultimately the labor market will adjust. But no one had any good news for workers in the middle of economy during the transition. “The future is already here in many ways, in terms of what technology can do,” Brynjolfsson said. “But right now the benefits are not very evenly distributed.”
Lessons from a review of JavaScript code — from smashingmagazine.com by Addy Osmani
Excerpt:
Today we’ll look at where to get your code reviewed, how to structure your requests, and what reviewers look for. I was recently asked to review some code for a new JavaScript application, and thought I’d like to share some of my feedback, because it covers some JavaScript fundamentals that are always useful to bear in mind.
