Category: news

RGBDToolkit – DSLR + DEPTH Filmmaking

The RGBDToolkit invites you to imagine the future of filmmaking.

Repurposing the depth sensing camera from the Microsoft Kinect or Asus Xtion Pro as an accessory to your HD DSLR camera, the open source hardware and software captures and visualizes the world as mesmerizing wireframe forms. A CGI and video hybrid, the data can be rephotographed from any angle in post.

via RGBDToolkit – DSLR + DEPTH Filmmaking | Home.

Can Obama Convince High Schools To Teach Kids To Code? – Forbes

Anthony Wing Kosner, Contributor

Monday night, President Obama made time in his State of the Union Address to address our national deficit in STEM education:

“Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy.  We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math—the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.”

For those in the learn-to-code movement, this was a welcome validation of their efforts. Codecademy’s digital literacy advocate Douglas Rushkoff tells me, “Honestly, as I listened to Obama speak I thought the words Codecademy were about to come out of his mouth!”

via Can Obama Convince High Schools To Teach Kids To Code? – Forbes.

Learn To Code #2: The Many Reasons Why We Must Program (And The Few Why Not) – Forbes

Anthony Wing Kosner, Contributor

So, do you really have to learn to program to participate in 21st century society? Absolutely not, you can be as analog in your life as you can get away with and still put food on the table. But the significance of code literacy in contemporary culture is about more than personal lifestyle choices. We are all now immersed, if not in code itself, then in the effects of code on everything around us.

We have even reframed our conception of the analog vs. the digital. Are our “codes” just simplifications that attempt to describe nature, or is nature itself the playing out of “codes” that are complex beyond our understanding? It’s an important philosophical question, but in practical terms, we manipulate our abstractions through programming at whatever level of approximation we are working at.

via Learn To Code #2: The Many Reasons Why We Must Program (And The Few Why Not) – Forbes.

Few Students Make Time to Study Computer Science

http://www.acm.org/runningonempty/exec_summary.pdf

The ACM news summary refers to another article by includes the above as its foundation:

Few Students Make Time to Study Computer Science
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA) (02/20/11) Amy Crawford

ACM and the Computer Science Teachers Association’s recent Running on Empty report examined the decline in the study of computer science in U.S. public schools. “As the digital age has transformed the world and workforce, U.S. K-12 education has fallen woefully behind in preparing students with the fundamental computer science knowledge and skills they need for future success,” the report says. The study found that between 2005 and 2009 the number of secondary schools offering introductory computer science courses dropped by 17 percent, and the number of high schools offering Advanced Placement computer science fell by 35 percent. Some of the study’s researchers, such as Carnegie Mellon University graduate student Leigh Ann Sudol-DeLyser, say states should have computer science standards that are a required part of the curriculum. Computer software engineering and information technology are among the fastest growing careers, with more than 300,000 additional jobs expected to be created by 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “It’s not only important for a student to learn to write a letter in Microsoft Word,” says Sudol-DeLyser, explaining that every student should learn about basic computer security, media production and simple programming, and interested students should be encouraged to study computer science in depth.

From: Lyons, Jennie [mailto:jlyons@hackleyschool.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 8:26 AM
To: Dioguardi, III, J. Edward; King, Andrew
Subject: Apropos of the US Coffee presentation

Berners-Lee calls for computer science education at a younger age | VG247

Mon, Jan 28, 2013 | 12:29 GMT

Story by Dave Cook

Accredited with creating the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee Knows a thing or two about the possibilities of computer coding. In a new new interview, Berners-Lee has called for an increase in computer science education at a younger age, to help children develop greater understanding of what makes computers tick, and how to code new applications and even games themselves.

Speaking in a video interview with World Economic Forum, Berners-Lee cautioned that while millions are using computer programs and using services like Twitter and Facebook, a low percentage of those users actually know how to code, or to understand why these tools and services work the way they do.

via Berners-Lee calls for computer science education at a younger age | VG247.

Raspberry Pi, a Computer Tinkerer’s Dream – NYTimes.com

By JOHN BIGGS

Published: January 30, 2013

Raspberry Pi may sound like the name of a math-based dessert. But it is actually one of the hottest and cheapest little computers in the world right now. Almost one million of these $35 machines have shipped since last February, capturing the imaginations of educators, hobbyists and tinkerers around the world.

via Raspberry Pi, a Computer Tinkerer’s Dream – NYTimes.com.