Google Summer of Code – Open Source Programs Office — Google Developers

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary student developers ages 18 and older stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together over 6,000 successful student participants and over 3,000 mentors from over 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

Continue reading- Google Summer of Code – Open Source Programs Office — Google Developers.

Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology – NYTimes.com

Quantum computing is so much faster than traditional computing because of the unusual properties of particles at the smallest level. Instead of the precision of ones and zeros that have been used to represent data since the earliest days of computers, quantum computing relies on the fact that subatomic particles inhabit a range of states. Different relationships among the particles may coexist, as well. Those probable states can be narrowed to determine an optimal outcome among a near-infinitude of possibilities, which allows certain types of problems to be solved rapidly.

continue reading-  Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology – NYTimes.com.

Introducing Kids to Java Programming Using Minecraft (Arun Gupta, Miles to go …)

Minecraft is a wildly popular game among elementary and middle schoolers. The game allows players to build constructions of textured cubes in a 3D world.

My son has been playing the game for about a year, lets say addicted to it. Last Fall he told me that the game is corrupted because the JAR file snapshot has messed up the configuration. And that right away rang a bell in me as a Java Evangelist at Oracle.

I learned from him that the game is written in Java, has a trial version that runs as an applet in the browser, and downloaded as a JAR file for desktop. The game is modular where the players travel through a world and chunks are loaded and unloaded to keep the memory footprint small. Something unique about the game is the ability to modify the game from what it was originally designed for. In Minecraft language, this is called as a “mod” – short for modifications. For example, a mod can add new characters to the game, change look-and-feel of the play field, or make it easy to build new structures.

continue reading-  Introducing Kids to Java Programming Using Minecraft (Arun Gupta, Miles to go …).

What Is NI LabVIEW? – National Instruments

LabVIEW is a highly productive development environment that engineers and scientists use for graphical programming and unprecedented hardware integration to rapidly design and deploy measurement and control systems. Within this flexible platform, engineers scale from design to test and from small to large systems while reusing IP and refining their processes to achieve maximum performance.

continue reading- What Is NI LabVIEW? – National Instruments.

Where Does Tech-ed Belong in Edtech? | EdSurge News

Students need to learn how to create, not consume, technologies in the classroom.

Edtech is about the use of technology in education, but does it include technology education? Should it include computer science education?

“Edtech” is an all-inclusive term, and computer science is thrown in along with iPad apps, blended learning, BYOD strategies and everything else. However, computer science education sometimes appears to be that distant cousin in the edtech family; it must be included in the party but no one really knows how to deal with it.

Most of the edtech community is interested in “using technology” to improve student learning in what is already being taught in our schools–math, reading, science, etc. We are excited that our students now use a browser to do research, Google docs to write and online games for math drills. We are happy that our teachers use a cool app to create a spelling quiz, or a YouTube video to teach math.

But while these are all significant steps in using technology to enhance traditional learning, we are not yet changing the “what and how” in student learning. Students and teachers are still consuming technology, but not necessarily understanding how to use it to create their own tools.

continue reading- Where Does Tech ed Belong in Edtech? | EdSurge News.

Tynker

 Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational learning and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. Tynker is inspired by Scratch from MIT. It is a completely browser-based implementation written using Open Web standards such as Javascript, HTML5, CSS3 and does not use Flash.

Tynker’s language extensions, built-in physics engine, character editors and other tools make it fun and easy for kids to unleash their creativity. Schools love Tynker because it offers them an easy to use cloud-hosted system for delivering a customized Computer Science course across multiple grades with a ready to use curriculum, classroom management and more. Tynker is the platform of choice at many leading schools – see what educators are saying.

We believe that computational thinking and computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education. Our goals include:

Provide every child with a solid foundation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) thinking abilities to prepare them for 21st century degrees and careers.

Enable children to learn Computer Science concepts through discovery, creative activities and experimentation.

via Tynker.

The 25 Best Places To Take Free Online Computer Science Classes | Edudemic

These days, computers dominate our lives, providing the platform by which we work, play, and communicate with others around the world. As such, knowing how to work with and engineer these often quite complicated systems is a pretty solid skill to have in the modern workforce.

read more- The 25 Best Places To Take Free Online Computer Science Classes | Edudemic.