Archive for September, 2005

A very common complaint among computing students is that they hate programming. Say what? It is a fundamental of so many computing jobs, so there is something wrong... Programming should not be taught via lectures and should not be assessed via written examinations. Sure, there are practical issues with this when you have large classes. […]

No point trying to fight religious fundamentalism (the so-called War on Terror) with religious fundamentalism. But that's what Dubya is doing. The Americans are still debating evolution and some schools require... ninth-grade students to hear a brief statement about ID [intelligent design] before biology classes on evolution (from a report in eSchool News). Intelligent design […]

How should we improve teachers who are, errr, not very good at what they do...? I don't think Arnie has the right approach: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign posted a form on its Web site asking Californians for stories about inferior teachers to support the ballot initiative to lengthen teachers' probationary period. (from "Schwarzenegger seeks 'bad […]

I just finished watching a brilliant Canadian movie, H20. It was intelligent, well-written, well-directed and very thought-provoking. A conspiracy involves the son of a recently-assassinated Canadian prime minister. A group of businessmen attempts to change the political landscape of the whole of North America. The bargaining chip? Water. Full of mystery and danger, the movie […]

by Bitter, GG and Pierson, M (©2005, Pearson Education) Summary Review Using Technology in the Classroom has been around for a while (first edition 1984, revised every 5 years or so). The book appears to be aimed at an undergraduate teacher-trainee level, with advice on how to select software & Internet resources and how to […]

IBM has an interesting offer to financially back employees who want to leave the company to become math and science teachers as reported in eSchool News (article no longer available). They are doing this to help improve the level of math, science and technology in US schools. Sorry to be cynical, but depending on what […]

My continuing saga regarding HeyMath. It still has usability problems.

I was involved (as MC) in an interesting blogging seminar this morning. Four well-known Singapore bloggers (Xia Xue, Popagandhi, dsng.net, mr brown) answered my not-so-tricky questions about free speech in Singapore, how to avoid being arrested for sedition, how blogging improves your writing, how they get 5000+ hits per day and that kind of thing. […]

When we take a square root, does it have 1 or 2 answers?

Nobody Knows (誰も知らない - 'Dare mo Shiranai'), directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu, is a fictional reconstruction based on the true story of 4 children who were abandoned in a Tokyo apartment in 1988 ("Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo"). It was a very moving film for me, especially as it seemed so disturbingly possible. […]