BBC News - Campaign calls for new teacher-training 'infrastructure'

This is an interesting article about shifting the focus of Computing teaching to include Computer Science and Programming

Campaign calls for new teacher-training 'infrastructure' - BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17190910 - 28 February 2012.

"The UK needs a new 'infrastructure' to support the teaching of computing in schools, the chancellor has been told.
Leading education and industry groups have signed a letter asking George Osborne to fund new computer training for teachers.
Next Gen Skills, which organised the call, said teachers would need support ahead of possible curriculum changes.
The government is consulting on a new flexible curriculum more focused on computer science and programming."

Digital Researcher Online 2012 - 20 February 2012

Digital Researcher Online 2012 - 20 February 2012 - http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/346891/Digital-Researcher-online.html.

This is an event organised by Vitae who provide support to researchers, and which is being run online as well as the meeting itself which is oversubscribed.

This is from Vitae's description -

"Designed for both postgraduate researchers and research staff within any UK institution, Digital Researcher Online is the online programme of the oversubscribed Vitae Digital Researcher event, offering all those who could not physically attend the event the opportunity to tune in and get involved with the day's activity.
Digital Researcher Online will explore how new technologies and tools (microblogging, RSS feeds, social networking and social citation sharing) can be used to enhance your research and raise your professional profile."

"What to expect as an online participant...
10:00 - Introduction
•A short interview with Dr Tristram Hooley on Digital Researcher 2012 and the current digital landscape.10:30 - 11:15 - Morning plenary
•Join us online and tune-in to the opening plenary of Digital Researcher. During this session we'll be covering academic practice, the role of social media and intellectual property.
15:45 - 16:30 - Keynote speaker

•Prof Martin Weller, Open University - 'Digital Scholarship'."

MIT launches free online 'fully automated' course - BBC News

This is a BBC article about a free MIT course that is part of an overall plan of theirs for in depth online learning. The first course to be made available is in Electronics.

This is a very interesting article and as with Stanford University's courses (http://userdrivenmodelling.blogspot.com/2011/10/stanford-university-free-computer.html) also MIT course this provides a good opportunity for online learning.

MIT launches free online 'fully automated' course - By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent - 13 February 2012.

"Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's top-rated universities, has announced its first free course which can be studied and assessed completely online.
An electronics course, beginning in March, will be the first prototype of an online project, known as MITx.
The interactive course is designed to be fully automated, with successful students receiving a certificate."

MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing - BBC News

This pardoning of Alan Turing is way overdue -

MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16833621 - 1 February 2012.

"A Liberal Democrat MP has tabled a motion calling for 'national hero' Alan Turing to be posthumously pardoned.
Manchester Withington's John Leech submitted the Early Day Motion and said people should sign an online petition protesting against Turing's conviction.
The gay computer pioneer was convicted for gross indecency in 1952, when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK.
Mr Leech said his persecution 'by the state for being gay is a scandal that shouldn't be allowed to stand'."

Systems Engineering - University of the West of England - Bristol

From booking page - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=206 - open to non-members.

INCOSE UK Booking System
Bristol Local Group
Event Date: 25/01/2012
Event Time: 18:30 for 19:00 to 21:00
Event Title: Understanding the Enterprise - how architectural principles help
Event Details A lot of effort has been put into developing ways and means of describing the architecture of systems, systems of systems, and enterprises, each of which has come from a different context, usually with a subtly different approach. This event will provide an overview of some of the more common approaches, and seek to understand the extent to which the various methods are interchangeable and interdependent as you move up and down from subsystems to enterprises and back again.

The Digital Researcher 2012 - Go Digital 2012! - British Library - London

This Vitae event is for Research postgraduates and staff. Vitae are an organisation that provides support, resources and events to researchers. The website for a full description and booking is http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/315321/Digital-Researcher.html.

"Vitae in partnership with The British Library are running Digital Researcher 2012: an innovative, thought-provoking one day event to help researchers make the most of new technologies and social media tools in their research.

Designed for both postgraduate researchers and research staff within any UK institution, this interactive event will be held at the British Library on Monday 20th February 2012, and will provide an opportunity for researchers to think about how they undertake research and to consider whether new technologies could improve their research."

Stanford University - Free courses - List - 2012

I've finished my Stanford University - Introduction to Databases course.

There are many other courses available all free. They don't result in University Credit from Stanford, but are free and I enjoyed my course. I have a journal paper to finish and a funding bid so aren't doing any more of these courses yet, but hope to when I have time. From my experiences on the course I've finished I would certainly recommend studying these courses, you get the knowledge and a calculated overall grade.

The courses are not only computing, but others as well. The full clickable list is available from the page below, underneath the Introduction to Database Info. -

Stanford University Free courses - http://www.db-class.org/course/auth/welcome.

I've also included the list below -

Entrepreneurship
* Lean Launchpad * Technology Entrepreneurship
Medicine
* Anatomy
Civil Engineering
* Making Green Buildings
Electrical Engr.
* Information Theory
Complex Systems
* Model Thinking
Computer Science
* CS 101 * Machine Learning * Software as a Service * Human-Computer Interaction * Natural Language Processing
* Game Theory * Probabilistic Graphical Models * Cryptography * Design and Analysis of Algorithms I * Computer Security

BBC - News - Government backs call for classroom coding

This post and list of many links highlights the debate over whether to teach more programming at school and for all other ages.

Updates - 14th Jan 2012 -

Royal Society offers ways to overhaul ICT teaching - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16515275 - 13 January 2012 -BBC -

"The Royal Society has suggested ways the government can overhaul information and communications technology (ICT) teaching in schools.

It follows promises from Education Secretary Michael Gove to scrap the way the subject is taught currently.

The body, which oversees UK sciences, recommends dividing computing into distinct subjects such as computer science and digital literacy.

It said the government must do more to recruit specialist ICT teachers."

ICT victory for the coding campaigners - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16544845 - BBC - Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent - 13 January 2012 -

"for me the biggest news I've missed has been of a significant victory for the campaign to improve the teaching of computing and technology in schools. The announcement that the current ICT curriculum is to be scrapped and teachers set free to use more creative methods comes after some brilliant and imaginative lobbying by a few dedicated individuals."

School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929 - 11 January 2012 -

"By Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News"

- "The current programme of information and communications technology (ICT) study in England's schools will be scrapped from September, the education secretary will announce later."
"The subject will be replaced by compulsory lessons in more rigorous computer science and programming."

"Michael Gove will call the current ICT curriculum 'harmful and dull'.

ICT teachers welcome new computer programming lessons - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509298 - BBC 11th January 2012 -

"Information and communications technology (ICT) teachers say plans to shake up the curriculum in England are "exciting" but 'challenging'.

Current ICT lessons will be scrapped from September and replaced by an "open source" curriculum in computer science and programming."

Coding for kids -

A few things as we try to get more kids interested in IT
- A group has been set up called Coding for Kids with the purpose of finding ways to support education of programming and computational thinking for the current and next generations in the UK. Whether this be through traditional education methods - or other stuff. They can be found here http://codingforkids.org/wiki/Main_Page

- There is also an e-petition to support "Teaching Our Kids to Code" here https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15081 If it reaches 100,000 signatures, then it may be considered by parliament.

Other recent links -

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes coding course - 6 January 2012 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16440126 - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resolved to take an online computer coding course.

The mayor is joining more than 180,000 people currently taking part in Code Year, a campaign to encourage more people to program.

"My New Year's resolution is to learn to code with Codecademy in 2012!" he wrote on Twitter.

Participants in the course receive an interactive lesson each week, via email.

The campaign promises that participants will be "building apps and websites before you know it".

November - December

This article examines the issue of the type of teaching of ICT. It's an interesting article that argues for more teaching of coding rather than just of the use of office software.

Government backs call for classroom coding - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15923113 - 28th November 2011.

"The teaching of computer science must become more relevant to modern needs, said the government.
The government said the current teaching of IT was 'insufficiently rigorous and in need of reform'.
The call for change came in a response to an industry report which looked at technology teaching in the UK."

The report discussed in the above article focuses on school classes and the need to teach game code - (A good mechanism for getting younger people involved in coding).

A related article - Coding - the new Latin - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15916677 - Rory Cellan-Jones - 28th November 2011 - Makes the same point about the lack of focus on coding and Computer Science at school, and that this leads to fewer University applications for Computer Science.

I believe the same issue of lack of focus on coding is an issue for adult education. The trend is for provision of free or heavily subsidised teaching of use of office software, this is good, but then students need to meet the full costs if they want to move on to programming and/or web development.

I'm one of those that began to learn to code on a BBC Micro. Because so little graphics capability and software was available in those early times there was little difference between using software, or having a go at developing something. It was easy to switch from one mode of thought of using to that of development.

This article describes those early years - The BBC Microcomputer and me, 30 years down the line - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15969065 - 1st December 2011.

An interesting thing here is the use of the term 'Computer Literacy' in the BBC project back then that included programming. The term has changed its meaning now to mean use of computers software. There are good reasons for this, as of course it is much more possible and necessary to be able to get use out of office software. However it would be god to provide a straightforward path to a kind of 'Advanced Computer Literacy' that involves an element of coding.

The video here based on a round table discussion of the British Computer Society (BCS), Chartered Institute of IT, and BCS Academy of Computing - http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/42962, and the related NESTA report http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/assets/features/next_gen cover teaching of computing and the need for this to include creating applications not just using them.

This article from BBC - 14th December 2011 - is also relevant to this issue - ICT 'poor in secondary schools', Ofsted says - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16157519.

"The teaching of information and communications technology (ICT) is inadequate in a fifth of secondary schools in England, Ofsted says.
Inspectors said teachers lacked the expertise and confidence to teach more demanding topics properly.
The report said areas such as databases and programming were poorly taught, with some pupils making more progress outside lessons than in them."

I believe this is not just an issue of teaching and learning but of a more general disconnect between the use of ICT and development, with a lack of a way to progress from tool use to development. There is no clear path within applications to be more involved in customisation and development of tools.

Bristol Systems Engineering and Computing Events

INCOSE UK - Bristol Local Group Wed 30th Nov 18.30 for 19.00

- Organisation and Behaviours - Systems Engineering within the wider enterprise -

http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=203.

"This event will feature Richard Beasley and will be based upon the relevant sections on SE and organisations from the public review version of the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) which can be found at http://www.sebokwiki.org/, and has been developed as part of the BKCASE (Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering) project. Attendees will be invited to discuss and review the material so far, with the intention of feeding pertinent observations back into the public review process, acting as a sanity check from real-life practitioners."

From BCS Bristol Branch Members - November Newsletter

"As winter draws in we have some great talks coming up to take us through to the Spring School
First up only a few days away.- Graham Lee is speaking on "Mobile Application Security and Privacy: State of the Disunion" at the City of Bristol College on Wed 23rd Nov 2011. Find out details for Graham and tell us your coming: http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=node/125

- On the 5th of December Paul Gerard will be giving a talk on "Using Business Stories to Test Requirements and Systems" at the City of Bristol CollegeFind out details for Paul and tell us your coming: http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=node/130

- Our Xmas event on the 12th of December has proved very popular on "Future Technology - a younger perspective" Presented by Metaverse Evangelist Ian Hughes at @Bristol. At the time of writing there were only 3 spaces remaining. Full Details are here http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=node/127

- We have the BCS President Professor M.J.Norton coming to the City of Bristol College on the 11th of Jan 2012 to give a talk on "Achieving successful IT enabled business change"This would be a great opportunity to Q and A with the president so lets get as many people along as possible. Full details can be found here http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=node/121
You can see a summary of the full program on PDF by following this link (http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/2011/Bristol-branch-program-2011-12.pdf) or via the events page on the website (http://www.bristol.bcs.org.uk/?q=event/new)."

BBC News - European commissioner calls for 'digital champions'

This BBC technology article - European commissioner calls for 'digital champions' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15544517 - is interesting and shows what a good example Martha Lane Fox and her role is for other countries. The article discusses the social benefits of enabling more people to be online and reducing exclusion.

"Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has called on EU states to appoint digital champions similar to the UK's Martha Lane Fox.

Ms Kroes said the lastminute.com founder was "doing a great job" at convincing UK adults who did not use the internet to change their minds.

Talking to the BBC, Ms Kroes said it was vital to deal with the 30% of Europeans currently not online.

She said EU states needed ministers with specific digital portfolios.

Ms Kroes made the comments at the inaugural London Conference on Cyberspace.

She took the opportunity to emphasise the social benefits of being online."

BBC News - Artificial intelligence community mourns John McCarthy

BBC News - Artificial intelligence community mourns John McCarthy - 25 October 2011 -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15444222

This article commemorates this important Artificial Intelligence Pioneer, and also is informative -

"Artificial intelligence researcher, John McCarthy, has died. He was 84.

The American scientist invented the computer language LISP.

It went on to become the programming language of choice for the AI community, and is still used today.

Professor McCarthy is also credited with coining the term "Artificial Intelligence" in 1955 when he detailed plans for the first Dartmouth conference. The brainstorming sessions helped focus early AI research."

Oxford University warns of losing talented students - BBC News

This is an interesting article from BBC about how lack of funding for research could cause UK to lose out to other countries economcally. This is a warning from the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.

Oxford University warns of losing talented students - By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15170451 -

"Oxford University's vice-chancellor has warned that a lack of funding will make it difficult to compete with international rivals.
Professor Andrew Hamilton warned that the UK's universities would struggle to compete for the best research students in the "global market for talent".
This was not only about competing with top US universities, but also China and India, said Prof Hamilton.
The UK's higher education sector would "increasingly lose out", he said.
In his annual speech, Prof Hamilton highlighted concerns about funding for postgraduate research."

I've also posted this on the Vitae Researchers blog - What's up Doc blog - http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/346441-464371/Oxford-University-warns-of-losing-talented-students.html.

Stanford University - Free computer science courses - Introduction to Databases

I've taken my own advice that these Stanford University Courses are a great opportunity to study free courses. I've registered for the 'Introduction to Databases' course. It actually starts on Monday (October 10th). It runs until 12th December. So I'm glad I registered this morning, and happened to be in time for this course. The registration was straightforward, and immediately made available online resources to help me prepare.

These are the links to my previous blog post and to the Stanford University news article - http://userdrivenmodelling.blogspot.com/2011/09/stanford-university-free-computer.html.

The Stanford University Website I referenced, which is the place to start if considering registering for any of these 3 courses - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/august/online-computer-science-081611.html - 'Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases'.

BBC News - Steve Jobs Apple 'visionary' dies aged 56

Sad news - 6 October 2011 - BBC - Steve Jobs Apple 'visionary' dies aged 56 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15193922.

"Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chief executive of US technology giant Apple, has died at the age of 56.

Apple said his "brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve".

Jobs announced he was suffering from pancreatic cancer in 2004.

US President Barack Obama said that with his death, the world had 'lost a visionary'. "

BBC article - Battle of the knowledge superpowers

This article is a useful discussion - Battle of the knowledge superpowers - By Sean Coughlan - BBC News education correspondent - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14949538. -

"Knowledge is power - economic power - and there's a scramble for that power taking place around the globe.

In the United States, Europe and in rising powers such as China, there is a growth-hungry drive to invest in hi-tech research and innovation.

They are looking for the ingredients that, like Google, will turn a university project into a corporation. They are looking for the jobs that will replace those lost in the financial crash.

Not to invest would now be "unthinkable", says Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Commissioner responsible for research, innovation and science, who is trying to spur the European Union to keep pace in turning ideas into industries."

BBC article - Google+ opens social network to everyone

This is an interesting article on the BBC News Technology page about Google+ social networking.

Google+ opens social network to everyone - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14985494 - 20 September 2011

"Google+ is being opened up for anyone to join after two-and-a-half months in closed testing.

The search firm's latest foray into social networking was initially offered to journalists and people working in technology related fields.

However, members' ability to invite friends meant its user base quickly grew to tens of millions."

INCOSE UK Bristol Event 28th September

An interesting event takes place on 28th September at University of the West of England. The title is 'The Rise and Fall of the Systems Engineering Lifecycle'. The event is organised by INCOSE - International Council on Systems Engineering.

Booking is online at - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=198

Details of the event are :-

"The Bristol Local Group Presents
'The Rise and Fall of the Systems Engineering Lifecycle'
Kicking off the new Bristol Local Group season, this event will examine how the nature of systems engineering changes across development lifecycles, how organisational roles and responsibilities adapt to suit, and what happens when there are mismatches between them. This interactive workshop will include an examination of the following questions:

•What tends to get missed in commonly used lifecycles?
•Where is the Systems Engineering focus and how does it shift?
•What information flows and networking between stakeholders and organisations is necessary and how is this encouraged?

Date: 28th September – 6.30pm for 7pm till 9pm
Location: Room 1N05, University of the West of England (UWE), Frenchay Campus, Bristol

NON-MEMBERS WELCOME."

Also an INCOSE conference takes place at Warwick in November, details are available at - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/ASEC2011/General_Information.aspx?CatID=Events

"Annual Systems Engineering Conference (ASEC) 2011
9th-10th November 2011
Scarman Training and Conference Centre, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Doing Systems Engineering well'
The UK's premier Systems Engineering event will address key contemporary themes for a wide audience, and provide an excellent forum for networking, sharing experience and advancing the discipline."

Stanford University - Free computer science courses, new teaching technology reinvent online education

This is a very useful educational resource provided for free by Stanford University Professors. The courses are - Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases.

The article that explains this is at - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/august/online-computer-science-081611.html - Free computer science courses, new teaching technology reinvent online education - Stanford Report, August 16, 2011.

Below is part of the article, and those interested can click on the link above for the whole article.

"Stanford Engineering professors are setting out to add a new level of interactivity to online education by offering three of the university's most popular computer science classes for free.

Morgan Quigley

Computer Science professor Andrew Ng uses tablet-recording technology he developed to instantly display notes for his interactive video lecture.
BY JAMIE BECKETT

Stanford Engineering professors are offering three of the school’s most popular computer science courses for free online this fall, and at the same time launching an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered.

The professors are taking technologies designed to enhance learning for Stanford students and extending them to a broad online audience. They are delivering lectures as short, interactive video clips that allow students to progress at their own pace through course materials. They are offering live quizzes with instant feedback. And they are testing new technologies that allow students to rank questions that should be posed to the instructors.

The professors also hope to extend the benefits of Stanford-style education to those who lack access.

“Both in the United States and elsewhere, many people simply do not have access to a high-quality education. By putting out this initial set of courses, we hope to teach some of the latest computing technologies to anyone who wants to learn it – for free,” said Andrew Ng, an associate professor of computer science who is teaching a new online machine learning course.

The three courses – Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases – cover material that forms the basis of some of the most prevalent technologies today, from online shopping to web search and robotics."

When algorithms control the world

This BBC story based on a book by Eli Pariser 'The Filter Bubble', is interesting in how it explores the way algorithms affect our lives in unpredictable ways. An important example of this is the way so much financial trading is done by algorithms with no human interaction, with unpredictable consequences -

When algorithms control the world - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14306146.
23 August 2011

By Jane Wakefield

Technology reporter

"If you were expecting some kind warning when computers finally get smarter than us, then think again.

There will be no soothing HAL 9000-type voice informing us that our human services are now surplus to requirements.

In reality, our electronic overlords are already taking control, and they are doing it in a far more subtle way than science fiction would have us believe.

Their weapon of choice - the algorithm."

Careers in Academia - September - Vitae - Birmingham 13th Sep 2011

This is a useful free careers event for Vitae. Vitae are a very helpful organisation for researchers. I'll copy and paste the details below, from their website. More information and the booking form are available on the website -
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/53174-382791/Careers-in-Academia---September-.html.

13th Sep 2011

"
This interactive one-day event is aimed at postgraduate researchers and will enable you to:

* review the current higher education environment
* meet with successful academics from a range of disciplines to hear how they advanced their academic career
*understand the balance required between skills, achievements and building your professional profile
*review where you are in your career, where you want to be and how to get there
*ask questions that you've always wanted to but weren't sure who to ask network with fellow researchers
*develop an action plan to strategically manage your career.

The research carried out by the UK's higher education sector is held in extremely high regard by the international community. In producing 8% of the world's scientific papers and 13% of the world's most highly cited works, the UK ranks second only to the USA. The UK's research staff are central to this achievement*.

Like most careers, there are many elements that are required in order to develop a successful academic career and these are not always transparent. This event addresses how to succeed in a competitive and complex research environment and will allow you to think about the pros and cons of different career options available.
"