Let's Talk About Doing Good this New Year

Like you, Scott, I'm getting more deeply involved in education. I just joined an advisory board for one of the Cleveland Metro's new schools, and I've been asked to serve on a citizen stakeholder's committee for the superintendent search for my local district. There's also Ohio City Writers, where I'm on the board. There's some other stuff, but those are the ones I'm most excited about.  

Posted Jan 02, 2013

Sharing education resources (education seems to be a theme), and a daydream.

The first resource:  I've started taking a course at EDX, a remarkable resource if you haven't discovered it (free online courses from Harvard, Berkeley, and MIT - with others to be added soon).  I started exploring the course for work related reasons, since my active programming experience was...let's just say a few years...before the development of object oriented programming/design.

The daydream:  The guidelines for final project of the course have also caught my attention:

"The climax of this course is its final project. The final project is your opportunity to take your newfound savvy with programming out for a spin and develop your very own piece of software. So long as your project draws upon this course's lessons, the nature of your project is entirely up to you. You may implement your project in any language(s). You are welcome to utilize infrastructure other than the CS50 Appliance. All that we ask is that you build something of interest to you, that you solve an actual problem, that you impact your community, or that you change the world. Strive to create something that outlives this course."

I currently have visions of grabbing the Civic Commons code and building a calendaring function, or a more sophisticated search engine, for it . . . we'll see.  My energy (and time) may not extend beyond my original goal, but it is fun to dream.

The second and third resources:  For those who need a little amusement, my first problem set is here.  It is was written with an ingeneous little language called Scratch - a drag and drop language created by MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Group (love the name).  Clunky for anyone with programming experience, but a great starting point for anyone 7-ish or older who is interested in learning basic programming concepts with a pretty powerful tool (for what it is).  (You can also create additional sophistication by adding BYOB (Snap) available here.)

Posted Jan 03, 2013

On Saturday, January 19 in Kent I will be holding a free training in Theatre for Social Change on the topic of Creating a Culture of Peace. All are welcome. We will then hold an interactive performance on Monday, Jan. 21 (MLK day) at 6:30 p.m. For more information or to RSVP visit www.learningtheatrically.wordpress.com. ;

Posted Jan 08, 2013