Tag: Education

Computing in school — comparison with water.

I teach computer science, not computer products. We need to stop pushing products.

Schools should be teaching computer science and IT, not products. At this time computers are set up as office tools, and many IT-support departments work in opposition to teaching computer science and IT. We look to the companies that sell software to teach us about software.

This is like asking Evian to help with pupils swimming classes, just because they make a lot of money selling water. Yes we can ask them to provide money, but often they, instead, send a crate of bottled water, and we get the pupils to try to swim in it.

There is nothing wrong with a bottled water company sponsoring a school. However we should not be using their water. It has been shown that bottled water costs about 1000 times more than tap water, in most places in the world the tap water is better than more than half of the bottled water, and in blind taste tests people can not tell the difference. The argument that it is provided for free to schools is irrelevant, this is a marketing ploy to create dependence (“first one’s free”). It is not about price, it is about education. Another thing these companies do is to move in to a region, and start pumping out water, so that there is none remaining for the local population. They then step in with a solution “buy our bottled water”. In parts of the world with a strong legal system there have been court cases (e.g. in the USA), but the companies have argued that it is not there fault “it was a bad year, it did not rain”. The fact that this was not devastating in the past, because there was not a big company extracting to much water, seems to be irrelevant. In other countries it does not even go to court.

This is exactly what is happening with computer software. We need to teach students to be responsibly empowered, to use computer in the way that will enhance there lives, and not be dependent on big corporations.

Therefore Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Google, Facebook, … should have no place in the classroom. We should start this by not promoting them. We should then start removing them, so that pupils can learn, better, how computer work and how to use them.

Today I was asked “What changes would you make to the [IT] national curriculum [for the UK]”

Today I was asked “What changes would you make to the IT national curriculum”. So here are my answers:

  • It says “use 2 or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems …”. I would add that the languages should be different, though I have not worked out how to define different, but C# and Java are too similar, C# and Visual Basic are too similar, C and C++ are too similar.
  • Next I would add “use 2 or more operating systems, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems …”

A single rule for apostrophes.

a sad apostropheApostrophes don’t have to be complicated. Normally we are taught several rules and many exceptions, and are expected to remember them. I have one rule and some examples. (If you already know how to do apostrophes then skip this post, unless you are teaching.)

Rule: Use apostrophes for contractions, that is when a word or words are made shorter by removing letters, use the apostrophe as a place-holder for the missing letters.

Examples simple contraction:

  • it is → it’s
  • it is → ’tis
  • do not → don’t
  • will not → won’t
  • can not → can’t
  • are not → aren’t
  • of the clock → o’clock
  • Holloweven → Hollowe’en
  • cat-of-nine-tails → cat-o’-nine-tails
  • will-of-the-wisp → will-o’-the-wisp
  • it was → ’twas

But not all contractions.

  • gymnasium → gym
  • advertisement → ad
  • etc.

Rule: Use apostrophes for contractions, that is when a word or words are made shorter by removing letters, use the apostrophe as a place-holder for the missing letters.

Examples possession:

  • John his ball → John’s ball
  • the cat its ball → the cat’s ball
  • Sarah hers ball → Sarah’s ball
  • the bus its wheels → the bus’s wheels
  • its ball → its ball
  • his ball → his ball
  • her ball → her ball
  • their ball → their ball

These seem a bit odd in the long form, nobody uses them any more, we always use the short form. However they are useful to help us remember where to put the apostrophe. (The history in this post is made up, it is just an aid to memory.)

We don’t have an apostrophe for Plurals, there is no contraction.
Rule: Use apostrophes for contractions, that is when a word or words are made shorter by removing letters, use the apostrophe as a place-holder for the missing letters.

Example:

  • cats → cats
  • dogs → dogs
  • buses → buses
  • TVs → TVs
  • LEDs → LEDs

So what about plurals, possession and words ending in s? The answer is the same.

Rule: Use apostrophes for contractions, that is when a word or words are made shorter by removing letters, use the apostrophe as a place-holder for the missing letters.

Example plurals and possession:

  • the cats there ball → the cats’ ball
  • the girls there ball → the girls’ ball

If a singular noun ends with an s-sound (spelled with -s, -se, for example), practice varies as to whether to add ‘s or the apostrophe alone. A widely accepted practice is to follow whichever spoken form is judged better: the boss’s shoes, Mrs Jones’ hat (or Mrs Jones’s hat, if that spoken form is preferred). In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers. — (paragraph taken from wikipedia)

Years 1990 to 1999 that is the 1990s, the 10 years between 1990 and 1999, but for some reason Americans write 1970’s.

Now for the other anomaly:

Individual letters and numbers when pluralised have an apostrophe.
e.g.
12341567189 has 3 1’s, not 3 1s, or better 1 appears three times.
abcdaefgahi has 3 a’s, not 3 as, or better a appears three times.

There are a few other exceptions, however this is the simplest system I could think of. One rule that covers over 90% of it, and a few exceptions. If you go by the other systems then these exceptions are exceptions to exceptions to exceptions.

If you do not learn the exceptions then you will be well ahead of every one else. If you need to look up an exception I recommend the Penguin guide to punctuation. Its rules are simple (though the rules on apostrophise, are not as simple as mine), take the result and fit it into your newly learnt model (or just look it up each time, until you learn it).

One day you will die — what inspires you?

Don’t be inspired by how short your life is. Instead be inspired by your life being finite (one day it will end). What will you leave behind?

  • Start something, a project, that you will not personally finish.
  • Work on a project you did not start.
  • Work on a project that has no end.

But,
Do not try to make a difference, that way leads to chaos; A negative difference is still a difference. If you aim for a difference you will get what comes easiest, a negative difference (many people do this).

Instead,
Try to make everything you work on better; Don’t try to fix everything, but if you work on it, then ask how can I make it better. So that the next person to use or work on it will find it less frustrating, and a joy.

What is good food?

I was talking to someone the other day about healthy eating, what is healthy, what is not. Another friend joined the conversation, and said that people should just eat what ever they like. At first I was annoyed that they where trying to undermine the conversation. But then I released they where right.

Humans have evolved for millions of years ( or where created ), to like food that will be advantages (healthy) to them. However more recently food scientists and marketing people have created food that tastes, looks, smells, sounds, and feels good, even (especially) when it is not good for us.

Therefore:

Forget about nutrition, forget about whether the additive is safe, forget everything you have learned about healthy food.

  • Don’t get your food from a food manufacturer. Get it from a farmer or garden.
  • Don’t eat anything with added colour, flavor, vitamins, sweetener, etc. Food should have its own colour, flavor, vitamins.
  • Don’t eat anything that is over processed. Some foods need chopping and cooking but don’t over do it.
  • Don’t allow others to mess with it to make it taste good, just use good ingredients, cooked well.

All colour, flavor, sweetener etc are bad for you, they fool the brain into thinking the food is healthy, even if consciously you know it is not. (your conscious brain can not win a battle of wills against your unconscious brain.) Therefore all use of colour, flavor, sweetener etc is false advertising / a fraud.

This sums it up “eat food not too much mostly plants” — Michael Pollan

Be the change facilitator

I have just returned from Scotland, where I was on a course to become a be-the-change facilitator.

To bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on the planet.

see: http://bethechange.org.uk/

http://www.joannamacy.net

Lookout for future posts in category be-the-change.

We will build this place — and they will play ( A Co-housing project )

I wrote this on 29 June 2010 in 8 minuets at a community land trust event in London.
see also the book it is published in: here

We will build this place — and they will play

( A Co-housing project )

My boy was born today, where will he play?
Will he play indoors on his own, all alone?
Will he play in the road, with the cars?
Will he play in the park, far away?
Let us get rid of the cars.
Let us know our neighbours.
Let us build a community together.
Let us talk in the streets, with no cars.
Let the children play.
Let the adults play.
Let the old people play.
Let the children play.

Dyslexia Correction Diary — 20111103

Today my son did not want to do clay. So I told him that we would do his reading book or the clay. He chose to read his book.

He has improved his reading a lot recently, and did very well. I did hands on shoulders (an orientation excessive) with him, this helped him stay focused. Until about half way through the book he got stuck on a word he did not know. He tried the technique he learnt at school (sounding it out, blending etc.). I then stopped him.

I asked him some questions.

Do you know that word?, No.
Can you sound it our? (I know he could not, I know it was impossible.), cryingNo I don’t know how. (He can do phonics, I have seen him use it successfully with words that it works on. But never mastering the word and having to sound it out each time he got to it.)
I reassured him, I showed him dad having a go and completely failing. He laughed.
I explained It is impossible, phonics don’t work all of the time.
I then asked Can you read this word? pointing at a word he knew, Yes.
How do you know?, I just know it, I know that word.
I told him that he would never get really good at reading, and not at all good at writing using phonics. It will not be fun.
Would you like it if you could just read, with out difficult words?, Yes, but it wont be interesting without the interesting words.
What if you could be good at all words?, Yes, that would be good.
Then we need to do ping, hands on shoulder and clay., OK.
Tomorrow., Yes.

At some point he was trying to rush, because I said he could do something else when he had finished. Recognising this I told him I could change the success criteria, We are going to focus on this page then stop.

Dyslexia Correction Diary — problems

This entry is about some problems I had and how I solved them.

Child destroying model. I went to do something else, and told child I would be back in 5 minuets and I expected him to make the best model he could by the time I got back.
Child messing about. I realised that this was an avoidance strategy. The child had learnt to do other things until the session timed-out, thus avoiding the activity. I told the child that I was changing my strategy. I would no longer be doing time boxed sessions, instead I would be doing activity boxed sessions. We would do a small activity that should be over in 10-15 minuets, and we would stop when it was finished (even if it took all night).