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Submission + - Google: Mamas Don't Let Their Baby Girls Grow Up to be Coding Cowboys

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Explaining the reasons for its less-than-diverse tech workforce, Google fingered bad parenting for its lack of women techies. From the interview with Google Director of Diversity and Inclusion Nancy Lee: "Q. What explains the drop [since 1984] in women studying computer science? A. We commissioned original research that revealed it's primarily parents' encouragement, and perception and access. Parents don't see their young girls as wanting to pursue computer science and don't steer them in that direction. There's this perception that coding and computer science is ... a 'brogrammer' culture for boys, for games, for competition. There hasn't been enough emphasis on the power computing has in achieving social impact. That's what girls are interested in. They want to do things that matter." While scant on details, the Google study's charts appear to show that, overall, fathers encourage young women to study CS more than mothers. Google feels that reeducation is necessary. "Outreach programs," advises Google, "should include a parent education component, so that parents learn how to actively encourage their daughters."

Comment Re:Some will be troubled (Score 2) 119

Nothing wrong with encouraging kids to work hard, but are you comfortable with Google and Khan Academy using (presumably) tax-free money and their mysterious "grit algorithm" to determine education haves and have-nots? Btw, one of the schools whose grit "unlocked new devices [Google Chrome laptops] for their classrooms and free home internet service for eligible families, increasing student access to online learning tools like Khan Academy" was coincidentally already a Khan Academy Case Study, which one might suspects might have given them an edge over the competition. If access to computers is truly fundamental for learning, which Google and Khan Academy seem to agree with, should it not be fully-funded rather than left to the kindness of corporations, nonprofits, and their "grit algorithms"?

Submission + - Google and Gates-Backed Khan Academy Introduces 'Grit'-Based Classroom Funding 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Their intentions are no doubt good, but some will be troubled by Google and Khan Academy's recently-concluded LearnStorm initiative, which pitted kids-against-kids, schools-against-schools, and cities-against-cities in a 3-month learning challenge for prizes based not only on students' mastery of math skills on Khan Academy, but also their perceived 'hustle' (aka 'grit'). "Points are earned by mastering math skills and also for taking on challenging new concepts and persevering," explained a Khan Academy FAQ. A blog entry further explained, "They've earned points and prizes not only for mastering math skills but also for showing 'hustle,' a metric we created to measure grit, perseverance, and growth. They competed over 200,000 hours of learning and 13.6 million standards-aligned math problems. In addition, thanks to the generosity of Google.org, DonorsChoose.org, and Comcast’s Internet Essentials, 34 underserved schools unlocked new devices for their classrooms and free home internet service for eligible families, increasing student access to online learning tools like Khan Academy." Apparently funded by a $2 million Google grant, the Google, Khan Academy, and DonorsChoose grit-based classroom funding comes on the heels of the same organizations' gender-based classroom funding initiative. Supported by some of the world's wealthiest individuals and corporations, Khan Academy's Board members include a Google Board member (Diane Green), spouse of a Google Board member (Ann Doerr), and the Managing Partner of Bill Gates' bgC3 (Larry Cohen); former Board members include Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Submission + - Death in the Browser Tab

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "There you are watching another death on video," writes the NY Times' Teju Cole. "In the course of ordinary life — at lunch or in bed, in a car or in the park — you are suddenly plunged into someone else’s crisis, someone else’s horror. It arrives, absurdly, in the midst of banal things. That is how, late one afternoon in April, I watched Walter Scott die. The footage of his death, taken by a passer-by, had just been published online on the front page of The New York Times. I watched it, sitting at my desk in Brooklyn, and was stunned by it." Cole continues, "For most of human history, to see someone die, you had to be there. Depictions of death, if there were any, came later, at a certain remove of time and space." Disturbing as they may be (Cole notes he couldn't bear to watch the ISIS beheading videos), such images may ultimately change things for the better. Better to publish them than sweep them under the carpet?

Submission + - AP Computer Science Education Scalability: Advantage, Rupert Murdoch?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Despite all the Presidential fanfare since its early-2013 debut, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook-backed Code.org won't be going mainstream with an AP Computer Science offering until the 2016-2017 school year. In the meantime, NewsWorks' Avi Wolfman-Arent reports that Rupert Murdoch's Amplify MOOC just wrapped up its second year of offering AP Computer Science A. And unlike Microsoft TEALS, Google CS First, and Code.org — programs constrained by the number of volunteers, teacher and classroom availability, professional development requirements, and money — Murdoch's AP CS MOOC holds the promise of open-access, unlimited-enrollment, learn-anywhere-and-anytime classes, a la Coursera, Udacity and EdX. So, did Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and their leaders place a $30 million bet on the wrong horse when it comes to AP Computer Science scalability? And, even if they've got a more scalable model, will Murdoch's Amplify and schools be willing to deal with higher MOOC failure rates, and allow large numbers of students to try — and possibly drop or fail — AP CS without economic or academic consequences?

Submission + - Advice for a College Dropout? 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "I dropped out of college today," begins the touching inaugural post on Life of a Dropout, which will strike a chord with anyone who's done or contemplated doing the same. "Life had gotten messed up to such extent that suicide seemed to be a much much better option. So when I woke up today I got a third person view of my life, and felt like I had to get out of this situation and prevent myself from doing any harm to myself. I have been in this college for 3 years now, and the only good it did to me was that it allowed me to meet awesome people and as a result I developed as a software developer." So, any words of advice or encouraging anecdotes for a dropout/developer who's trying to start things afresh?

Submission + - Gates, Zuckerberg Promising Same Jobs to US Kids and Foreign H-1B Workers? 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Over at the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg-bankrolled Code.org, they're using the number of open computing jobs in each state to convince parents of the need to expand K-12 CS offerings so their kids can fill those jobs. Sounds good, right? But at the same time, the Gates and Zuckerberg-bankrolled FWD.org PAC has taken to Twitter, using the number of open "STEM" jobs in each state to convince politicians of the need to expand the number of H-1B visas so foreign workers can fill those jobs. While the goal of Microsoft's 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy is to kill two birds [K-12 CS education and H-1B visas] with one crisis, is it cool for organizations backed by many of the same wealthy individuals to essentially promise the same jobs to U.S. kids and foreign H-1B workers?

Submission + - In-Database R Coming to SQL Server 2016

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Wondering what kind of things Microsoft might do with its purchase of Revolution Analytics? Over at the Revolutions blog, David Smith announces that in-database R coming to SQL Server 2016. "With this update," Smith writes, "data scientists will no longer need to extract data from SQL server via ODBC to analyze it with R. Instead, you will be able to take your R code to the data, where it will be run inside a sandbox process within SQL Server itself. This eliminates the time and storage required to move the data, and gives you all the power of R and CRAN packages to apply to your database." It'll no doubt intrigue Data Scientist types, but the devil's in the final details, which Microsoft was still cagey about when it talked-the-not-exactly-glitch-free-talk (starts @57:00) earlier this month at Ignite. So, brush up your R, kids, and you can see how Microsoft walks-the-in-database-walk when SQL Server 2016 public preview rolls out this summer.

Submission + - College Board Puts Billionaire-Backed Code.org in Charge of AP CS Program

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The College Board," reports GeekWire, "is endorsing Code.org as a coursework and teacher training provider for its upcoming AP Computer Science Principles course and will help Code.org fund the teacher training work required to establish new computer science classes." So what's the catch? "Schools that commit to using the [new] PSAT [8/9 assessment] to identify middle school students who have potential for success in computer science will be eligible to receive curriculum, training, and funding for programming classes." Hey, with Bill "Common Core" Gates involved, would you have expected anything less? Bankrolled by some of tech's wealthiest leaders and their corporations, Code.org's seven-person Board includes Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith, Google Director of Education Maggie Johnson, Amazon Sr. VP Jeff Wilke, and Vandana Sikka, the spouse of Vishal Sikka, CEO of offshore outsourcing giant Infosys. Smith, the next-door neighbor of Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, proposed the idea of 'producing a crisis' to advance Microsoft's 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy to increase K-12 CS education and the number of H-1B visas. Just months thereafter, nonprofit organizations Code.org and Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, which is lobbying for H-1B reform, were born. Code.org and FWD.us share many supporters.

Submission + - Bill Gates Still Trying to Buy Some Common Core Testing Love

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Bill Gates famously spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, implement and promote the now controversial Common Core State Standards," reports the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss. "He hasn't stopped giving." In the last seven months, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has poured more than $10 million into implementation and parent support for the Core. Strauss adds: "Gates is the leader of education philanthropy in the United States, spending a few billion dollars over more than a decade to promote school reforms that he championed, including the Common Core, a small-schools initiative in New York City that he abandoned after deciding it wasn’t working, and efforts to create new teacher evaluation systems that in part use a controversial method of assessment that uses student standardized test scores to determine the 'effectiveness' of educators. Such philanthropy has sparked a debate about whether American democracy is well-served by wealthy people who pour part of their fortunes into their pet projects — regardless of whether they are grounded in research — to such a degree that public policy and funding follow." By the way, the use of a BillG look-alike kid in the pro-Common Core ad made by recent $3.7M Gates Foundation awardee the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation was a nice touch! And if you're still on the fence about Common Core after viewing it, the Onion just came out with a nice list of the pros and cons of standardized testing that may help you decide.

Submission + - In San Francisco, Billionaires Tax School Districts! 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has turned to crowdfunding to raise funds for classroom technology to enable its students to "contribute to and thrive in the digital world." And billionaire-backed crowdfunding site Tilt, explains the grateful SFUSD in a press release, "is taking only one percent [of donations] to offset the site maintenance expenses." SFUSD is following the example of tech leaders and their corporations, who have turned to "begfunding" sites to not only direct tax-free millions to their pet K-12 public education projects, but also to control who gets educated. Hey, Microsoft did say "there are better ways [than taxes] for us to address the state's [education] needs." Unfortunately, Tilt so far seems to do a better job of funding party experiences "normally reserved for Saudi Princes" than passionate critical thinkers. Still, SF Mayor Ed Lee is jazzed!

Comment Paid Eolas Patent Expert Witness (Score 1) 27

Seems to be well-respected - hopefully this was an anomaly. EFF Honors Paid Eolas Patent Expert Witness: Doesn't seem like Felten's ongoing efforts as a paid expert for Eolas that helped return a $521M judgment against Microsoft for infringing on a web
plug-in patent jibe too well with the EFF's raison d'etre, which includes Patent Busting. In a letter to the USPTO, previous Pioneer Award recipient Tim Berners-Lee termed the Eolas patent 'a substantial setback for global interoperability and the success of the open Web.'

Submission + - Could an Apple Watch Have Saved Dave Goldberg's Life?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: One of the use cases pitched by Apple for the new Apple Watch was vacation training on hotel gym treadmills, so one wonders if Tim Cook and Apple might not be a little worried by the remote possibility that SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg may have been distracted by an Apple Watch when he died while vacationing in Mexico with his wife, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. A day before her husband's fatal hotel gym treadmill accident, Bloomberg reported that Sandberg was an early adopter of the Apple Watch, and Goldberg himself had presented the results of a SurveyMonkey Apple Watch poll on CNBC a week before his death, which showed that messaging and tracking one's exercise and movement would be big draws for consumers. One also wonders if Apple Watch training apps — e.g., a heart monitor or I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up messaging app — could possibly have saved Goldberg, or prevent others from suffering a similar fate.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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