Brandon Muramatsu

Posts of the Week for August 1, 2011

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  • The Latest in HTML 5 and HTML5 Rocks: I’m getting more and more interested in HTML5 as a content delivery mechanism (not the least of which is that it works on iPads). I’m considering it for authoring content for upcoming OEIT projects, as well as an idea my friend David Ray and I have been kicking around for touch-enabled applets for understanding Math (and Engineering) topics. These are two slide decks that go over the features. And then here’s a link to a Functional HTML5 & CSS3 course.

    (StartupDigest Hacker, July 15, 2011 and discussions with David Ray)

  • Professor Questions Sink or Swim Intro to CS Courses: There are two things in this post, one is Zack Kurmas’ post about intro CS courses and the other is Yung Tae Kim’s farewell video before resigning his post as a physics professor.

    theodp writes:

    “After having taught introductory programming (CS 1) for the past six years,’ writes GVSU’s Zack Kurmas, ‘and having watched many students struggle through this course and the subsequent course (CS 2), I have come to the conclusion that it is absurd to expect students who don’t have any prior programming experience to be well prepared to study Computer Science after a single 15-week course (i.e., CS 1). I believe that expecting a student to learn to program well enough to study Computer Science in a single 15-week course is almost as absurd as expecting a student with no instrumental musical experience to be ready to join the university orchestra after 15 weeks.’ Kurmas’ frustrations are not unlike those voiced by Physics professor Dr. Yung Tae Kim, who argues the up-or-out, one-size-fits-all rigid pace approach to learning set by teachers and administrators is as absurd as telling a toddler, ‘You have ten weeks to walk, and if you can’t, you get an F and you’re not allowed to try to walk anymore.”

    (Slashdot, May 22, 2011)

  • Really Bad Workshops (And How to Avoid Them): Having had to run an international conference and being in the process of organizing a summit, I thought this book might be interesting.

    “This book is aimed at people who have been assigned the job of running a workshop. It’s purpose is to help you design better workshops by passing on some tips that I have learned when designing events for both large and small organisations around the world.”

    My only annoyance, is that the use of the word “workshop” makes the activity sound more like a business retreat or meeting rather than the way I think of workshop. In any event the ideas are reasonable. Don’t be put off by the “‘pay’ for it with a Tweet”, it is worth taking a look at.

    (O’Reilly Radar, Four short links: 28 July 2011)

  • Most of Your Work Sucks: AJ Kessler exhorts us to keep refining, editing, tweaking, changing until you have some fantastic creation. “To get from “suck” to “awesome” takes a huge amount of effort and skill….If you’re a software company that’s trying to cram in every last feature possible, maybe you would be better served by making a few key features outstanding.”

    Though really, the interesting part of the article is the story cribbed from a Forbes article, I’ll list the original source as the credit.

    “I came across one story that provides a glimpse into how Steve Jobs and the company he co-founded has achieved its stunning success. The story comes to us courtesy of Nike CEO, Mark Parker. “Do you have any advice?” Parker asked Jobs. “Well, just one thing,” said Jobs. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” Parker said Jobs paused and Parker filled the quiet with a chuckle. But Jobs didn’t laugh. He was serious. “He was absolutely right,” said Parker. “We had to edit.””

    Gallo, C. (2011, May 16). Steve Jobs: Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff. Retrieved July 29, 2011 from Forbes Web site: http://blogs.forbes.com/carminegallo/2011/05/16/steve-jobs-get-rid-of-the-crappy-stuff/

    (StartupDigest, July 29, 2011)

  • NYU Prof Vows Never to Probe Cheating Again–and Faces a Backlash: Marc Perry does an interesting follow-up to a blog post by a NYU faculty member. The article includes a link to a cached version of the original post. Interesting read. The self-reflection is interesting as are a couple of the conclusions–design assignments that are public and are resistant to cheating.

    (StartupDigest EdTech, July 29, 2011)

  • Was the $5 Billion Worth It?: Jason L. Riley interviewed Bill Gates on the first ten years of education philantropy by his foundation. Interesting, because OEIT is working with the Gates Foundation on a symposium about the quality of online learning.

    (StartupDigest EdTech, July 29, 2011)

  • Why WSJ Mobile App Gets ** Customer Reviews: Jakob Nielsen describes why the Wall Street Journal’s mobile app design leads to negative reviews (even excluding their pricing policies), and suggests two different fixes.

    (StartupDigest Mobile, July 29, 2011)

  • Know When to Buy a Washer/Dryer and When to Use the Laundromat: The short answer in David Galloway’s summary: if you’re going to do 600 loads of laundry it’s better to buy vs. use the laundromat. But really this article was great for the arguing going on in the comments about how many loads per week is reasonable!

    (Lifehacker, July 24, 2011)

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