OLDaily

2022 Top Tools for Learning
Mike Taylor, 2022/08/04

It's that time of the year again when educators and developers send their list of top tools to Jane Hart. This is Mike Taylor's list, which is headed by Feedly, Wordpress and Twitter. Here is Helen Blunden's list, which drops Twitter entirely, and is headed by Feedly, WordPress and YouTube. Is this the year of Feedly? Here's my top ten list.

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The newsletter boom is over. What’s next?
Peter Kafka, Vox, 2022/08/04

I think it's pretty funny that 'the newsletter boom' came and went between 2020 and 2022 (ie., between the 19th and 21st year of this email newsletter's publication). Here's a statement of the obvious: "Newsletters, it turns out, are just like blogs and podcasts — they're super simple for anyone to create. But turning them into something beyond a hobby — let alone turning them into a full-time job — requires talent and sustained effort." The trick to newsletters - beyond the commitment and effort - is understanding that you are writing to a specific community and not to the wider public at large. And it requires understanding that you won't earn a living from the newsletter, that writing it is an input to whatever you actually do to earn a living. A lot like education and professional development.

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Summer reading #3: Algorithms
Terry Freedman, ICT & Computing in Education, 2022/08/04

We read from time to time the recommendation that we teach it, but what exactly is computational thinking? There's no shortage of more superficial definitions, but to get a full and deep account, this book (free and self-published by Jeff Erickson) recommended by Terry Freedman is a pretty good reference. Now I would recommend everyone learn everything in this book (though it wouldn't hurt) but rather would define something like computational literacy as a basic understanding and ability to apply the key concepts outlined here, things like recursion, decisions, search, probability, graphs, hashing, etc. This book, meanwhile, would be an indispensable reference for anyone teaching computational thinking.

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