Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson

Alfred Thompson's blog about teaching computer science at the K-12 level. Alfred was a high school computer science teacher for 8 years. He has also taught grades K-8 as a computer specialist.

Don’t Panic

The other day I was looking through the analytics for this blog to see what sort of searches people...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 09/01/2012

Computer Controversies For Fun and Discussion

I love a good discussion. Pros and cons and honest and hopefully friendly discussion of issue with...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/31/2012

Cloud Fundamentals Video Series

The Trustworthy Computing group has been recording a series on Cloud computing fundamentals. The...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/30/2012

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

I ran into these Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics created by the Computer Ethics Institute while...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/29/2012

Part of my job is to help people find valuable resources. I especially like it when they are free....

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/28/2012

Back to school hit home today as my wife went back to school for the first day of teachers. Kids...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/27/2012

Online Coding Exercises For Programming Education

Well it is that time of year again – back to school. On the SIGCSE mailing list are a couple...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/22/2012

Back from vacation and trying to catch up with things. I had over 450 unread email messages in spite...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/20/2012

How To Read Code

We don’t teach students how to read code. Actually we don’t event teach them that they should read...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/16/2012

Try Kinect at your K-12 School

  Capturing students' interest and making concepts come alive is an educator's greatest...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/15/2012

Recursion First

I’ve long had mixed feelings about recursion. (I’ve written about recursion several...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/14/2012

Well it’s the middle of my vacation. Mostly I’m avoiding the Internet and email. Mostly. I’m not all...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/13/2012

Public Sector TechBytes Series

          Register Today ! Select a date below to register online or call...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/10/2012

2012 Microsoft US Forum Wrap Up

I missed out on most of the US Forum this year but as I said on Monday () I was able to attend the...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/09/2012

You're invited to a Windows 8 DevCamp in city near you

      Seating is limited. Select a date below to register online or call...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 08/08/2012

Over on the left here is a picture of a group of young women who visited Microsoft in Cambridge MA...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/30/2012

Curriculum is Hard

I’ve been involved in a number of curriculum projects over the years. The big one has been the...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/26/2012

I had a great week and a great weekend. Busy weekend with family which is the best way to spend the...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/23/2012

2012 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit Day One

Oh what a day! I’m at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/17/2012

The Microsoft Research Faculty Summit starts today (about noon eastern US time) Much of it will be...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/16/2012

Post CS & IT 2012 Thoughts

The first part of this week was spent in Irvine CA for the 2012 CS & IT Conference. It’s amazing...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/13/2012

Tip Calculator Hands On Lab for Windows Phone

This is the basic instructions for the demo I did as part of the Mobile App Development throwdown at...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/10/2012

Computational Fairy Tales the Book

Just about a year ago I wrote a post about a Computational Fairy Tale blog (Computational Tales)...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/06/2012

Teaching Teachers

Next week is the CSTA Computer Science & Information Technology Conference in Irvine CA. I’m...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/05/2012

Microsoft Research Faculty Summit Live Stream 2012

I received this news from the ACM recently. The Microsoft Research Faculty Summit will be available...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/03/2012

Where is the computer science at ISTE?

My prime focus at Microsoft is K-12 computer science education. While I am very interested in...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 07/02/2012

Computer Science in the Common Core–Speak Up

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I really believe that we need more computer science...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 06/21/2012

Studio K – Program to make Kodu Curriculum and Tools more accessible in Classrooms

The other day the Kodu team announced Studio K. What is Studio K you ask?  In my opinion it’s...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 06/19/2012

Why I Love Windows Live Mesh

It could be argued that I have too many computers. There is my cool demo machine – Samsung 9. There...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 06/15/2012

Microsoft Store Summer Camps are Now Open for Registration!

Microsoft Store Summer Camps are Now Open for Registration! Our 2012 Summer Camps are first come,...

Author: Alfred Thompson Date: 06/14/2012

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