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. He has written several textbooks and project books for teaching Visual Basic in high school and middle school. Alfred is the K-12 Computer Science Academic Relations Manager for Microsoft and is trying to be the Microsoft Education Blogger.

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Workshop Links September 17 2009

One of the things I like to demo and to have people do as sort of a “Hello World” for XNA Game Studio is create a simple Pong game. I did this demo today (well technically I will do it this afternoon) and thought I should make the materials more easily Read More...

Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 10:25 AM by Alfred Thompson | 2 Comments

Filed under: C#, Computer Science Education, XNA, Game Programming, education, fun

Zune HD as a programming/teaching platform?

The idea of games that use accelerometers strikes me as particularly interesting an several levels. The most obvious is for creating games of course. But looking deeper I like the idea that one could teach things with the right software. Things around Read More...

Posted Wednesday, September 16, 2009 5:37 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: XNA, Game Programming, education, Programming, fun, Education Technology, Zune, Microsoft Surface

Interesting Links Labor Day 2009

I’m not really working today. Well just this post really. For the most part I have been largely offline for Labor Day weekend. Enjoying family, sun, books, and relaxing. My wife and son start school with their students tomorrow. They’ve been doing the Read More...

Posted Monday, September 07, 2009 11:41 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: C#, CSTA, Game Programming, education, Programming, fun, Silverlight, Microsoft Office, math, Twitter

Latest Interesting Links September 1 2009

August was something else for me. I had some travel. I had a lot of work. And I did some things around the house. That’s what August is for right? You may or may not have noticed but blogging was a little lighter than usual for me in August. Only the Read More...

Posted Tuesday, September 01, 2009 2:48 PM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, Game Programming, education, fun, Popfly, FDG

Interesting Links August 24 2009

As I put this summary together I’m just about ready to head to Redmond WA by way of Seattle in the morning. Early in the morning. Even earlier than my wife gets up to go to school. It’s my first trip to the Microsoft headquarters area in over Read More...

Posted Monday, August 24, 2009 4:26 AM by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, Diversity, education, fun, scratch, Small Basic, Kodu

Interesting Links July 27th 2009

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/07/27/interesting-links-july-27th-2009.aspx";digg_title = "Interesting Links July 27th 2009";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor Read More...

Posted Monday, July 27, 2009 3:19 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Robotics, Computer Science Education, CSTA, Careers, Game Programming, education, fun, Conferences, Education Technology, Popfly, Ethics, blogs, Windows7

RoboZZle – a social puzzle game

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/07/23/robozzle-a-social-puzzle-game.aspx";digg_title = "RoboZZle – a social puzzle game";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor = Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 23, 2009 5:02 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, education, Programming, fun, first programming experience

Interesting Links Twittered July 20 2009

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/07/20/interesting-links-twittered-july-20-2009.aspx";digg_title = "Interesting Links Twittered July 20 2009";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor Read More...

Posted Monday, July 20, 2009 4:54 AM by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, CSTA, Game Programming, education, fun, Microsoft Office, Twitter, ACM, Kodu

Kodu Demo – Programming for little kids

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/07/13/kodu-demo-programming-for-little-kids.aspx";digg_title = "Kodu Demo – Programming for little kids";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor Read More...

Posted Monday, July 13, 2009 4:46 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, Game Programming, education, Programming, fun, first programming experience, Kodu, NECC

ScratchEd – Community site for educators using Scratch

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/07/09/scratched-community-site-for-educators-using-scratch.aspx";digg_title = "ScratchEd – Community site for educators using Scratch";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 09, 2009 5:33 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, Game Programming, education, fun, scratch

Interesting Links July 6th 2009

Last week was NECC and boy was I ever busy. On the other hand the places on the Internet were slow in some ways and busy in others. The education Twitter space was all NECC all the time. Many education bloggers were not blogging because they were just Read More...

Posted Monday, July 06, 2009 5:06 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Game Programming, Diversity, education, NCWIT, Programming, fun, Small Basic, Kodu

Recent Links of Interest June 29th 2009

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/06/28/recent-links-of-interest-june-29th-2009.aspx";digg_title = "Recent Links of Interest June 29th 2009";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor Read More...

Posted Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:14 PM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Visual Basic, Computer Science Education, Programming, fun, Security

Interesting Links June 15 2009

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/06/15/interesting-links-june-15-2009.aspx";digg_title = "Interesting Links June 15 2009";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor = Read More...

Posted Monday, June 15, 2009 12:48 PM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, education, fun, Channel 9, history

Games As Database Projects

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/06/11/games-as-database-projects.aspx";digg_title = "Games As Database Projects";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor = undefined;digg_skin Read More...

Posted Thursday, June 11, 2009 4:55 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, Databases, Game Programming, education, fun

Useful Links Twittered June 1 2009

digg_url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/06/01/useful-links-twittered-june-1-2009.aspx";digg_title = "Useful Links Twittered June 1 2009";digg_bgcolor = "#EEEEEE";digg_skin = "normal"; digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor Read More...

Posted Monday, June 01, 2009 8:54 AM by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments

Filed under: Computer Science Education, CSTA, education, fun, Imagine Cup, Security, blogs, binary