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Where’s SoCalDevGal in January 2010?
29 December 09 06:20 PM | llangit | 0 Comments   

Yes, I am a ‘calendar girl’, planning, planning, planning for 2010 already.  Lots has been filled in to my January 2010 calendar already, so I thought I’d share here. Week 1 – Jan 3 to Jan 9 Sat, Jan 9 -  9am to 5pm – ENVISION high school girls Read More...

Filed under: Southern California, Technical Conference, Fun, Helping

Teaching Kids to Code – Graduating from SmallBasic
29 October 09 09:34 PM | llangit | 2 Comments   

Regular blog readers may know of my work with Microsoft’s free kid’s coding IDE, SmallBasic as a tool to introduce the fun of coding to DigiGirlz .  As I work with my volunteer developer teams on improving the way we work SmallBasic (more on that Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

DigiGirlz Summer Camp 2009
16 July 09 04:38 AM | llangit | 0 Comments   

We hosted around 20 girls over the past two days at Microsoft’s Irvine, CA office.   The global DigiGirlz program is funded by Microsoft and supports annual hosting of either one-day spring events or multi-day summer camps.  The goal of Read More...

Filed under: Southern California, Fun, Helping

SoCalDevGal shares…’Teaching Kids to Code’
26 June 09 09:04 PM | llangit | 0 Comments   

Here’s the deck from my prezo at SoCalCodeCamp in San Diego (UCSD) – enjoy!  Examples included have the following availability – SmallBasic is a free download, Kodu is NOT available to the general public on the PC.  Kodu will be released as Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

Report from StepUp First Annual Career Conference in Carson, CA
20 May 09 04:29 AM | llangit | 1 Comments   

On Saturday after TechEd, I attended the first-ever StepUp Career Conference for underserved high-school aged girls.  This event was put on by the national StepUp non-profit, based in Los Angeles and was hosted at the Dermologica HQ in Carson, CA.  Read More...

Filed under: Southern California, Fun, Helping

SoCalDevGal has an idea…Virtual DigiGirlz
11 April 09 09:11 PM | llangit | 5 Comments   

Inspiration does come from unexpected places, doesn’t it?  I’ve been thinking, for well over a year now, on how to take the Microsoft DigiGirlz program to the next level – that is beyond live events to scale it online.  Well, I think I’ve got Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

Teaching Coding to Kids? Try Visual Studio Learning Pack
06 March 09 01:31 AM | llangit | 1 Comments   

The Visual Studio Learning Pack 2.0 is a software package created by Microsoft to help students learn about computer programming. It consists of the following five components: Sort Designer Control is a supplementary teaching tool developed to help students Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

See the Future of Software
28 February 09 03:46 AM | llangit | 3 Comments   

Check out this fun video showing Microsoft innovations Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

Microsoft DreamSpark - Free software for students
11 February 09 05:24 PM | llangit | 0 Comments   

We've extended DreamSpark to include both college AND high school students!  You can get anything shown below (and more - see the DreamSpark website ) for FREE!  These are full-version products (not trials or versions that expire).  This Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

Want to go to Tech-Ed 2009 in Los Angeles for free? Volunteer to work there
09 February 09 06:38 AM | llangit | 1 Comments   

  Submit your name via the Call for Staff tool. You will then be considered for a staff position helping at one of the product demo stations in the Technical Learning Center (TLC). Upon completing the required fields and clicking on the “Submit” Read More...

Filed under: Southern California, TechEd, Technical Conference, Fun, Helping

Is Math more important than Dancing?
26 December 08 07:04 AM | llangit | 1 Comments   

As I work to develop curriculum for next year's DigiGirlz camps, this talk seems particularly relevant. Ken Robinson questions educational priorities Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

SlideShare Ribbon for PowerPoint
16 December 08 06:07 PM | llangit | 0 Comments   

Yup, if you deliver presentations, you'll want to grab this great, free download which adds a toolbar which facilitates simple interop between PowerPoint 2007 and SlideShare to PowerPoint. AND, the new toolbar includes reporting - how cool is that!   Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

Do you Boku?
10 December 08 06:15 AM | llangit | 5 Comments   

Boku is a visual programming language that is being developed by Microsoft Research.  It was shown at PDC08.  As I am again working on developing curriculum for Microsoft's DigiGirlz events, I am taking a closer look at Boku.  There are Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping

WomenBuild... inspiring career paths in technology
05 December 08 10:29 PM | llangit | 1 Comments   

WomenBuild SeriousPlay with Legos kicked off at PDC.  This is a diversity event with the goal of getting people (both men and women) together to creatively work on getting more people into careers in technology.   We've got the designers Read More...

Filed under: MSDN events, Fun, Helping

DevLabs Portal
11 November 08 01:21 AM | llangit | 1 Comments   

Have you seen this yet?  Check it out   DevLabs Portal Another great site is Coding4Fun .  Also we have CSharp for Sharp Kids .  And, of course, the Kid's Corner . Yes, for those of you who are regular readers, I am thinking about Read More...

Filed under: Fun, Helping