Interesting Links 5 April 2010

Words matter. One set of words that come up in discussion are “training” and “professional development.” Mark Guzdial has an interesting discussion about just that set of words in a blog post titled “Teacher “training” vs. Teacher “professional development”” The discussion in the comments is particularly interesting.

With all the hype and discussion about textbooks caused by the iPad release you may be interested in a post called Windows 7 Opens the Way to “Real” Electronic Textbook Adoption  by Cameron Evans. Microsoft’s US CTO for Education,  (now also on Twitter @HIGHERINNOV8ION)

From the AP CS list came a link to a bunch of HS computer teacher webinars and workshops from Georgia Tech. Many of the previous webcasts are viewable now.

An interesting Tweet from @Microsoft_EDU urges teachers to join the Partners in Learning Network by 6/30 for a chance to win a Dell computer lab for your school. It’s a great program and well worth joining.

There is a special Microsoft Summer Intern Program for Boston Area high school students at Microsoft Cambridge MA this summer. It will be competitive to get in but will be an amazing opportunity for the students who are selected. IF you are or know of bright computer science students in the Boston area let them know about this opportunity.  BTW they are looking for students who can code. C# or Visual basic would be best but not essential.

From @anitaborg_org I found out about a new report from a K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop held at Grace Hopper 2009 which  identifies barriers and strategies for dealing with gender issues win computer science education. (Announcement here)

Some training, ah, I mean, professional development opportunities twittered by @MSLearning: Free Silverlight 4 Training Kit on Channel 9. Also the new Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit.