When Stanford announced their online CS classes, most of the attention was on the large numbers that were enrolling. Eventually, some 200,000 people signed up, and about 32,000 completed the coursework. What is most interesting about the Stanford AI classes is that it was an exploration of new models of CS pedagogy. We need new models for CS pedagogy. We teach computer science in order to create great software developers, but there are lots of audiences - like high school teachers - for CS education that have nothing to do with being a great software developer. The article suggests that we need new models for CS pedagogy that take into account these different learning goals. The Khan Academy videos are a good way to convey some kinds of information but most people do not learn from watching videos. People learn from doing something, and getting feedback on what they did. While the Stanford online CS classes did use videos, they were interrupted by questions, mainly fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice questions, for students to use as "exercises." It~s a small change from just watching a video, and is hardly a revolutionary educational technology advance. But just that small change from videos-only would make a dramatic improvement in learning for large numbers of students in computer science. Another innovative model in the Stanford online CS classes grew up around the Stanford classes. Educators used the Stanford classes to create a "flipped classroom." The students signed up for the Stanford course, but also signed up for a for-credit course at their home university. The professor at this university didn~t lecture; instead, when Fred met with his students, they discussed the lectures, built on them, played with the problems. The stuff that good students do outside of lecture, in order to really learn the material well, is what Fred did with his student during class time, which was still "outside of lecture." This model could lead to dramatically improved learning compared to just taking the Stanford online course. We need more experiments like these. America needs to figure out how to teach more people about computer science, better and at a lower cost.

Approximately 53% of IT workers are actively or passively searching for a new job right now, according to a Computerworld survey. At the same time, 46% of the respondents say it~s been five years or more since their last job search. For those who are new to job hunting in a world of social networking and LinkedIn, the hiring landscape has changed considerably. With employers advertising fewer open positions because they are deluged with resumes, job hunters must make themselves easy to find on social networking sites. After updating your resume and joining LinkedIn, the key is to build a robust network of contacts that can help you in your job search. The most important tool in your jobseeker~s toolkit should be LinkedIn. With more than 100 million registered users, LinkedIn is the most popular tool used by recruiters and job seekers alike. Nowadays, LinkedIn is essentially your first interview, and it happens without you. A hiring manager or recruiter takes a look at your background and makes a quick decision of whether or not you would make a good fit. IT job seekers can make full use of their LinkedIn profile by using new LinkedIn applications like SlideShare, Creative Portfolio Display and Year in Review. For job seekers who are targeting a specific company, LinkedIn has added a feature called Company Pages. By clicking the Statistics icon on a Company Page, or corporate profile, users can find out where departing employees found new jobs.

Robotic vehicles, from Google to Mercedes, have arrived. So what form and purpose will these cars have when we finally let go of the wheel?

Reuters - Artivision Technologies Ltd, a Singapore firm that specializes in online video advertising, said on Sunday its technology may be incorporated into a software kit being developed by Intel Corp.

An anonymous reader writes "Google has just made some interesting changes to their developer pages. As of today, all of the documentation, source code, and firmware images pertaining to CDMA Android devices (including the Verizon Galaxy Nexus) have been removed. A statement from Google explains that the proprietary software required to make these devices fully functional got in the way of Android's open source nature, so CDMA devices are no longer supported as developer hardware. What does this mean for the Galaxy Nexus, which is only available as CDMA in the U.S.?"

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An anonymous reader writes "The NY Times recently ran a story on the discovery of a cache of wax cylinder records, recorded in Europe in the 1880s, of Otto von Bismarck, Helmuth von Moltke, and various musicians. 'In June 1889, Edison sent Wangemann to Europe, initially to ensure that the phonograph at the Paris World’s Fair remained in working order. After Paris, Wangemann toured his native Germany, recording musical artists and often visiting the homes of prominent members of society who were fascinated with the talking machine. Until now, the only available recording from Wangemann’s European trip has been a well-known and well-worn cylinder of Brahms playing an excerpt from his first Hungarian Dance. That recording is so damaged "that many listeners can scarcely discern the sound of a piano, which has in turn tarnished the reputations of both Wangemann and the Edison phonograph of the late 1880s," Dr. Feaster said. "These newly unearthed examples vindicate both."'"

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An anonymous reader writes "While America had offered the F-16, F-18 and now the stealth F-35 fighter, India picked for its new multi-role attack jet a low cost, older French plane. Why? For one, it's cheaper, and two, if American/Indian relations go bad, can they get the parts and equipment to keep the planes in the air? It seems prudence beat out the latest in technology."

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Plugh writes "In a victory for transparency and openness in government, and saving tax dollars, New Hampshire has passed HB418. State agencies are now required by law to consider open source software when acquiring software, and to promote the use of open data formats."

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An anonymous reader writes "Saad Allami likely never expected that a simple text message of encouragement would have turned his life upside down. But as seen in a similar case of absurd overreaction by authorities, a simple text message is all it takes to have yourself branded as a terrorist. From the article: 'The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.'"

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SpuriousLogic sends this excerpt from a BBC article detailing the suspension of a sales ban on certain Apple products in Germany: "Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad and iPhone models from its online store [yesterday] after enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December. An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new license payment offer. However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling. 'A suspension like this is available only against a bond, but Apple is almost drowning in cash and obviously won't have had a problem with obtaining and posting a bond.' ... A statement from Apple said: 'All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.'" Reader DJRumpy points out that Motorola is seeking royalties of 2.25% for Apple's wireless devices in exchange for a license to use Motorola's patents.

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New submitter someWebGeek writes "LibreOffice, the community-driven fork of OpenOffice, appears to have a very healthy and growing group of code contributors. The Document Foundation has published new stats that portray the climbing rates of developer involvement both in terms of numbers of people and numbers of code commits. One of the most encouraging aspects, as noted by Ryan Paul in an article at Ars, is that non-corporate code contributions by independent volunteers constitute the largest slice of the latest commit-pie."

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AP - Deion Sanders said he wasn't worried. Joe Montana went in with his game face on and Jordin Sparks just hoped sand did not end up in her eyes.

New submitter cqwww writes "A small magazine in Victoria, BC just uncovered a massive public traffic surveillance system deployed in Canada. Here's a quote from the article: 'Normally, area police manually key in plate numbers to check suspicious cars in the databases of the Canadian Police Information Center and ICBC. With [Automatic License Plate Recognition], for $27,000, a police cruiser is mounted with two cameras and software that can read license plates on both passing and stationary cars. According to the vendors, thousands of plates can be read hourly with 95-98 percent accuracy. ... In August 2011, VicPD Information and Privacy Manager Debra Taylor called me to explain that, even though VicPD had the ALPR system in one of their cruisers, the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] ran the system, and I should contact them for any information. "We actually don’t have a program," Taylor said. "We don’t have any documents per se." ... A month later, Taylor handed over 600 pages. ... [The claim they kept no documents] was apparently only in reference to digital information. VicPD had kept 500 pages of written, hard-copy logs of every ALPR hit they’d ever seen.'"

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Appolicious - NFL Kicker! is the sort of game you download innocently enough looking to kill a few spare minutes; then, by the time you finally look up, you’ve spent half an hour devoted to kicking digital field goals. That’s far from a bad thing; rather it feels exciting to have a sports game on a mobile platform feel so immediate and gratifying.

New submitter beta2 writes "Several articles are noting that the German IT security agency BSI is endorsing Google Chrome browser: 'BSI ticked off Chrome's anti-exploit sandbox technology, which isolates the browser from the operating system and the rest of the computer; its silent update mechanism and Chrome's habit of bundling Adobe Flash, as its reasons for the recommendation. ... BSI also recommended Adobe Reader X — the version of the popular PDF reader that, like Chrome, relies on a sandbox to protect users from exploits — and urged citizens to use Windows' Auto Update feature to keep their PCs abreast of all OS security fixes. To update applications, BSI gave a nod to Secunia's Personal Software Inspector, a free utility that scan a computer for outdated software and point users to appropriate downloads.'"

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eldavojohn writes "Using radio telescope data, scientists from around the world have plotted the Milky Way Galaxy's magnetic field in the form of Faraday Depth. From the article, 'For 150 years, scientists have measured cosmic magnetic field by observing the Faraday effect. They know that when polarized light passes though a magnetized medium, the plane of polarization turns. This concept is called Faraday rotation. The strength and direction of the magnetic field governs the amount of rotation that occurs. So scientists observe the rotation to investigate the magnetic fields' properties. Radio astronomers study the polarized light from distant radio source, passing through the Milky Way on the way to Earth, in order to measure our Galaxy's magnetic field. By measuring the polarization of the light sources at different frequencies, researchers can determine the amount of Faraday rotation.' In the future, radio telescope technologies like LOFAR, eVLA, ASKAP, MeerKAT and the SKA hope to provide enhanced Faraday rotation data so scientists can better understand turbulence in galactic gas and these galactic magnetic field structures."

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ContributorNetwork - Back when home video games were still new, every new console's controller was an experiment. And before people settled on things like the Atari 2600's joystick and the Nintendo Entertainment System's gamepad, which influenced everything that came after them, they tried out some ... unusual form factors. Like the Fairchild Channel F's hybrid paddle-joystick, or the Mattel Intellivision's disc-and-touchpad arrangement.

jrepin writes "This new book Open Advice is the answer to: 'What would you have liked to know when you started contributing?' 42 prominent free and open source software contributors give insights into the many different talents it takes to make a successful software project; coding, of course, but also design, translation, marketing and other skills. They are here to give you a head start if you are new. And if you have been contributing for a while already, they are here to give you some insight into other areas and projects."

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mikejuk writes "Quantum computing is currently a major area of research — but is this all a waste of effort? Now Scott Aaronson, a well-known MIT computer scientist, has offered a prize of $100,000 for any proof that quantum computers are impossible: 'I'm now offering a US$100,000 award for a demonstration, convincing to me, that scalable quantum computing is impossible in the physical world.' Notice the two important conditions — 'physical world' and 'scalable.' The proof doesn't have to rule out tiny 'toy' quantum computers, only those that could do any useful work."

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AP - Facebook's billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls himself a hacker.