The actual questions are at: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/compsci_a/samp.html
The Litvin's have answers at: http://www.skylit.com/beprepared/fr2008.html
Alfred asked:
Is There A Future For High School Computer Science?
And I am seeing that there is, but maybe NOT in AP Computer Science.
I finally got my counts, and I've achieved my major goal, once again, when I haven't in several years. That goal is to teach CS full time. Next year, I get to teach 6 sections! No web, no math. I am very happy.
Here's the deal. My regular CS count has tripled, which should make Alfred and Microsoft very happy since that is where I teach VB.
My PreAP count has halved, as has my AP CS A count. Though I'm not sure how accurate that APCS count is, as at least one student isn't enrolled in it, who wants to me. My AP CS AB count is 2. Interesting.
I'm going to work on making the PreAP more motivating and see if that helps.
Quoted from http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2008/04/04/college-board-to-discontinue-the-ap-cs-ab-exam.aspx:
Well the news hit like a thunderclap in the Advanced Placement Computer Science world today - the College Board has decided to discontinue the AP CS AB exam after next school year.
Yes, I was shocked to read the email about the end of AP CS B. i've sat back and just let the fur fly, and what has come out makes sense. There are two explainations -- both related. The first explaination is that it is a purely economic decision. The second, is that few minorities sign up for the test.
Both answers make sense, especially taken together.
As an AP CS teacher at a small urban high school, I am relieved. Because of our own district decisions, having both A and AB tests mean that I have to teach at least three preps, but usually 4. The most number of students I've gotten for the AB is 3, and rarely are those students as serious as they need to be. I do have a high passing rate, but the sample size is extremely low. It's hard to prep for 3 students when you have 60 taking a different prep.
Next year I'll have 2 AB students, both of which are capable of passing. I'm planning on taking a one week staff development that was to focus on the AB (last year, I focused on the A), That's a lot of staff development for 3 students.
However, I really don't like the idea of expanding the A so that it meets the requirements of a full year of computer science, which is one of the plans floating about. Thankfully we have a PreAP number which should help. We can also keep the AP CS II designation, and use that as needed.
All in all, I think it's a good thing.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if some corporate sponsors stepped in and financed it. And they probably should.
One of my new heros did this interview -- actually an old hero, as I have been reading his blog, but met him in person at the Games Conference. I'm really excited about being able to show this video in class -- hopefully I can reach some of my spanish speakers, several of them are quite good at code.
Quoted from http://betterthaneveryone.com/archive/2008/03/10/i-interviewed-miguel-de-icaza.aspx:
At Mix '08, I had the privilege to interview Miguel de Icaza.
In contrast to the New York Times article, Scott Hanselman talks about programming languages.
What programming languages should a New Programmer experience early so that they might be more able to "hear the tones later" when a new languages comes along? What language should a new programmer be exposed to first?
Source: Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - The (Programming) Language Explosion
I think language diversity is important.
I got my B.S. in the early 80's, from a university (Southern Mississippi), that recognized early that computer science was constantly evolving. We went from Basic, to Fortran, to Assembly Language than Cobol in two years. After that we took "Programming Languages". We also studied databases from a purely theoretical level since much of what was purposed wasn't doable yet on a machine. That in additional to all the other "stuff".
As a result, I have been extremely adaptable. I worked in an environment for 10 years where I was expected to implement the same functionality over several different types of machines while giving the user the same interface. As a teacher, I've had to move from QBasic, various forms of Visual Basic, and from Pascal, to C++ to Java.
I believe my early background has made me extremely adaptable, and I urge my students to do the same. I have many students who take Visual Basic their first year and Java their second, though more just learn Java in the two years. That maybe changing though. My current principal apparently does not like PreAP or AP courses.
Visual Studio Express - Happy One Year Anniversary!
I just like the fact that Libya's government has completely changed their attitude.
Report: Libya buys laptops for schoolchildren - CNN.com
NEW YORK (AP) -- The government of Libya reached an agreement with an American nonprofit group to provide inexpensive laptop computers to all of its 1.2 million schoolchildren, The New York Times reported in Wednesday's editions.
Alfred posts about an article at http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2016415,00.asp which is a very good article. Oddly enough, my classroom website is written in PHP, and I do recommend it to my Java students as the next thing they need to learn.
I also teach Visual Basic, and have taught some form of basic for 14 years.
AJAX is on my list to learn, as is Ruby, but I haven't had a chance, the others I have written enough code in each one to get something working I wanted working.
I would stress also that Assembly Language is something ALL Programmers need at some point. I've taken it at the college level twice, and it really helps you to understand what is going on under the hood, and I think it makes you a better programmer.