Learn By Doing

A Lifelong Learner Shares Thoughts About Education

  • https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/

    This year, over 100,000 developers told us how they learn, build their careers, which tools they’re using, and what they want in a job.

    Each year, we ask the developer community about everything from their favorite technologies to their job preferences. This year marks the eighth year we’ve published our Annual Developer Survey results—with the largest number of respondents yet. Over 100,000 developers took the 30-minute survey this past January.

    This year, we covered a few new topics ranging from artificial intelligence to ethics in coding. Here are a few of the top takeaways from this year’s results:

    • DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the software industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of works are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries.
    • Only tiny fractions of developers say that they would write unethical code or that they have no obligation to consider the ethical implications of code, but beyond that, respondents see a lot of ethical gray. Developers are not sure how they would report ethical problems, and have differing ideas about who ultimately is responsible for unethical code.
    • Developers are overall optimistic about the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers, but are not in agreement about what the dangers of AI are.
    • Python has risen in the ranks of programming languages on our survey, surpassing C# in popularity this year, much like it surpassed PHP last year.
    • When assessing a prospective job, different kinds of developers apply different sets of priorities. Women say their highest priorities are company culture and opportunities for professional development, while men say their highest priorities are compensation and working with specific technologies.

    Want to dive into the results yourself? In a few weeks, we’ll make the anonymized results of the survey available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!

  • https://play.google.com/about/changethegame/#challenge

    Change The Game’s mission is to make mobile gaming truly for everyone by celebrating and empowering women as creators and players. We’re calling on the next generation of game-makers to share their mobile game design ideas and what they want to see for the future of gaming.

    We’ve joined forces with Girls Make Games and ESA Foundation to challenge teens to use their creativity and skills to develop a game idea, and to take their first step towards change.

    The top 5 finalists will win a VIP trip to an exclusive experience at E3 in Los Angeles. There, they can showcase their game ideas and join a celebration of women in gaming. The Grand Prize Winner will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship, a $15,000 technology contribution to their school, and more.

  • https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-10-10/improving-diversity-in-computer-science-video

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  • BloodSweatAndPixelsA book I just checked out of the library to read (recommendation from a student in class).  Click on the Amazon Look Inside link and depending on the book, your account, etc.. you can often read a few pages of it.