But big happenings last week, in addition to finishing up my latest grad course, it was CS Ed Week which coincided with the week of the birthday of former navy rear admiral and one of the first female programmers, Grace Hopper. "Amazing Grace" was credited with coining the phrase "debugging a program" after having to literally remove a moth from a computer she was programming. She worked on the original Cobol programming language release and is also credited with the quote, "It's easier to beg for forgiveness, than to ask for permission." Computer science educators realize that girls shy away from technology fields, especially programming, and Grace could be an inspiration to them. Here she is at 80 years old on Letterman:
Video of Grace Hopper on Letterman
Scratch Interactive Card |
Binary Mosaics |
Nxt Robot |
MakeyMakey Playdough Controller |
Secret Codes |