Stanford's "Coding Together: Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad" Course Video Presentations on iTunesU

Now that the school year has ended, I've taken the first step to begin my "Summer of Code".  I have five weeks off each summer, and for me, it is the best time to brush up on my coding skills.   Since my school recently piloted an iPad program, I've developed an urge to learn Objective-C.  

So on the very first day of my summer break, I noticed in an email from Apple that that all of the presentation videos from Coding Together: Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad were made available, for free, though iTunes U. The course was designed for people who have some programming courses/experience, and from what I can see, provides a relatively "quick" and useful path for those who'd like to create an app for the iPhone or iPad.

After viewing the first video,  I am happy to say that I'm impressed with the way the professor, Paul Hegarty, explains it all.  

Course Description
"Updated for iOS 6. Tools and APIs required to build applications for the iPhone and iPad platform using the iOS SDK. User interface designs for mobile devices and unique user interactions using multi-touch technologies. Object-oriented design using model-view-controller paradigm, memory management, Objective-C programming language. Other topics include: object-oriented database API, animation, multi-threading and performance considerations. Prerequisites: C language and programming experience at the level of 106B (Programming Abstractions) or X. Recommended: UNIX, object-oriented programming, graphical toolkits."  -iTunesU Website

RELATED
iTunes U links to all course materials, including videos
Coding Together: Developing Apps for iOS Videos and Lecture Slides (iTunesU)
Website with files for course-related code
StackOverflow CS193P tagged items (Stack Overflow is an online resources for people with coding Q & As)

You Know You've Secretly Wanted to Learn To Code! (Info, links, video!)

You know you've secretly wanted to learn to code. Just do it! 


"Make your New Year's resolution learning to code.Sign up on Code Year to get a new interactive programming lesson sent to you each week and you'll be building apps and web sites before you know it." -Code Year  http://codeyear.com/


BTW, coding skills are needed beyond the world of apps and websites. Take a look at some of the posts and links on this blog - your imagination just might be sparked!  If you already know how to code, why not commit to learning something new?  


COMMENT:  There is much more to coding than what you'll learn through Code Academy's Code Year process. If you are serious about learning more about coding, computer science, and software systems, take an introductory course at your local community college or university extension program,  preferably with a friend. Ask the instructor if some of the assignments can be done through the "paired programming" technique.  It is more fun and social than the traditional way of coding!


Of all the textbooks, videos, and coding/programming self-help books I've come across, the series that has made the most sense to me is the brain-friendly "Head First" publications from O'Reilly.  It explains things well for beginners. Although it contains text and code, there are many pictures, diagrams, and humorous visual representation of basic concepts that are much more engaging than traditional "learn-to-code" tomes.


It is not too late to learn to code! 
There are so many great resources available to us now, in 2012, there is no excuse to ignore your inner geek.  If some (or all) of your hair is grey, why do crossword puzzles or Sudoku when you can be creative with code?


I took my first programming class about 8 years ago, when my youngest daughter was in high school.  It was daunting at first, because the textbook was dry, the programming labs were tedious, and some of my mostly-male classmates already knew how to code.  In my case, I was motivated to learn to code because I wanted to create games at the time, and this got me over the hump.  I soon learned that coding is both a science and an art, and learning to code opens up a whole new way of thinking. (See the video of Jeanette Wing's presentation about computational thinking, at the end of this post.)


RELATED
Why your 2012 New Year's Resolution Should Be Learning to Code
Sarah J., SPOTLIGHT on Digital Media and Learning Blog 1/9/12
PLAYBACK:  Pedagogy, Coding and Teaching Kids to Think Deeply
Sarah J., SPOTLIGHT on Digital Media and Learning 1/13/12
Center for Computational Thinking
Computational Thinking (pdf) (Jeannette Wing)
Code Academy
http://codeyear.com/
Head First Labs
Coding4Fun
Coding4Fun Blog
Coding4Fun KinectToolkit
Kinect for Windows SDK
CSTA:  ACM K-12 Computer Science Model Curriculum, 2nd Edition
CS Model Curriculum, 2nd Edition (pdf)
Jeanette M. Wing's Vision: "Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st Century"
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For 2012, my goal is to brush up on my previously learned coding skills and learn a few new ones related to the Kinect. I also want to become comfortable with HTML5.

Quick Post: Google Summer of Code Announced!

Here is the link:

Google Summer of Code

Interactive Timelines using Timemap.js (via O'Reilly Radar)

I've been gathering information about interactive timelines and I'm happy to share a link to TimeMap, a Javascript library to help use Google Maps with a SIMILE timeline. Basically, TimeMap helps to display time series datasets on maps.


Timemap.js Examples


Here is the description of Timemap from the Google Code website:
"Timemap.js is a Javascript library to help use Google Maps with a SIMILE timeline. The library allows you to load one or more datasets in JSON, KML, or GeoRSS onto both a map and a timeline simultaneously. By default, only items in the visible range of the timeline are displayed on the map."

"This version includes several new features, including the ability to load arbitrary data elements using KML, GeoRSS, and Google Spreadsheets; a progressive loader to load data based on the timeline location; templating support for the map info window; improved code documentation; and more. See the changelog for more details.

If you like the code documentation style, you can also get the jsdoc template for use in your own projects."

Thanks to Nat Torkington, of O'Reilly Radar, for sharing this link.  Nat also shared a link to Google's website, Exploring Computational Thinking- "educational materials to help teachers get students thinking about recognizing patterns, decomposing problems, and so on."

Kathy Sierra's Awesome Words of Wisdom: Video from Business of Software (in a 2.0-3.0 world)

Is your product, service, or company awesome in the eyes of your beholders? Do you help foster "self-awesomeness" among your users, customers, readers, or audience?

The wisdom of a social media consultant won't sustain core innovation. In this video, Kathy Sierra talks about how to reverse engineer sustainable passion. What superpowers do you give your users? Watch the video to learn about a model that helps people get better. 

The video is about an hour, but worth your time:

RELATED
Kathy Sierra is involved with theCreating Passionate Users website, where the bloggers "are all facinated by brains, minds and what science can tell us about the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools. She is one of the co-creators of the Head First books from O'Reilly. I first learned about Kathy Sierra when I was taking a Java programming class on-line, and needed more resources. She created the JavaRanch website,"a friendly place for Java greenhorns"

By the way, the Head First books are great resources for people who are tech-curious and have an urge to learn to code. I love Head First books and have several on my reference shelves.

Thanks to Lukas Mathis for the link.

"...People are not into your tool, they are into what the tool enables." - Kathy Sierra
"Make them smarter." - Kathy Sierra

Business of Software website
Head First Bloggers' Reading List

Updated: Coding for Multimedia Interaction On ( and Around) Screens of All Sizes - with some interesting links

The last time I created an application for a mobile device was about four years ago.  It was in the olden days when most of us knew nothing about multi-touch interaction on any size or sort of display.  Soon after that, I focused my work on large displays, and tried not to get too distracted by the iPhone when it was introduced.

I can't ignore the iPad, as I think it holds a ton of potential for education and supporting people with special needs.

I can't ignore Android, since I have an Incredible. (I'm tethered to a never-ending family contract with Verizon.)

I have to figure things out during my summer break, right?  Brushing up on my "old" coding skills won't move me forward. Soooooo.......

On top of everything else* I'm trying to pack in,  I plan to take a peek at Sencha Touch  http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/, an HTML 5 mobile application framework that allows for Apple iOS and Google Android touchscreen devices.

I am searching for the magic solution that will allow the development of applications that allow for smooth interaction across screens of all sizes, from smartphones to huge displays.

Summer is a great time for dreaming and searching, but it is so short.  Time-saving advice from my readers would be greatly appreciated!  I'm also looking for good information about programming for stereoscopic 3D games for my series of posts about 3D innovations.

*What I'm trying to pack in:
Volunteering for the Society for Information Display, working on a SMARTTable app, exploring ideas for a multi-dimensional  interactive timeline, etc.

RELATED
Parallel Timelines


SOMEWHAT RELATED
FYI:  Recent posts on The World Is My Interface blog
WSJ's Interactive Graphics:  China's Housing Markets, via Innovative Interactivity
The First Self-replicating Cell with a Computer for a Parent:  Synthetic Life
More TED Talks:  Chip Conley's discussion about measuring what makes life worthwhile
Fractals in our world:  "I'm a mathemetician and I'd like to stand on your roof" - Ron Eglash on African Fractals

Coding for Multimedia Interaction On (and Around) Screens of All Sizes

Here is the updated version of post:

http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/2010/06/updated-coding-for-multimedia.html

WONG - Multi-touch Pong Rerun - Link to Updated Game and Code (via Seth Sandler)

In 2007-2008 there were a handful of multi-touch concept demo videos created, accompanied by upbeat music. The song in this video would be great for the Glee iPad/iPhone app!

Wong was created by Seth Sandler, who recently cleaned up the code.  The latest version of Wong, along with the cleaned-up code,  can be found on the TechSparked website: http://techsparked.com/application/wall-pong

YouTube Video of WONG by Falcon4ever:


Here is a plug for Seth Sandler:

More Applications by Seth

Musical Squares

Audioshape Sequencer

Multitouch Gestures

Bloom

Multi