Searching for "ebooks"

Alphabet Nest and Android

Alphabet is breaking up Nest, its standalone smart-home gadgets company, and moving Nest’s software group back into Google.

enerally speaking, Google has very limited interest in making hardware in the first place. The cost of building things is high, the margins are low, and Google’s real specialty is in web services like Gmail and search anyway.

Google started signaling that Android, the most popular operating system in the world, and Chrome OS, its more niche operating system for laptops, were going to get smashed together. The result, ideally, will be a version of Android that can extend its smartphone dominance to tablets and laptops…which is why Android 7.0, the most recent release, makes split-screen multitasking such a tentpole feature.

the real business opportunity for Google is to compel a broad range of companies to create gadgets and home appliances using its software. The hardware is secondary. In fact, building its own hardware can even work against Google: The more successful Google is at selling its own hardware, the less likely other hardware makers want to use its software, since they view Google as a competitor.

Putting all its efforts behind expanding and extending Android has made Google a top player in the smartphone market, even after its late start against Apple and the iPhone.

texbooks as part of tuition

How one school beat the textbook dilemma

Laura Devaney, Director of News, @eSN_Laura March 31st, 2016

The college rolled textbook costs into tuition the same way costs associated with athletic fields, libraries,
and classroom equipment are rolled into tuition.

More on textbooks in this blog:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=textbook&submit=Search

More on e-books in this blog:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=ebooks&submit=Search

writing prompts

PicLits – Inspire Creative Stories Through Pictures

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/02/piclits-inspire-creative-stories.html

PicLits is a site for finding creative writing prompts. PicLits aims to provide inspiration for writing short stories. PicLits tries to reach this goal by providing users with images upon which they can build their writing.

More on effective ways to present your work in this blog: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=effective+presentation&submit=Search

7 Good Sources of Writing Prompts

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/10/7-good-sources-of-writing-prompts.html

Things to Think About
StoryToolz
Write About This

Make Beliefs Comix
Something to Write About

Toasted Cheese
Scholastic Story Starters
Apricot

video editing for mobile devices

WeVideo

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/07/this-is-how-to-create-videos-in-google.html

mobile app available here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wevideo-video-editor-and/okgjbfikepgflmlelgfgecmgjnmnmnnb

Google is now elbowing with YouTube Capture (free) , Splice (free), iMovie (paid), Adobe Premiere Clip (free) – Android, iOS and several others for the basic video editing turf on mobile devices. Its big pitch – being directly connected to Google Drive.

Additional mobile apps for video editing: VidTrim (free) Pro ($1.99) – Android only; SloPro – iOS only; Magisto (available for both iOS and Android); Vee for Video ($1.99) – iOS; Lumify, (free), VideoGrade (5.99) – iOS; KineMaster (free) – Android; PowerDirector (free) – Android; Pinnacle Studio Pro ($14.99) – iOS; Movie Edit Touch (free) –  Windows:
https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/2013/11/25/best-video-editing-apps-for-ios-android/
http://www.stuff.tv/features/10-best-video-editing-apps-mobile
http://mashable.com/2012/07/25/video-editing-apps
http://mashable.com/2013/06/05/video-edit-apps/#4Y3PWgcp2ZqQ
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ios-android-video-editing-apps/

10 Best Video Editing Apps for Phones and Tablets: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/511-Video-Editor-Android-iOS-Video-Filters.html

More on the topic in this blog:

How to Use the Free YouTube Video Editor

5 Options for Creating Screen Capture Images and Videos – Including on Chromebooks

Facebook Oculus

Facebook’s Oculus virtual-reality division: Let’s not go crazy with the hype

http://www.cnet.com/news/facebooks-oculus-virtual-reality-division-lets-not-go-crazy-with-the-hype/

The VR industry is at the beginning of what could be the next major technology trend, with the potential to change the way people live, work and communicate.

Traditional Texts preferred over E-Books

Survey: Most Students Prefer Traditional Texts over E-Books

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/09/01/survey-most-students-prefer-traditional-texts-over-ebooks.aspx

Reasons commonly cited by students for preferring traditional books include:

  • They are easier to read;
  • Students like to physically highlight selections;
  • They’re cheaper;
  • Students prefer the formatting;
  • They’re easier to navigate and bookmark;
  • E-books make students’ eyes hurt;
  • Students find it harder to concentrate on e-books;
  • Traditional books do not require Internet access;
  • Students like to write on the pages;
  • Tablets or laptops are not allowed in class;
  • Availability of e-books is limited; and
  • Students end up printing the pages of e-books anyway.

Among the 27 percent of respondents who do prefer e-books, common reasons for the preference include:

  • E-books are cheaper;
  • They are lighter;
  • They don’t have to be returned;
  • They are more environmentally friendly than paper books;
  • They are searchable;
  • Print size and brightness is adjustable;
  • They can convert text to audio; and
  • They can be used with apps.

MN E-Summit 2015 had two speakers on the e-book topic:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/07/29/mn-esummit-2015/

The Balancing Act: Team-Creating an eBook as an Alternative Method for Content Delivery Tom Nechodomu, University of Minnesota

David Wiley. Making Teaching and Learning Awesome with Open: MN Learning Commons

David sited same stats as in this article:

“According to the Student Monitor, 87 percent of textbooks purchased by students in 2014 were print editions (36 percent new, 36 percent used, 15 percent rented). E-books comprised only 9 percent of the market. The remaining 4 percent was made up by file sharing.”

but puts the stress on e-books as an option to cut the greedy publishing houses and bring down the cost (MN Learning Commons)

iPad Skills

15 iPad Skills Every Teacher and Student should Have

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/15-ipad-skills-students-must-have.html

1- My students should be able to create presentations

2- My students should be able to create digital stories.

3- My students should be able to create eBooks

4- My students should be able  to print their docs right from their iPad

5- My students should be able to create videos

6- I want to Improve my students reading skills

7- My students should be able to take notes on their iPad

8- My students should be able to create written content on their iPads

9- My students should be able to use White Boards from their iPads

10-My students should be able to record audio clips

11- My students should be able to screen share

12-My students should be able to do their homework with the help of iPad

13- My students should be able to create mind maps

14-My students should be able to do research using iPad

15-My students should be able to create digital portfolios

MN eSummit 2015

#MNsummit2015

Main speaker

Aaron Doering

aaron doening

aaron doening

Engagement not completion

Design experience not product

Create change, not simply respond to it

He was a geography teacher : Dimitrina

Experience explore expand. Adventure based how to collaborate in ways we have not collaborated before pedagogical guidelines internet driven

Instructor – content – design

Today: first think is design, content, instructor. So how do we design learning environments is the most important one

Guide learners as designers. Constructivism. Design for meaning. Through the power of the story.

Geotetic  design a learning environment learn geography using GIS

Situated movies (student-centered learning)

Grant Earthducation go to the most remote parts of the world to align their education with their culture, instead of what the government is downing as culture

Use of phone: whoever answers instructor’s question first, gets to pose the next question to the rest of the audience.

Design based research

Self-narrative, referencing the experience real world issues in real time

  1. reference knowledge . knowledge overlap. Technological pedagogical content knowledge.

Geotetic not only how prepare teachers, but desing learning environmwer of the story.

we explore: https://www.we-explore.com/

9.5 design as a learner.

the U Media Lab.
The Changing Earth. App GoX (instagram on steroids.  tell their story through the app). How is this different from Google Earth
Raptor Lab (rehabilitate a raptor).

  1. design experiences
  2. build trust
  3. guide learners as designers
  4. recognize learners as experts
  5. encourage collaboration
  6. inspire self narrative
  7. reference the knowledge domains
  8. teach for change
  9. design as learner

adoering@umn.edi     chasingseals.com   @chasingseals

 

podcast pontification (audio version of blog self reflections)

 Greg Steinke The U
A Digital Story Assignment using WeVideo

wevideo

WeVideo is the Google response to iMovie cloud

The U is on Google email and thus google drive and all other google tools

The Center for Digital Storytelling. short videos, 3-5 min incorporate photographs with the author narration, reflection

Assignment (verbal directions). process (write a 2 page script, every page is about a minute of video), gather images that support the story; edit the script (rewrite); record audio to the script (use an app on the phone instead of WeVideo), WeVideo can edit the audio recording; edit the story, edit the photos to match the story; YourTube and/or Google+

working with faculty: is the digital story a good fit for your course? two questions: does the course have many writing assignments? does everyone have to do the same type of assignment? do you want to offer choices? do you want your students to share their work outside of the class? to you want to explore opportunities for students to develop 21 century skills?

google communities for sharing

wewideo has a tutorial at Center for Digital Storytelling

students can use the digital story for their eportfolio

the entire exercise is entirely based on mobile devices

time frame: scaffolding options

3d printing products were the tangible result of the project and the digital storytelling just the format to present

Google Drive master folder for the phone images and video; iOS apps: MoviePro, FiLMc Pro, VoiceRecord Pro (including mp3); Android: WeVideo

Storyboard template

Faculty Development Programs: Digital Storytelling Community of Practice

http://it.umn.edu/faculty-development-programs-digital-0

Poster sessions:

Brad Hokanson

http://dha.design.umn.edu/faculty/BHokanson.html

iPAD video kit:

ipad video kit

Laurie Conzemius
Critical Thinking

laurie

ISTE: http://conference.iste.org/2016/
Joe Lau critical thinking

apps: Popplet  blog.popplet.com  http://www.popplet.com/ (mindmapping)

into the book: http://reading.ecb.org/

Kahoot – the token system. Polleverywhere  https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/05/21/polls-and-surveys-tools-for-education/

Symbaloo https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcK1fiV zotero, easybib, delicious, diigo depending on the grade

youth voices; http://youthvoices.net/ replace social media like teachertube is trying to replace youtube

quandary games in education. https://www.quandarygame.org/ sim city

citizen science alliance http://www.citizensciencealliance.org/

Toontastic https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8 now free  storytelling

coding and programming: https://www.makewonder.com/robots/dashanddot  scratch

Osmo : https://www.playosmo.com/en/ $79.99 + give a set for free Stride principle as a parental involvement

chainlink;

kickword; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.makario.wordkick

red herring (four categories) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.BlueOxTech.RedHerring&hl=en

http://www.mathplayground.com/logicgames.html

http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html

evaluation:

telestory  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/telestory/id915378506?mt=8

explain everything http://explaineverything.com/

 

Exploring and Connecting 3D Printing to Teaching and Learning Jason Spartz, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

http://pubs.lib.umn.edu/minnesota-elearning-summit/2015/program/23/

http://pubs.lib.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=minnesota-elearning-summit

3db 3da 3d lisa

Jason Spartz, Saint Mary’s University of MinnesotaFollow
Lisa Truax, Saint Mary’s University of MinnesotaFollow
Karen Sorvaag, Saint Mary’s University of MinnesotaFollow
Brett Bodsgard, Saint Mary’s University of MinnesotaFollow

chemistry professor. 3D printing with different materials.
what else can be made (e.g. reaction vessel)

printing of atoms

crystalography dbase

Karen: pre-service teachers professor: how to use 3d printers and be comfortable with them. Steve Hoover. Thinkercad and Autodesk123D>
3D academy http://www.team3dacademy.com/index2.html
. Pinterest board for3d Printing with resources

Lisa: graphic design. not intuitive.  Rhinoceros (not free anymore). 123D strong learning curve. 3d printing will be incorporated in the curriculum.  sculpture students and others don’t like fudging on the computer, but Adobe people love it. Some items takes up to 4 hours to print out. when working on the computer is difficult for some students to visualize the dimensionality.

collaborative learning opportunities.

no makerspace or fab lab. additional interest from the theater and business dept. 3d printing is connected to future work skills. new media ecology or media literacy set of skills.

the main presenter: build excitement and interest and gradually step back. how much material goes through and should we charge back. clean and maintenance involved; not too bad. better then a copier. plastic inexpensive. sizes with plastic – $25 and $50. how many project of a spool: depending on the size of the projects but considerable amount. two printers one art dept and one in the faculty dev area.

non profit visually impaired students.  how 3d can make difference in special ed.

3d printing lab with access for everybody. ownership brings policy. where housed: neutral place.

only one printer is barely sufficient for faculty to figure out how to use it. purchasing two more if students and curricula to be involved.

 

3dc 3d lisa 3da 3db

 

The Balancing Act: Team-Creating an eBook as an Alternative Method for Content Delivery Tom Nechodomu, University of Minnesota

ebook

tnecho@umn.edu
Susan Andre sandre@umn.edu
Linda Buturian butur001@umn.edu
Faculty Created digital stories – google “cultivaitng change series”
student created digital stories –
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/academics/online/
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/PSTL/water/
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/The-Changing-story/
Susan Andre uses a slide titled “trust” to elucidate how the entire project was enabled. “trust” and “transparency” are sparse currency in the environment I work in. if she is right an ebook ain’t happening anytime soon at my place.
inclining habitat.
students involvement. use stipends. student artists. food for the video interviews. create a community, student centered.
people able to change the book.
copyright process; did you find it cumbersome. copyright permission center.
time span and amount of hours spent: 3-4 months per chapter.

Main speaker
David Wiley. Making Teaching and Learning Awesome with Open

MN Learning Commons
open educational resources
LUMEN
lumen
education – sharing feedback, encouragement with students passion about the discipline, yourself
open is not the same as free.  free + permissions + copyright permission: 5 r = retain (make and own copies), reuse (use in a wide range of ways), revise (adapt, modify, and improve), remix (combine two or more), redistribute (share with others)
open:
free and unfettered access
perpetual, irrevocable copyright permissions
(look but don’t touch is not open)
tech enables OER permits
traditionally copyright materials on the Internet – not so good ; jet on the road
openly copyright materials on the internet _ yes: jet in the air
permission-less innovation. relatively inexpensive and broad permissions.
intellectual infrastructure of education: learning outcomes/objectives; assessments; textbooks. they are relatively expensive and narrow permissions.
disappearing ink strategies: buyback, rental, ebooks, online subscription
 mad, glad, sad, rad: the grumpy cat. student success per dollar
opennetgroup.org/review
change in student learning: replace commercial with open books – small. realign, bigger change. rethink is the large change.
responsibilities:
attribution and meeting other license requirements
thin common cartridge: a way to bring the content to the CMS, but the content remains on the creative commons
github.com/lumenlearning https://github.com/lumenlearning
disposable assignment: students hate doing them, instructors hate grading them. waste of time and energy
renewable assignment: students see value in doing them; instructor sees value grading them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4
so what?
open education infrastructure: open outcomes, objectives, activities, educational resources
the culture of glued legos must be eradicated. open pedagogy. open credentialing model
summary: don’t settle for “affordable.” improve student outcomes. improve affordability. improve design / academic freedom

links generated from the discussion at my presentation:

https://www.google.com/search?q=tin+can&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://www.uwosh.edu/library/quizsmith

http://glickconsulting.com/resouce_brainegames

https://www.google.com/search?q=techers+skills&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://www.northeastern.edu/camd/gamedesign/people/sebastian-deterding/

https://www.duolingo.com/  Duolingo. App to learn languages using games

http://www.gamification.co/gabe-zichermann/

https://zebrazapps.com/  ZebraZapps

IPython notebook

Library Juice Academy

course_intro

I also encourage students to download and install Python on their own systems. Python is a
mature and robust language with a great many third party distributions and versions, such as Ipython.
One I recommend is Active State Python. Active State produces refined and well supported
distributions with easy to use installers. Their basic, individual distribution is free. You can find it at
http://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads
https://host.lja-computing.net:8888/notebooks/profile_intro_programming_p1/Intro_Programming_Lesson1_pmiltenoff.ipynb
  • Integers: A signed or unsigned whole number running from -32,768 to 32,768 or from 0 to 65,535 if not signed. Integers are used anytime something needs to be counted.
  • Long Integer: Any whole number outside the above range. Python doesn’t distinguish between the two though many languages do. Practically, Python’s integers range from −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,648 or 0 to 0 to 4,294,967,295. Most of us will be very happy with this many whole numbers to choose from.
  • Real and Floating Point Numbers: Real numbers are signed or unsigned numbers including decimals. The numbers 2,3,4 are Integers and Real Numbers. The numbers 2.1, 2.9,3.9 are Real Numbers, but not Integers. Real Numbers can include representations of irrational numbers such as pi. Real numbers must be rational, that is a decimal number that terminates after a finite number of decimals. You will sometimes encounter the term Floating Point Numbers. This is a technical term referring to the way that large Real Numbers are represented in a computer. Python hides this detail from you so Real and Floating Point are used intercangeably in this language.
  • Binary Numbers: And Octal and Hexadecimal. These are numbers used internally by computers. You will run into these values fairly often. For instance, when you see color values in HTML such as “FFFFFF” or “0000FF”,
Hexadecimal and Octal are used because humans can read them without too much trouble and they are compromise between what computers process and what we can read. Any time you see something in Octal or Hexadecimal, you are looking at something that interfaces with the lower levels of a computer. You will most commonly use Hexadecimal numbers when dealing with Unicode character encodings. Python will interpret any number which begins with a leading zero as binary unless formatting commands have been used.
Numbers such as 7i are referred to as complex. They have a real part, the 7, and an imaginary part, i. Chance are you won’t use complex numbers unless you’re working with scientific data.
A String consists of a sequence of characters. The term String refers to how this data type is represented internally. You store text in Strings. Text can by anything, letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, numbers, just about anything.
Lists are close cousins to Strings, though you may never need to think of them that way. A list is just that, a list of things. Lists may contain any number of numbers or any number of strings. List may even contain any number of other lists. Lists are compared to arrays, but they are not the same thing. In most uses, the function the same so the difference, for our purposes, is moot. Strings are like lists in that, internally, the computer works with strings in an identical manner to lists. This is why the operations on Strings are so different from numbers.
The last main data type in the Python programming language is the dictionary. Dictionaries are map types, known in other languages as hashes, and in computer science as Associative Arrays. The best way to think of what the dictionary does is to consider a Library of Congress Call Number(something this audience is familiar with). The call number is what’s called a Key. It connects to a record which contains information about a book. The combination of keys and records, called values, comprises a dictionary. A single key will connect to a discrete group of values such as the items in this record. Dictionaries will be touched on in the next lesson in some detail in the next course. These are fairly advanced data structures and require a solid understanding a programming fundamentals in order to be used properly.

Statements, an Overview

Programs consist of statements. A statement is a unit of executable code. Think of a statement like a sentence. In a nutshell, statements are how you do things in a program. Writing a program consists of breaking down a problem you want to solve into smaller pieces that you can represent as mathematical propositions and then solve. The statement is where this process gets played out. Statements themselves consist of some number of expressions involving data. Let’s see how this works.

An expression would be something like 2+2=4. This expression, however is not a complete statements. Ask Python to evaluate it and you will get the error “SyntaxError: can’t assign to operator”. What’s going on here? Basically we didn’t provide a complete statement. If we want to see the sum of 2+2 we have to write a complete statement that tells the interpreter what to do and what to do it with. The verb here is ‘print’ and the object is ‘2+2’. Ask Python to evaluate ‘print 2+2’ and it will show ‘4’. We could also throw in subject and do something a bit more detailed: ‘Sum=2+2’. In this case we are assigning the value of 2+2 to the variable, Sum. We can then do all sorts of things with Sum. We can print it. We can add other numbers to it, hand it off to a function and so on. For instance, might want to know the root of Sum. In which case we might write something like ‘print sqrt(sum)’ which will display ‘2’.

A shell is essentially a user interface that provides you access to a system’s features. Normally, this means access to an Operating System. In cases like this, the shell provides you access to the Python programming environment.

Anything preceed by a “#” is not interpreted or executed by the programming shell. Comments are used widely to document programs. One school of programming holds that code should be so clear that comments are uncessary.

Operations on Numbers

Expressions are discrete statements in programming that do something. They typically occupy one line of code, though programmers will sometimes squeeze more in. This is generally bad form and can really make your program a mess. Expressions consist of operations and data or rather data and operations on them. So, what can you do with numbers? Here is a concise list of the basic operations for integers and real numbers of all types:

Arithemetic:

  • Addition: z= x + y
  • Subtraction: z = x – y
  • Multiplication: z = x * y. Here the asterisk serves as the ‘X’ multiplication symbol from grade school.
  • Division: z = x/y. Division.
  • Exponents: z = x ** y or xy, x to the y power.

Operations have an order of precedence which follows the algebraic order of precedence. The order can be remembered by the old Algebra mnenomic, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally which is remeinds you that the order of operations is:

  1. Parentheses
  2. Exponents
  3. Multiplication
  4. Division
  5. Addition
  6. Subtraction

Operations on Strings

Strings are strange creatures as I’ve noted before. They have their own operations and the arithmetic operations you saw earlier don’t behave the same way with strings.

Putting Expressions Together to Make Statements

As I noted earlier, all computer languages, and natural languages, possess pragmatics, larger scale structures which reduce ambiguity by providing context. This is a fancy way of saying just as sentences posses rules of syntax to make able to be comprehended, larger documents have similar rules. Computer Programs are no different. Here’s a break down of the structure of programs in Python, in a general sense.

  1. Programs consist of one or more modules.
  2. Modules consist of one or more statements.
  3. Statements consist of one or more expressions.
  4. Expressions create and/or manipulate objects(and variables of all kinds).

Modules and Programs are for the next class in the series, though we will survey these larger structures next lesson. For now, we’ll focus on statements and expressions. Actually, we’ve already started with expressions above. In Python, statements can do three things.

  • Assign a variable
  • Change a variable
  • Take an action

Variable Names and Reserved Words

Now that we’ve seen some variable assignments, let’s talk about best practices. First off, aside from reserved words, variable names can be almost any combination of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. You, however, should never ever, use the following punctuation marks in variable names:

      • +
      • !
      • @
      • ^
      • %
      • (
      • )
      • .
      • ?
      • /
      • :
      • ;

*

These punctuation marks tends to be operators and characters that have special meanings in most computer languages. The other issue is reserved words. What are “reserved words”? They are words that Python interprets as commands. Pythons reservers the following words.:

  • True: A special value set aside for boolean values
  • False: The other special value set aside for boolean vaules
  • None: The logical equivalent of 0
  • and: a way of combining logical conditions
  • as: describes how modules are imported
  • assert: a way of forcing something to take on a certain value. Used in debugging of large programs
  • break: breaks out of a loop and goes on with the rest of the program
  • class: declares a class for object oriented design. For now, just remember not to use this variable name
  • continue: returns to the top of the loop and keeps on going again
  • def: declares functions which allow you to modularize your code.
  • elif: else if, a cotnrol structure we’ll see next lesson
  • else: as above
  • except: another control structure
  • finally: a loop control structure
  • for: a loop control structure
  • from: used to import modules
  • global: a scoping statement
  • if: a control structure/li>
  • in: used in for each loops
  • is: a logical operator
  • lamda: like def, but weird. It defines a function in a single line. I will not teach this becuase it is icky. If you ever learn Perl you will see this sort of thing a lot and you will hate it, but that’s just my personal opinion.
  • nonlocal: a scoping command
  • not: a logical operator
  • or: another logical operator
  • pass: does nothing. Used as placeholder
  • raise: raises an error. This is used to write custom error messages. Your programs may have conditions which would be considered invalid based on our business situation. The interpreter may not consider them errors, but you might not want your user to do something so you ‘raise’ an exception and stop the program.
  • return: tells a function to return a value
  • try: this is part of an error testing statement
  • while: starts a while loop
  • with: a context manager. This will be covered in the course after the next one in this series
  • yield: works like return
Variable names should be meaningful. Let’s say I have to track a person’s driver license number. explanatory names like ‘driverLicenseNumber’.

  • Use case to make your variable names readable. Python is case sensitive, meaning a variable named ‘cat’ is different from named ‘Cat’. If you use more than one word to name variable, start of lower case the change case on the second word. For instance “bigCats = [‘Tiger’,’Lion’,’Cougar’, ‘Desmond’]”. The common practice used by programmers in many settings is that variables start with lowercase and functions(methods and so on) start with upper case. This is called “Camel Case” for its lumpy, the humpy appearance. Now, as it happens, there is something of a religious debate over this. Many Python programmers prefer to keep everything lower case and join words in a name by underscores such as “big_cats”. Use whichever is easiest or looks the nicest to you.
  • Variable names should be unique. Do not reuse names. This will cause confusion later on.
  • Python conventions. Python, as with any other programming language, has culture built up around it. That means there are some conventions surrounding variable naming. Two leading underscores, __X, denote system variables which have special meaning to the interpreter. So avoid using this for your own variables. There may be a time and place, but that’s for an advanced prorgramming course. A single underscore _X indicates to other programmers that this a fundamental variable and that they mess with it at their own peril.
  • Avoid starting variable names with a number. This may or may not return an error. It can also mislead anyone reading your program.
  • “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. But not to programming minds. Consistency helps the readability of code a great deal. Once you start a system, stick with it.

Statement Syntax

Putting together valid statements can be a little hard at first. There’s a grammar to them. Thus far, we’ve mainly been workign with expressions such as “x = x+1”. You can think of expression as nouns. We’ve clearly defined x, but how do we look inside? For that we need to give it a verb, the print command. We would then write “print x”. However we can skip the middle statement and print an expression such as “print x + 1”. The interpreter evaluates this per the order of operations I laid out earlier. However, once that expression is evaluated, it then applies the verb, “print”, to that expression.

Print is a function that comes with the Python distribution. There are many more and you can create your own. We’ll cover that a bit in next lesson. Let’s look at little more at the grammar of a statement. Consider:

x = sin(b)

Assume that b has been defined elsewhere. x is the subject, b is the object and sin is the verb. Python will go to the right side of the equal sign first. It will then go to the inside of the function and evaluate what’s there first. It then evaluates the value of the function and finishes by setting x to that value. What about something like this?

x=sin(x+3/y)

Python evaluates from the inside out according to the rules of operation. Very complex statements can be built up this way.

x = sin(log((x + 3)/(e**2)))
Regardless of what this expression evaluates to (I don’t actually know), Python starts with the innermost parentheses, then works through the value of e squared then adds 3 to x and divides the result by e squared. With that worked out, it takes the logarithm of the result and takessthe sine of that before setting x to the final result.What you cannot do is execute more than one statement on a line. No more than one verb on a line. In this context, a verb is an assignment, or a command acting on an expression
markdown cell
code cell

Call up your copy of Think Python or go to the website at http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/. Read Chapter 2. This will reiterate much of what I’ve presnted here, but this will help cement the content into you minds. Skip section 2.6 because IPython treats everything as script mode. IPyton provides you with the illusion of interactive, but everything happens asynchronously. This means that any action you type in will not instantaneously resolve as it would if you were running Python interactively on your computer. You will have to use print statements to see the results of your work.

Your assignment consists of the following:

  • Exercise 1 from Chapter 2 of Think Python. If you type an integer with a leading zero, you might get a confusing error:
    <<< zipcode = 02492

    SyntaxError: invalid token
    Other numbers seem to work, but the results are bizarre:
    <<< zipcode = 02132
    <<< zipcode
    1114
    Can you figure out what is going on? Hint: display the values 01, 010, 0100 and 01000.

  • Exercise 3 from Chapter 2 of Think Python.Assume that we execute the following assignment statements:
    width = 17
    height = 12.0
    delimiter = ‘.’
    For each of the following expressions, write the value of the expression and the type (of the value of the expression).

    width/2
    width/2.0
    height/3
    1 + 2 5
    delimiter
    5

  • Exercise 4 from Capter 2 of Think Python. Practice using the Python interpreter as a calculator:
    1. The volume of a sphere with radius r is 4/3 π r3. What is the volume of a sphere with radius 5? Hint: 392.7 is wrong!
    2. Suppose the cover price of a book is $24.95, but bookstores get a 40% discount. Shipping costs $3 for the first copy and 75 cents for each additional copy. What is the total wholesale cost for 60 copies?
    3/ If I leave my house at 6:52 am and run 1 mile at an easy pace (8:15 per mile), then 3 miles at tempo (7:12 per mile) and 1 mile at easy pace again, what time do I get home for breakfast?

In your IPython notebook Create a markdown cell and write up your exercise in there. Just copy it from the textbook or from the above write up. Next ceate a code cell and do your work in there. Please, comment your work thoroughly. You cannot provide too many comments. Use print statements to see the outcome of your work.

Facebook censorship

Facebook’s Internal Dislike Button: Protecting The Brand By Rejecting Unflattering Posts

http://www.ibtimes.com/facebooks-internal-dislike-button-protecting-brand-rejecting-unflattering-posts-1813120

Facebook was in the headlines last summer about their algorithm, when it came out that Twitter algorithm suggested the riots in Missouri in a very different way.
Facebook has been in the headline numerous times regarding their privacy issues
Who is holding a private company responsible about acts like this?Should it be hold responsible?

 

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