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Harvard: Prospective CS50 AP Teachers Must cc:Microsoft On Training Applications
theodp writes: Did you know that Microsoft has supported Harvard in creating a new version [of its wildly-popular CS50 course] called CS50 AP, designed specifically for secondary school educators?" asks a Microsoft Born to Learn Blog post. "If you might like to teach CS50 AP (and, in turn, AP CS Principles) in your own classroom this year," Harvard informs prospective teachers, "you are cordially invited to join us at one of our teacher training workshops to be held in various locations around the country and the world!" But before applications can be successfully submitted, teachers are required to respond to the following statement, and Harvard won't take 'No' for an answer: "Our friends at Microsoft are helping us distribute the teacher support materials for this version of CS50 for secondary school teachers and students. By checking the box below, you acknowledge that we may share the data you submitted through this form with them as part of this planning process." Microsoft is certainly calling the K-12 CS education shots these days — heck, the White House even let Microsoft President Brad Smith brief reporters about plans to spend $4B in tax dollars on a new CS for All K-12 initiative before the President told taxpayers about it. By the way, the CS50 AP Wiki contains a CS50x/CS50 AP Authorization and Release form which, among other things, requires camera-shy CS50 AP students to agree to "sit in a 'no-film' zone" if they do not want photos or videos of themselves used by Harvard to promote the Microsoft-supported course."
From the agreement: "I understand that my teacher will take reasonable steps, with my cooperation, to avoid including identifiable images of me in the Recordings. I understand that I am free to opt out of the Recordings in this way, and that doing so will not affect my grade or my ability to participate in course activities. Unless I opt out of the Recordings as described above and take the steps that will be outlined by the instructor to avoid being filmed, I authorize Harvard and its designees to use the Recordings. I understand and agree that the Recordings may include my image, name, and voice. I also understand and agree that, even if I opt out of the Recordings, my spoken name and voice may be picked up by microphones outside any "no-film" zone and may be included in the Recordings.
Would people be okay with the idea of Exxon helping to design AP Environmental Science curriculum? Should criminal justice coursework be overseen by Smith and Wesson? Corporate sponsors don't belong in these roles but for some reason everyone throws caution to the wind when they hear "computer."
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
The real issue is that Microsoft, or any other commercial stakeholder for that matter, should not be setting the curriculum.
So Microsoft gets you contact details to setup distribution of the materials ? meh. just do not give out student details and just chuck anything you receive in the bin, no student harmed.
And having to agree to this privacy statement makes sense. They want to put the recording on line, if you don't like this don't go.
Now focus on the real problem please.
Really? When is this silliness going to end?
They aren't there to teach you, they are there to take your money and make a profit.
Stop pretending this organizations are about education and you'll stop looking stupid when you talk about them. American Universities are profit centers, not educational facilities. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in America, thats the case.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
What are you, twelve years old? Harvard is a private institution that can do what it wants. And trust me, the student body and faculty are MORE than capable of fighting back against policies they don't like.
So if the experts in a given field shouldn't be designing courses, then who the fuck should be?!
Are you saying that you want courses designed by people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about?
We already have that! They're called the "social sciences", and they're a total disaster!
Harvard can't make money because its education quality is falling through the floor, thus they have to rely upon partnering with large corporations.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
CS50 starts students off with C, but by the end you've moved on to PHP, SQL, JavaScript, and HTML. It's nice that people care so much about CS50 that they're now just arguing about how it's being implemented. But for what it's worth, everyone can also take the course free online at EdX, the Harvard-MIT partnership. (That's what I did.) They'll even give you a (free) certificate of completion.
microsoft certrified AP: I was trained in a microsoft approved and endorsed course sponsored by a carte blanc effort by taxpayers to learn to code or die trying. I couldnt tell a router from a switch, but so long as its in visual basic im good to code!
anyone else: I couldnt afford harvard, couldnt afford community college, but spent my nights and weekends playing doom and hacking underhanded C. I wrote my own autoresponder in perl. I interfaced my coffeemaker in python with an arduino. ive been "suspended" from school for a combination of wearing too much black, not attending enough pep functions, and knowing more about computers than the teacher. I will be hired for 1/3rd the salary of the AP grad, but be charged with fixing or replacing nearly everything he did. but dont worry about all that...just fixate on the fact that im a girl, and girls + code == important.
US President->Next() learn to code! future! grlz in coding! programming is fun! everyone must code! code is future! all glory to the hypnocode!
Good people go to bed earlier.
I want to buy old consoles using black market e-commerce only sites to get specific components hidden inside portable video game consoles that can also have the encryption codes used by a rare console, problably a new generation of chips, which is the basis of a smartphone embeded system?
Take the cost out of what MS owes in taxes.
Always remember that the sole reason a corporation exists is to maximize shareholder's equity (wealth). If an activity doesn't maximize the shareholder's equity, or doesn't do so enough, then it isn't done. Plain and simple. So, with that in mind, all of these strings attached to this program are for the sole purpose of monetizing the program so as to maximize shareholder's equity.
Put differently, individual shareholders may make an altruistic donation -- Bill Gate's foundation does that all the time. As a matter of fact, he is prohibited under law from personally benefiting from the foundation or its projects. Microsoft, however, is not a foundation, it is a corporation with a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. As such, this cannot be altruistic and in the big scheme of things is for the specific benefit of Microsoft. If not, and it really is charity, then remove the strings and make a simple donation. Plain and simple!
I wouldn't read too much into the "no film zone". All Harvard classes that are recorded have that clause, and have had it for at least 10 years. Maybe longer, but I can't remember that far back.
}#q NO CARRIER
Microsoft is one of the chief architects and cheerleaders behind Common Core.
No wonder it's so wildly successful.
It's not a college
small demonic minions finance fraud
no 1st or 2nd amendment is fucking brain damage
JANET NAPELATANO
as of NOW your degrees are worthless.
(fuck your degree, you better be able to talk to me and fucking think for yourself without your degree - trot out your degree = INSTANT FUCK YOU )
They used to 'donate' computer labs to schools but the contract said you could only run and teach Microsoft products and you had to go to them for all of the service needs. Schools who had been told that they needed to 'do computers' but not given a budget or any support on how were left with no other options. Fuck it, many of the qualifications were based around Word and Excel. Microsoft is a large part of why pre-University computing education sucks.