Teach a Kid to Program – Wired How-To Wiki

You don’t have to be an engineer to program a computer. In fact, programming is like learning another language, which just happens to be easier the younger you are. In many ways, learning a programming language at a young age equips youth with skills that will be very marketable in the future, no matter what profession they decide on later.

via Teach a Kid to Program – Wired How-To Wiki.

There are some interesting suggestions on this page.  I hadn’t thought about Basic on a TI calculator as a syntax-light intro to computing.

Do we need to improve tenure?

In opposition to this trend, a new consensus is emerging that it is time to stabilize the crumbling faculty infrastructure. Concerned legislators and some academic administrators have joined faculty associations in calling for dramatic reductions in the reliance on contingent appointments, commonly urging a maximum of 25 percent. Across the country, various forms of stabilization have been attempted by administrators and legislators, proposed by faculty associations, or negotiated at the bargaining table.

via AAUP: Conversion of Appointments to the Tenure Track (2009).

I suspect that IS/IT/CS departments are particularly heavy with “contingent” appointments.  Is it a problem?  I understand that these adjunct faculty are not paid well and do not have many benefits, and many departments are relying on them more heavily.  Do we need to heed AAUP’s call for an improvement in tenure?