ENGAGE WITH JAVA
Wednesday Jul 22, 2009
Alice Summer Travels – Around the US and to Hong Kong
This summer Wanda Dann, Don Slater, and other members of the Alice team are teaching Alice workshops to educators at several institutions around the US. This week my coworker and I had the opportunity to sit in on one of these workshops at Santa Clara University. On the afternoon we were there, Don was teaching the some tips about events, methods, and camera techniques to a group of high school teachers. It was a fun and interesting afternoon!
Also, earlier this summer, I accompanied Wanda Dann and Pamela Lawhead on a trip to Hong Kong. We were there to introduce Alice to the staff and educators at HKFYG Jockey Club LEAD Centre. We spent the first few days of our trip with the LEAD Centre director and staff talking about Alice and teaching them the Alice basics. On Saturday, the LEAD Centre hosted about 45 local Hong Kong educators (both high school teachers and college professors) for an Alice Workshop. Wanda and Pam taught a great workshop and it was exciting to the enthusiasm and excitement about Alice! The LEAD Centre plans to learn more about Alice and start incorporating it into their programs soon. We look forward to hearing about their success!
Posted at 08:15AM Jul 22, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[0]
Tuesday Jun 09, 2009
James Gosling Congratulates the BlueJ Team
During his Toy Show James Gosling invited Ian Utting, Poul Henriksen, and Davin McCall from the BlueJ team up on stage to congratulate them on their 10 years of success! (See approximately 7:45 into the Toy Show video below.)
Posted at 08:29AM Jun 09, 2009 by Jessica in BlueJ / Greenfoot | Comments[0]
Thursday Jun 04, 2009
Alice and BlueJ / Greenfoot at JavaOne
It is fun week at JavaOne! It was great to have both Alice and BlueJ / Greenfoot teams at Change (Y)our World Playground!
Here's what some other blogs and bloggers are saying Alice -
- Alice Team at JavaOne; 3.0 Beta Released
- Java One 2009 Day 0
- Felipe Gaucho's Blog: Alice in the JavaLand by Carnegie Melon University
- JavaOne 2009: Seventh Annual Duke’s Choice Awards Spotlights 2009’s Most Innovative Java Technology Applications
Posted at 09:43PM Jun 04, 2009 by Jessica in Sun | Comments[0]
Birthday Cake for BlueJ
Today at JavaOne we celebrated the 10th Birthday of BlueJ in the Change (Y)our World Playground!
Happy Birthday BlueJ!!! Here's to the next 10 years of success!
Posted at 09:25PM Jun 04, 2009 by Jessica in BlueJ / Greenfoot | Comments[0]
JavaOne Minutes with Dave from Alice
And here's a JavaOne Minute with Dave Culyba from the Alice team.
Posted at 09:16PM Jun 04, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[1]
JavaOne Minutes with Wanda and Dennis from Alice
Joyce Solano from the Sun's JavaOne Street Teams came by the Change (Y)our World Playground to talk to the Alice team yesterday. Here are the JavaOne Minutes she has compiled from her interviews with Wanda Dann and Dennis Cosgrove.
Posted at 08:00AM Jun 04, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[0]
Wednesday Jun 03, 2009
BlueJ / Greenfoot on Blog Talk Radio
Ian Utting from the BlueJ / Greenfoot team talked with Mary Smaragdis from Sun Microsystems on blog talk radio! Check out the show!
Posted at 10:16PM Jun 03, 2009 by Jessica in BlueJ / Greenfoot | Comments[0]
Alice on Blog Talk Radio
Today Jessica Orquina from Sun Microsystems sat down and talked to Wanda Dann, Don Slater, and Dennis Cosgrove from the Alice team about their project. Check it out!
Posted at 09:46PM Jun 03, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[0]
Alice Wins Duke's Choice Awards!
The Seventh Annual Duke's Choice Awards were announced yesterday -- and Alice 3 is a winner! Read about the press release announcing this year's winner's here: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2009-06/sunflash.20090601.3.xml. Alice 3 was recognized in the Java Technology in Education category.
Congratulations to the Alice team and the other 2009 Duke's Choice Award winners!
Posted at 08:40AM Jun 03, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[0]
Monday Jun 01, 2009
CommunityOne and JavaOne This Week!
The Alice team and the BlueJ / Greenfoot team will be at CommunityOne West and JavaOne this week! Come by the Change (Y)our World Playground on the Pavilion floor to talk to the teams.
The Alice team just released Alice 3.beta.0055 - download it today at alice.org. JavaOne attendees, please come by the team's booth to learn about how to participate in the Alice Film Festival! And, lastly, developers can check out the Alice project on Kenai to learn more about how to get involved!
Greenfoot fans - the Greeps are back! Please stop by and talk to the BlueJ / Greenfoot team about participating in the Greeps Return!
See you all at CommunityOne West and JavaOne. Follow JavaOneConf on Twitter for news and updates!
Posted at 08:30AM Jun 01, 2009 by Jessica in Sun | Comments[0]
Monday May 11, 2009
BlueJ and Greenfoot @ JavaOne
Ian Utting and a couple other members of the BlueJ / Greenfoot development team are coming to San Francisco for CommunityOne and JavaOne! Look for them at the Change (Y)our World Playground!
Also come listen to Ian at the following events:
- Lightning talks at CommunityOne
Monday, June 1st - Community Corner Podcast - Greenfoot and Robotics for Educators
Wednesday, June 3rd at 4:00PM
Bruce Boyes and Ian Utting - Also, the team will be running the Greeps Return contest! More details to come...
Posted at 11:17AM May 11, 2009 by Jessica in BlueJ / Greenfoot | Comments[0]
Alice @ JavaOne
The Alice development team is coming to JavaOne 2009! Look for them at the Change (Y)our World Playground. In addition they will be at the following events:
- Lightning talks at CommunityOne
Monday, June 1st
- Community Corner Podcast - Alice Team Roundtable
Tuesday, June 2nd at 5:00PM
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Created at Carnegie Mellon University, Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. Alice 3, currently under development, enables a transition from Alice to Java, allowing students to "open the hood" and work with the Java code for 3D animation programs. - BOF-4982
Alice 3: Introducing Java™ Technology-Based Programming with 3-D Graphics
Tuesday, June 2rd at 9:30 PM - 10:20 PM
This session introduces Alice 3 to attendees who want to know more about this innovative tool for introducing students to programming and to those who are interested in using Alice 3 as part of their outreach efforts. The discussion leaders, members of the Alice team, introduce Alice 3, with a special focus on its ability to transition students to Java™ technology-based programming. The session provides an arena for learning about Alice 3 and asking questions of the Alice team. Those who are new to Alice or thinking about using it get an opportunity to learn more about this tool and how it may be useful in outreach and instructional settings.
The session is intended for anyone interested in exploring innovative technologies for introducing students to programming and computer science.
The session's goals are to
- Introduce Alice 3 to the JavaOneSM community
- Enable the JavaOne community to meet and interact with the Alice team in a friendly, informal setting
- Provide an opportunity for the Alice team to share exemplary techniques
- Discuss issues and concerns encountered in the use of Alice in various environments and educational contexts
- Provide an opportunity for those new to Alice or thinking about using it to ask questions as they determine how it may be most useful in their particular situation
- More details to come...
Posted at 10:55AM May 11, 2009 by Jessica in Alice | Comments[0]
Friday May 01, 2009
Bring Your Daughters & Sons to Work Day at Sun
So, this week I had my first opportunity to work with Alice and children. Up until then I had been demonstrating Alice to my fellow co-workers at Sun - all adults. I was excited to have my first opportunity to share this cool technology with young people!
It was a great experience! There were over 100 students (age 8-13) that visited Sun last Thursday in the middle part of the day and about 100 students (age 14-19) in the late afternoon. I was lucky to have two volunteers helping me - my coworker Sarah Hammond and Sun systems engineer and Alice enthusiast Dan Green. For the younger children we worked with Alice 2.0 and the students worked together to create some amazingly imaginative stories! In the afternoon, I demonstrated Alice 2.0 to the older students and then Dan showed them Alice 3 Beta and Greenfoot. He then answered a barrage of questions, starting with "Can post something I create using Alice on my MySpace page?"
Here's a cool video that summarizes what the younger students did at Sun last Thursday:
Posted at 05:08PM May 01, 2009 by Jessica in Sun | Comments[0]
Monday Apr 13, 2009
Complete & Updated Greenfoot Manual - Now Available!
On March 31st the Greenfoot team announced that a new, complete, updated Greenfoot Manual is now available!
To view the manual, click here:
Posted at 12:48PM Apr 13, 2009 by Jessica in BlueJ / Greenfoot | Comments[0]
Wednesday Apr 01, 2009
Sun Employee Talks About Volunteer Efforts on Java Mobility Podcast!
Sun employee Dan Green talks about using Alice, Greenfoot, BlueJ, and other tools to get kids excited about computers.
On the weekends Dan volunteers by teaching computer clubs in his local community.
Posted at 09:52AM Apr 01, 2009 by Jessica in Sun | Comments[0]