Lily's Learning Code

According to the report by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (US-BLS), the job market for c omputing professionals in this decade (2010-2020) will make up 73% of the jobs in STEM career with 16% in engineering, 9% in the natural sciences, and 2% in the mathematical sciences. Among the computing careers, the number of projected new jobs for software developer is 314,600, which is making up 30% of the all STEM growth. The other four hot types of jobs for computing professionals include 120,400 systems analyst , 12% of the all STEM growth; 110,000 computer support , 11%; 96,600 network/system administrator ; and 65,7000 network architecture/web developer/computer security professionals , 6%. To develop skills for computing careers, the following resources are helpful: MOOCs in Coursera iTunes U online course lectures ACM SkillSoft courses Safari online books

Gary May, dean of engineering at Georgia Tech, wrote in Inside Higher Education, "The prospect of MOOCs replacing the physical college campus for undergraduates is dubious at best. Other target audiences are likely better suited for Moocs." I wonder why the state. And what could be the target audiences of MOOCs? My daughter took a physics course during last summer online. A lot of tears (frustration), sweats (hard-working), and cheers (rewards for persistency). I am not sure I would encourage her to take a college level course next summer. Probably the course was way too challenging for a to-be-a-seventh-grader then. However, some online courses suitable for young kids to complete during summer/winter breaks should be complementary to K12. (Think how many more days kids could learn outside their regular school terms.) I personally have enjoyed the Moocs offered at coursera.org . I haven't completed any courses. But I followed a few courses while I was intere...