We're having fun now!

While everyone in the MSTF has been learning a lot, and doing some good work, I believe we in the Software Research team have been having the most FUN.

We're using a software package called Alice (after Alice Liddell, of Alice in Wonderland fame) that enables us to build 3-D graphics worlds which we can animate to tell stories or just build pretty pictures.

The intent, of course, is to teach the basics of object-oriented programming, and I can see just how Alice leads into it. I will definitely use Alice to introduce my students to programming in the fall.

If we didn't do anything else in the project, the whole thing would be worthwhile just for the past week.

First Day's Impressions

I was struck today by a couple of things: first that everyone seems to be in awe at the enthusiasm of their mentors not simply for their own subjects, but for all knowledge, and secondly that when we leave the environment of the University, it is much too easy to become complacent about our own enthusiasm for knowledge.

I know we have a lot of things to do in our classrooms, and our days are filled with the trivia of everyday life, so it is all too easy to just float along on the currents of happenstance, but I think it is a terrible pity if we lose the joy of discovery and accomplishment.