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mcdaidon Why XP is like a Bunsen burner

I am sorry but I just don't agree. The bunsen burner has never been replaced because it design is simple and it does the intended job perfectly. In the same way a ruler,pair of compasses or scissors are not going to go away.

Windows XP on the other hand won't be around in 20 years time. More likely students will be using small touch screen devices.

mcdaidon Is programming the new math?

Spot on, "I'm never going to use this!" can be dismissed straight away as student use and see the results in their programs.

My own maths ability increased dramatically when I got interested in astronomy, likewise trying to write games in basic.

mcdaidon The jQuery Divide:Understand where jQuery ends and JavaScript begins

Nice presentation, I am not sure about most people here but I started using jQuery because the documentation was excellent, easy to navigate, with lots of examples. Hence trying it out was simple and I got hooked.

At that time IMO the other libraries apart from YUI, did not seem to have everything in place to learn how to use them quickly. I was put off YUI at the time because it seemed incredibly verbose, this has since been improved.

Also I think a distinction can be made between using jQuery and using the widget factory which does allow for more modular maintainable code.

mcdaidon Using prime numbers to make better backgrounds

Brilliant interesting article about a very simple but clever idea. I am not sure if I would use this css background technique, but the lego example is brilliant.

Some articles trigger lots of ideas in my mind, this was one of them.

mcdaidon Vi Hart: Every school should replace calculus with recreational math

Well some of the videos look interesting but I don't agree with the title, what is recreational math?

It would be great if Maths could be made more interesting and students make their own unique discoveries etc. However as a former maths teacher I can tell you that structure exists for a reason.

In a class of maybe 30 students for one hour, the teacher can afford to give at best only 2 mins average time to each student. Some students may work very well independently, but others would take advantage of the freedom to mess about.

Even if the students were focused how is a teacher with so little time per student supposed to pick up a random piece of work and then decide if the child is doing something of worth.

The Maths curriculum needs to be rethought for the information age, but the solutions need to be practical.