Last week I talked about using GitHub issues as a mechanism for class communication. I thought it might be helpful to follow up on it and also felt that a video would be better than text. So, here it is, 16 minutes on how you can use GitHub issues for class communication. I don't show examples of everything like @ tagging but I think it shows some of the power of using GitHub and GitHub classroom beyond just a software repo and versioning.

With ISTE ending, the next big event for CS treachers is the annual CSTA Conference. I first attended two years ago in Baltimore. Last year the conference, in Omaha was bigger and better in every way imaginable. I expect this year to be the best yet. I don't go to a lot of conferences so I don't have much to compare CSTA with but I like the fact that it's is about half the size of SIGCSE.

Earlier today I was reminded why I love GitHub in support of my classes. One of my students posted a question about our current lab. They posted a synopsis of the problem along with the error message. Since we're all working on GitHub the student's work was already up online Since I started using GitHub Classroom I was able to quickly navigate to the repo. This might have been enough but to really in to the students work I cloned the repo and went into Emacs.

One of the things I've heard for years from former students - both those looking for jobs and those looking to hire is that colleges don't really do a good job preparing students for careers in tech. Sure they teach the algorithms and the theory but ther are a lot of missing pieces, particularly on the practical end. I'm certainly not advocating turning CS programs into coding schools but there are many low cost opportunities to bring practical real world best practices in to the CS classroom.

One day I'll do a Magit video but since there are already some good ones out there I thought I'd share a couple of other great git related packages. The first is Git Gutter which adds markers on the side gutter of your buffer so you know what's changed since you're last commit. I pretty much use it exclusively for that visual but it can also be used to cmmit and revert individual chunks of your changes.

I haven't been teaching this past semester. That's why I haven't been writing much about lessons. I miss working with students but that will resume in the fall and this semester has allowed me to get a jump on new projects. It's also allowed me to look at some student issues from a bit of a distance. One issue that keeps coming up is cheating. Some of it, classroom cheating.