Hi, I'm Geoff
I love to teach, and I love to code.
I teach students to code.
And I write code that helps them learn.
My goal is to teach computer science to as many students as possible. I do this by creating interactive learning environments that scale. Here's a long conversational bio, or perhaps you'd prefer something much shorter.
Essays
I post essays here on teaching, technology, and the overlap between the two. I try to keep my essays on teaching accessible to teachers who don't program, and my essays on technology interesting to programmers who don't teach.
Latest
Here are my latest four essays. For the complete set, click here.
2022-04-17 : Eliminate Final Exams
A single exam isn't the solution to assessment. It's the problem.
2022-04-08 : My CS1 Backend
I've created an interactive, immersive, and effective online learning experience for my CS1 students. As the first installment in a multi-part series, I'll provide an overview of my course infrastructure, and discuss a bit about how I got to this crazy place.
2021-11-26 : Windows Line Ending
In today's advertures in maintaining your own CS1 infrastructure, how Windows line endings and a persistent student combined to bring down our entire homework grading backend.
2021-11-21 : CS1 in Kotlin
In Fall 2021 we began offering Kotlin as a language option in my CS1 course. Kotlin has proven to be a great choice, and represents a substantial improvement over other popular options like Python and Java.
Random Selection
Here is a random selection from my archive. Enjoy!
2021-08-13 : Grade Uncertainty
Grade uncertainty represents the amount of uncertainty students have about how they are doing in a course. Reducing grade uncertainty has proven positive in my courses, even if it has had some interesting side effects.
For more essays, click here.