Mark Guzdial
@markguzdial.bsky.social
490 followers 240 following 160 posts
Professor in CSE, Information, and Education at U-Michigan. Director of PCAS https://lsa.umich.edu/computingfor. Computing Ed Researcher, blogger, dad. https://computinged.wordpress.com/
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The big answer: Education. Europe taught people things. Understanding becomes key to using and innovating with technology. "Without understanding the scientific principles underlying technology, many attempts at innovation—such as alchemy—were futile.” (www.science.org/content/arti...).
Economics Nobel celebrates researchers who showed how science and technology drive growth
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt explained why the past 2 centuries have seen sustained economic growth rather than stagnation
www.science.org
I’m reading about Joel Mokyr who just won a share in the Nobel Prize in economics. 
(news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025...). He’s an economic historian (!) who explains why Europe got the Industrial Revolution and China didn’t, when China had all the elements (e.g., movable type) before Europe.
Joel Mokyr wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Nobel recognizes Mokyr’s theory on sustained economic growth
news.northwestern.edu
MicroBocks is fantastic! Having a wonderful time building and exploring with it! microblocks.fun. Here's an example playing MIDI music while changing the lights on a strand of Neopixels.
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
The School of Information at Michigan is looking for its next John Derby Evans Professor in Information. It's open at the Assistant and Associate levels, and its a broad search: anyone working at the intersection of tech and society can apply. Please share!

www.si.umich.edu/people/facul...
John Derby Evans Professorship in Information (Assistant or Associate Professor) | umsi
The University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position focusing on technology and society.
www.si.umich.edu
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
University of Michigan School of Information has four faculty positions ranging from Presidential Postdoc to Full. They're all linked here. PPFP due Sep 26, the others Nov 1 or 15. www.si.umich.edu/people/facul...
Faculty recruiting | umsi
Learn about open faculty positions at UMSI.
www.si.umich.edu
We're over 580 students enrolled in PCAS courses this semester, and six sections have only five seats remaining. Time to expand -- again!
This is pretty cool -- a 3-D printed microscope using Snap! for zooming and object identification. maketolearn.org/wp-content/u...
maketolearn.org
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
This captures many of my worries about OpenAI's approach to education (and then some)
Such a great one-line summary of most of academia:

Success in this field demanded a forceful, single-minded capacity for self-delusion.
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
5/ In Shanghai, they were herded into a ghetto. Yes, there was a Jewish ghetto *in Shanghai* (read here). The Germans tried to get the Jews deported, but the Japanese wouldn't. She still speaks with great admiration for the Japanese. ↵
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangha...
Shanghai Ghetto - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
3.2/ His bravery was of course not rewarded, and he paid for it in many ways. He didn't ask for credit, either. He was only recognized near the very end of his life. He is apparently the only Japanese person recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations. ↵
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_...
Chiune Sugihara - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
1/ Over the weekend there was a block party a short distance from my place for a lady who turned 90. That's notable enough, but in her case it's special because she's a Holocaust survivor. I chatted with her today and looked up some things. Remarkable story! Buckle in: ↵
I asked GPT-4.1 about Turing Award laureates who had written about education. Of course, I should have remembered Seymour Papert in 1980.

Oh wait...
The State of Michigan will be requiring all high schools to offer an *in-person* CS course by 2027-2028. I like the definition of CS that they're providing -- it includes all of PCAS (lsa.umich.edu/computingfor). (And no mention of AI!) www.michigan.gov/mde/-/media/...
Reposted by Mark Guzdial
Seeing more posts like this (and I don’t mean to single out Andrea!)

After enthusiasm thanks to rapid progress —> a few months of increasing pain —> giving up

Turns out having a tool that generates code doesn’t remove the need to know how to program to build complex software…
I was just there Saturday. Surprisingly, we weren’t mugged and witnessed no violent crime.