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Click the cover to go to the book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Click the cover to go to the book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Quick look: Hello World

October 2, 2019

Here’s a quick heads-up. Hello World is another book about algorithms, but one with a difference: it’s written by a mathematician. The result is an interesting perspective on why AI algorithms yield skewed results even when the data they’ve learnt from is as unbiased as possible.

The author, Hannah Fry, writes engagingly, so although the subject matter is about complex issues, it’s an easy read.

I’ve written a review of the book for Teach Secondary, and have been told that will appear in print in November 2019.

More brief reviews:

Featured
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May 24, 2026
Review: Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice
May 24, 2026

Although this is a few years old now (2018), it has stood the test of time.

May 24, 2026
Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action
July 17, 2024
Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action
July 17, 2024

The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development.

July 17, 2024
Quick looks: Support Not Surveillance, by Dr Mary Bousted
May 14, 2022
Quick looks: Support Not Surveillance, by Dr Mary Bousted
May 14, 2022

As far as I’m aware no Education Secretary has had the ability or the courage to deal with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

May 14, 2022
Quick looks: Tools for Teachers, by Oliver Lovell
May 14, 2022
Quick looks: Tools for Teachers, by Oliver Lovell
May 14, 2022

Overall the book is a good investment, although I did have some quibbles with it.

May 14, 2022
Quick looks: About Our Schools, by Tim Brighouse and Mick Waters
May 14, 2022
Quick looks: About Our Schools, by Tim Brighouse and Mick Waters
May 14, 2022

If you want to see the humble brag elevated to an art form, this is the book for you.

May 14, 2022
Quick look: The self-taught computer scientist
February 13, 2022
Quick look: The self-taught computer scientist
February 13, 2022

It’s a bit of a tall order, I think, to teach yourself computer science, as opposed to computer programming, because of the need to understand particular concepts.

February 13, 2022
Quick look: Organise Ideas (follow-up)
November 12, 2021
Quick look: Organise Ideas (follow-up)
November 12, 2021

[When I was a teacher,] as with many of my blog posts these days, my own handouts and lesson summaries were festooned with drawings, diagrams and arrows.

November 12, 2021
Quick look: Organise Ideas
September 27, 2021
Quick look: Organise Ideas
September 27, 2021

My first impression is that this is a handy toolkit which, once mastered, can be applied in lots of different contexts in any subject.

September 27, 2021
What I'm reading: Sort Your Brain Out
September 14, 2021
What I'm reading: Sort Your Brain Out
September 14, 2021

One of my first impressions: I like the fact that the book includes relatively recently-acknowledged attributes of the brain, such as neuroplasticity.

September 14, 2021
Thumbnail sketch: Teaching in the Online Classroom
April 30, 2021
Thumbnail sketch: Teaching in the Online Classroom
April 30, 2021

I’m always wary of books that are written while the issues that it addresses are new and current.

April 30, 2021
In Bookshelf, Books in Brief, Reviews Tags artificial intelligence, Hello World, algorithms, Hannah Fry
← How to automatically allocate time for an activity in your Google calendarMore fake news →
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