Powerful ways to teach with Colab (Part 1)
I’ve been teaching Python programming for several years and I’ve discovered some great tools and techniques to help students learn and to make the teacher’s life easier. Read on to learn the things I wished I knew when I started teaching.
Jupyter what?
Jupyter is an open source software technology which enables authoring and executing interactive documents combining explanations and code. If you’ve not experienced this sort of computing tool before, the best way to get acquainted is to try one.
The notebook metaphor seems apt because you can save your work so you have a record of your learning session. But it’s really a turbo-charged notebook because you can access it from anywhere, you can copy and remix the original, add any additional code blocks or notes, and share it with the world.
Ok, this is great but how do I make this available to my students?
Once you realize the power of Jupyter Notebooks, your next question will probably be “how do I setup a service so my students can use this tool?”. In the bad old days, the answer was something like this:
- acquire some hardware
- install some software
- configure and administer everything
- deal with it when it breaks
Congratulations — you’re a system administrator!
Fortunately, nowadays we have cloud services that can make your life much easier. Since this is the Google Colab blog, that’s the service I’m going to focus on in this article, though you should know there are other good Notebooks servieces out there. Colab provides free cloud hosted Jupyter notebooks for everyone. I like to think of Colab as “Google Docs for Jupyter” because, like Docs, the service is free, it stores your work for safekeeping, and it gives you the ability to share your creations with anyone.
How do I use it?
This is the best part. Whether you’re a teacher or a student, your journey starts the same way: just click on a link. You’ll be able to create a new notebook, run someone else’s notebook (or one of your own), share a notebook with others, etc. All via your favorite web browser.
Let’s imagine today’s the first day of your Python Programming 101 course. An inquisitive student raises her hand and earnestly asks: “Professor, what software do we need to install?”. You can barely contain your giddiness in responding: “There’s nothing to intall; we’ll be doing all our coursework in a web browser. Let me show you an example.” Doesn’t that feel great?
Hopefully you now understand, at a high level, how Colab can help you in the classroom. Stay tuned for Part 2, in which we’ll see some more concrete, practical tips, like using Colab for your lecture and review notes, your homework assignments, and your learning assessments.
Are you using Colab in the classroom? Please add a comment below describing your experience.
