SPEAKER 1: I'm from Brazil.
And I'm going to read the question from the form, because it's quite long.
So for the last two years, CS50 has gone through some important changes
It has transitioned from using PHPS--
it has transitioned from using PHP to using Python as the back-up--
at the back-end language.
Some videos from the shorts don't feature anymore
in the list of recommended videos to watch.
The web development focused content has been moved from the regular course
syllabus to being an individual track, [INAUDIBLE] with games Android and iOS
tracks.
And new courses like Web Development with Python and JavaScript
have been created and released for free on edX.
So many changes have happened in the last few years.
So my question is what other changes and new stuff
do you visualize happen in the next 5 or 10 years?
And what kind of path do you see CS50 taking in the near future?
SPEAKER 2: That's a really good question.
And frankly, I would love to know the answer to your question.
But a couple of thoughts do come to mind.
I do think you've highlighted a number of the evolutionary changes
that we've made over the past few years from languages to structures
of the class.
For context, any of the changes we've made year
after year are usually in response to changing trends,
either in industry or in education, or just
because it's becoming easier to introduce students
to more powerful techniques thanks to new and popular languages
and frameworks and the like.
So for instance, the PHP to Python change was a very conscious decision.
We thought about it probably for two or three years.
And at some point, we felt there was an inflection point where Python was just
becoming so popular, and it was useful not only for web programming,
but for command line programs, but for data science applications and the like,
that it was just a very well rounded language, and therefore,
might serve students better during and also after CS50.
And so finally, that tipped us over the edge.
I think moving forward in the future, honestly,
if we knew what we might do differently in 5 or 10 years,
we would probably just do it right now if we could.
But I do hope that we will be able to do all the more real world
examples, real world integrations with students
that use for instance, web-based APIs, third party data
services, and the like.
Because one of the constraints right now, not so much
on campus where you have the luxury of very good internet and everyone
has access to a computer, but globally, not everyone
has great internet access or very fast or very inexpensive internet,
let alone an actual computer.
And so I think once we are 5 or 10 more years down the road and bandwidth is
better and people have better, more powerful phones and laptops
and desktops, I think we'll be able to do more with those resources,
and students will be able to learn and also produce even more amazing projects
by building on the libraries and the frameworks that
are then very much in vogue.
So if I had to guess, I think there will be more integration
with internet connectivity if possible, because right now,
we tend to avoid dependencies on the internet.
And the only counterexample to this really
annually, is CS50 finance, where we actually pull real time
data from a third party site.
That's an example of a project that works great for a lot of students,
but not for all students, if you need that constant connectivity.
And so in fact, one of the projects [? Kareem ?] and the team
have also been working on are tools like an offline CS 50
IDE, so that if you don't have great internet access or if you're in a plane
or on a train, you can still learn and still create.
So we're hoping those things are easier too in the years to come.