Jupyter
Introduction
Jupyter (formerly known as the IPython Notebook) is, in a nutshell, a tool for collaborating. “It’s built for writing and sharing code and text, within the context of a web page. The code runs on a server, and the results are turned into HTML and incorporated into the page you're writing. That server can be anywhere: on your laptop, behind your firewall, or on the public internet. Your page contains your thoughts, your code, and the results of running the code.” What is Jupiter ?, by Mike Loukides, June 20, 2017
“The Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and explanatory text. Uses include: data cleaning and transformation, numerical simulation, statistical modeling, machine learning and much more.” (Jupyter home page, June 2017)
Potential for education
“Lorena Barba, professor of mechanical engineering at George Washington University, is a leader in using Jupyter in teaching. She calls Jupyter Notebooks “computable content,” and calls them “a killer app for STEM education,” because notebooks make it possible to share material directly with students. It’s not just written on the blackboard; it’s shared in a way that allows students to interact directly, and it can be combined with text, links, images, videos. You don’t learn to code through lectures; you learn by interacting and experimenting.” What is Jupiter ? (June, 2017)
“The new Foundations of Data Science course at UC Berkeley, required of all undergraduates, demonstrates this approach at scale. Thousands of students receive assignments, access to large data sets, and instructions for completing the assignments as notebooks. All the code runs on JupyterHub in the cloud, eliminating the problem of software installation. According to the instructors, the course “wouldn’t be possible without Jupyter Notebooks, which enable browser-based computation, avoiding the need for students to install software, transfer files, or update libraries.”” What is Jupiter ? (June, 2017)