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December 27, 2006

When the Worst of Times is the Best of Times

At the risk of looking a little too hard for that silver lining in the big black cloud, I am beginning to think that some very good things might come out of the current bust in computer science education.

If you have been living on another planet for a while, you might not be aware that there is a crisis in computer science enrollment in university and college computer science courses across the country. Current research indicates that enrollment in postsecondary courses has dropped by 40% with some suggesting that the drop in applications to these programs may be down by as much as 60%.

These figures are worrying for a number of reasons. Prestigious programs that have traditionally attracted far more applicants than they can accept, now have a smaller body of well-qualified students from which to choose. Many middle-sized computer science programs have had to reduce the number of students they admit (fewer students in each class, but also fewer courses, and less revenue for the department). And at some small colleges, computer science is at risk of disappearing all together. Of course, these are just the short-term problems.

In this increasingly technology-based and globalized economy, long-term failure to produce enough qualified workers is a sure path to the economic backwaters. Few realize that computer science is not just the backbone of technological innovation. It is the engine that keeps every single industry up and running. Try to imagine the drug companies, the hospitals, the banks, the insurance companies, even education, without skilled computing professionals.

So why on earth is this a good thing? These same dropping enrollments are engendering discussions that are long overdue. In the light of diminishing student interest in computer science, computer science educators have finally begun focusing on our failure to teach computer science in a way that engages all students.

In a recent issue of the ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Inroads (Vol. 38. No. 4), Lisa Kaczmarczyk muses that the very ubiquity of computing may be the greatest problem facing computing education. "Computing studies do not appear cutting edge to the majority of students and the public - not in a way that appeals to their passions."

Computing education she argues, needs to be reenergized. "The world of possibilities beyond the external, beyond the metal box and blinking screen, is what we need to instill in the public and in our students. It has to happen in every class that we teach, so that our students become entranced with the potential of computing."

Kaczmarczyk then poses three important questions for educators.
* What course do you teach?
* Can you make it truly interdisciplinary? (No exceptions, no excuses, no hall pass.)
* How are you exciting your students to become more passionate about computing?

These are core questions and it is very exciting to find that more and more educators are raising them, in middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities.

Dropping enrollments are providing a powerful and long-overdue incentive for reenvisioning computer science education.

At CSTA, we have just released a second edition of the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science with a new foreword that explores how a number of different educators are creating new instructional practices to make our discipline more relevant and engaging to today's students.

What are you doing in your school?

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 04:03 PM | Comments (1)

December 21, 2006

Florida's New High School Computing Majors

In an effort to provide students with more highly defined career paths, the state of Florida is requiring high school students to choose a college-style major. To facilitate this change it has created a list of 400 possible majors, including eight that deal specifically with computing.

Computer and Communications Technology
Computer Education
Computer Education - Applications
Computer Education - Programming
Computer Education (Magnet)
Computer Graphics and Design
Computer System Analyst
Computer Systems Technology

The good thing about this list of possible majors is that it includes the possibility of computing technology majors (Computer and Communications Technology and Computing Applications), majors relating specifically to the use of computing across the curriculum (Computer Education and Computer Education - Magnet)) and majors that can be considered more traditional computer science courses Computer Education - Programming, Computer System Analyst, and Computer Systems Technology). It also includes opportunities to focus on the use of computing inn other disciplines with majors such as Bioinformatics and Business and Information Technology).

The problem with the list of majors, however, is that in attempting to connect courses with specific career paths, Florida may be focusing on so closely on one particular element of a discipline that it will make it difficult for students to acquire a sufficiently broad knowledge to function well in a workplace where both the jobs and what they are called are continually shifting.

Take Computer Education - Programming for example. While there are some who think that computer science is really just programming, experts in the high tech industries will tell you that computer science is a whole lot more. Students need a foundational understanding of software design, software development, and software maintenance. They also need to be introduced to diverse areas of computer science, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interfacing just to name a few. A course in programming alone won't prepare them for the world of work.

Florida might be wise to take a page from the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, and organize the computing courses to allow students to learn the core concepts they require first, and then to explore the various specializations the discipline offers. Taking this approach, the majors might be listed as :

Computer and Communications Technology
Computer Applications
Computer Science: Introduction
Computer Science Analysis and Design
Special Topics in Computer Science:
graphics and design
robotics
networking

This kind of organization would be far more likely to ensure that students learn what they need to learn and that the system of majors remains flexible enough to serve Florida schools over time.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)