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October 30, 2009
Computer Science Curriculum in our High Schools
While attending the recent Southern Business Education Association Convention in Huntsville, Alabama, I was struck by the lack of emphasis on computer science and information technology curriculum in our high schools. There we were in Rocket City, home of U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Redstone Arsenal, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and Cummings Research Park. Huntsville is a veritable high-tech city, populated by thousands of professionals in the STEM fields, including computer scientists. The Saturn V Rocket, Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station would be nowhere without computer scientists among other the many other scientists (chemists, physicists, etc). And yet, science in general, and computer science specifically, is really not emphasized in most of our high schools.
What a shame, I thought as I gazed in wonder and amazement at the rockets and space shuttles on display and watched an IMAX movie about man's exploration on the moon. All made possible by scientists, including computer scientists. It is gratifying to know that the U.S. Space and Rocket Center sponsors camps for young people (and adults!) to encourage budding scientists to become interested in careers related to space exploration and discovery. So what are we doing to encourage high school students to become interested in careers in computer science?
CSTA has taken an active role in helping schools offer a sequenced program of study in computer science for students grades K-12 with the release of the ACM K-12 Model Curriculum. Sample activities are even provided for each level of the curriculum. Also, the Los Angeles Unified School District has produced The Exploring Computer Science Curriculum, which is available on the CSTA website. Both of these initiatives provide outstanding curriculum resources to encourage the teaching of computer science, which ultimately will encourage students to pursue careers in computer science. Yet we still do not see an overwhelming computer science presence in our high schools. Is the issue the current emphasis on rigorous standards for high school graduation? If that were the case, surely computer science would be at the table and we would have computer science taught in every high school. I have seen that topic addressed in other CSTA blog posts. Is the issue funding? I suppose that is possible. However, many of our industry partners are addressing the funding issue. For the past several years, I have worked with two industry partners who work to provide high quality, affordable training and curriculum for our high school teachers: Oracle and SAS, both addressing the funding issue.
Oracle provides free training for teachers and is making an effort to deliver the face-to-face training to teachers in convenient locations, not far from home (there is also an online component to the training). The Oracle curriculum is free for schools. The curriculum is delivered electronically from the Oracle server so the school system needs only to have computers and high speed Internet access for the students to access the Oracle curriculum and learn a high skill, high wage, and high demand skill, specifically database design and programming. Oracle offers certification exams at a reduced price for both the students and the teachers. Yet, the Oracle curriculum has been slow to be accepted in many school systems. Even in cities where Oracle software is widely used by business and industry, the schools are slow to include Oracle Database Design and Programming in their curriculum offerings, if they offer it at all.
SAS also offers free training for teachers and free curriculum for the students. SAS provides a free textbook written specifically for high school students and offers online support for both teachers and students. Teachers are required to attend one week (40 hours) of face-to-face training. SAS holds the training at their Cary campus, but they are willing to deliver the training to any location that has 10 or more teachers to be trained. The schools are provided with the SAS software. SAS certification exams are available to both teachers and students for a reduced fee. SAS Programming for High Schools will provide students with a high skill, high demand, high wage education in the information technology area. Again, we see an industry partner addressing the funding issue. And again, even in cities where SAS is widely used, the high school course is slow to be integrated into the school systems.
Apparently, the issue is not really the lack of funding. Yet it is imperative that we prepare the next generation for careers in computer science and information technology. In the Spring 2009 issue of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Benjamin Wright states that "Employment in combined IT occupations is expected to increase by more than 800,000 jobs over the 2006–16 projections decade." Mr. Wright also states that "a study by the Association for Computing Machinery finds that even though offshoring may increase, prospects for IT workers in the United States will be strong". Mr. Wright does note that demand for computer programmers is expected to decline by 4% over the same decade but that this is the only IT area projected to decline. The jobs will be there. CSTA is working to provide the computer science and information technology curriculum. Now we need the students. I am working in my little corner of the world to recruit these students. What are we doing to encourage our students to study computer science and information technology?
Resources:
ACM K-12 Model Curriculum and Los Angeles Unified School District Exploring Computer Science Curriculum
http://csta.acm.org/
Oracle Academy
https://academy.oracle.com/
SAS Programming I for High Schools:
http://www.sas.com/corporate/community/sas-programming.html
Occupation Outlook Quarterly, Spring 2009 issue:
http://www.asiaing.com/occupational-outlook-quarterly-spring-2009.html
Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board Member
Posted by cstephenson at 04:56 PM | Comments (1)
October 28, 2009
My Voice
I look forward to it every couple of months. I've been receiving the CSTA Voice since I
became a member back in 2005. For years, being a member of CSTA meant getting my
newsletter, filling out my end-of-year renewal form, and responding to the occasional
survey. Sure, I felt like I "belonged," but I left the advocacy up to the professionals. Life
was good.
That changed a couple of years ago when my school administration decided that we no
longer needed a Computer Science department. I kept my job, and for the most part,
taught many of the same courses after being merged with the Science department, but I
felt that I had been stripped of my identity as a Computer Science teacher. Following the
merger, enrollment numbers in my classes were the lowest ever. Fewer and fewer students
were aware of the staggering demand predicted for careers in the computing field in just a
few years. Why was my message not being heard?
I saw in the Voice that teachers from 19 states had been chosen to attend a leadership
workshop where they would develop advocacy plans for their respective states. My state
was not listed. There I sat, isolated, with a wilting Computer Science program at a school
with no CS department, in a state lacking a CS certification area (much less a graduation
requirement). Not only was my voice not being heard, but I had no idea what to say or how
to begin.
The one thing I could depend on in those days was my CSTA Voice. When I read that there
was a second leadership workshop and that my state was included this time, I turned in my
application and wished for the best. A few months later, I was at a conference center in
Chicago, surrounded by 50 other educators who wanted what I wanted -- to further the
teaching of computing in our schools.
The workshop was a 3-day menagerie of brainstorming, note-taking, networking, planning,
and occasional sight-seeing. We learned about stakeholders, partnerships, outreach
strategies, and most importantly that we are all in this together. We worked with
representatives from states facing issues similar to our own, and we discussed ways to
make those situations better. The most important thing I left Chicago with, though, was my
voice.
The CSTA Leadership Cohort Workshop taught me that I have a voice. I found that I am
surrounded by allies, resources, and solutions free for the asking. With just a little effort, I
was able to organize a CSTA chapter in my own state! Representatives from higher
education, industry, and K12 schools are now working together to identify long term goals
for the future of computing education in our state, and I started this conversation!
If you can hear my voice, know that this is something that you can achieve, too. Put down
your newsletters. Close your web browsers. Get out there and start organizing! If a mild-mannered computer scientist can start this discussion in a state with fewer than 13 schools offering AP Computer Science, imagine what you can achieve in your own back yard.
---
Daniel Moix has taught Computer Science at the Arkansas School for Mathematics,
Sciences, and the Arts since 2003. He was recently elected President of the Arkansas
chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association. His favorite color is #6495ED.
Posted by cstephenson at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2009
Why Words Matter: Technology is not the same as Computing
Robb Cutler,
CSTA Past President
Posted by cstephenson at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2009
The Underlying Foundation of Professional Development
If I were to ask the question: "What should be the underlying foundation of every professional development opportunity?" many of you would immediately have an answer. Some of you might say it has to be interesting. While others may suggest it has to be relative to what you are teaching. And still others would suggest that it has to be fun (or if you want to be more sensitive we could combine those three together and call it engaging.)
But I am going to take you a different route and suggest that the underlying foundation of professional development is really all about communication. A large portion of my job responsibility revolves around creating and providing professional development to the K-12 environment. The formula for a good professional development opportunity is simple:
my compelling message + my effective demonstration + your understanding + your willingness to implement = growth
And over the years the one thing that has become clear is that if just one of these elements is missing, we approach what has come to be known as epic fail. You see, if I have an idea of what I am trying to tell you as a provider of professional development, but I am not communicating that well, it will not translate into anything useful. Additionally, if I have a great message and a whiz bang demonstration, but a teacher is just there to put in time and get some continuing education credits, once again, there is a break down in the communication cycle and the professional development opportunity is for naught.
Here are a few suggested questions to ask yourself to help make sure your next professional development opportunity is worthwhile (while ensuring the foundation of communication is intact).
1) What do I think is the goal of this presentation/ workshop/ video, etc?
2) What is ONE useful/ implementable thing I can take away from this presentation/ workshop/ video, etc?
3) What will never work with my students? Why?
4) What do I not understand about what is being presented?
5) Who else would benefit from knowing some of this?
Mindy Hart
CSTA Board of Directors
Posted by cstephenson at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2009
Members Build Membership in CSTA
Have you ever wondered about the other members of CSTA? Questions like "Where are the other members?" or "Who are the other members?"
One of the best ways to grow membership in an organization is by word of mouth. In the last fourteen months, CSTA has grown from 4700 members to our current 7300 members. Yes, our membership has grown by 50% and continues to grow! This couldn't be done without the continued support and work of our current members. Thank you to everyone who has recruited new members to CSTA!
Our new local chapters are also playing a major role CSTA's growth. Not only do these chapters carry out the work of CSTA on a local level (providing a community of learners, offering professional development, sharing resources) they also help to build membership by making people aware of the benefits of belonging to CSTA. So, a thank you is also due to the members who have taken the time to organize and charter local chapters in their states. For a list of local chapters and contacts see:
http://csta.acm.org/About/sub/CSTAChapters.html
While a large portion of CSTA membership is located in the US (80%), our International membership Is also growing. In fact, it has increased 35% in the same fourteen month period. India leads the way in International growth with 221 members added within the last fourteen months for a total growth of 50%.
Keep up the great work and keep recruiting.
Dave Burkhart
CSTA Membership Chair
Posted by cstephenson at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2009
Congress Declares Computer Science Week!
Computer science education reform is going to come in fits and starts working on issues from the top down (national media, federal policy, etc.) and the bottom up (in schools, districts, states, etc.). This week the "top down" piece got a nice boost from Congress by passing a resolution External Link designating the week of December 7 (in honor of Grace Hopper's External Linkbirthday) as Computer Science Education Week. This gives the community a wonderful platform to highlight the importance of computing to society and why we need to strengthen CS education -- particularly at the K-12 level.
Earlier this year, Congressman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) approached ACM with the idea of Congressional endorsement of computer science education week. His interest came from a computer scientist (who had attended a CCSC presentation by CSTA Executive Director Chris Stephenson) from his district, armed with some good facts, briefing him on both the tremendous benefit computing has and the difficult issues computer science education faces at the K-12 level.
Congressman Ehlers and his cosponsor Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) External Link wanted to call attention to these issues to help build the case that more students should be exposed to computer science education. When ACM first discussed the idea we weren't sure that the various Congressionally endorsed weeks -- Chemistry, Engineering, Asparagus, whatever -- had a practical impact. Turns out that it does.
The first benefit is that it brings high-level attention and informs policy makers about the issues. Second, it gives the computing community a useful messaging platform to inform others about computer science education's benefits and issues. This is really the key takeaway. Because Congress voted on this week doesn't mean much if the community doesn't do something to make the week tangible. ACM plans on partnering with key computing organizations -- Microsoft, Google, Intel, the Computer Science Teachers Association, the National Center for Women and Information Technology, the Computing Research Association as a start -- to develop a website and outreach materials. Third, these resources can be plugged into the schools and to a variety of audiences including policy makers, school administrators, teachers, parents and the community itself to be used in a variety of ways.
There are two lessons from all of this. First, Computer Science Education Week will be what we, the computing community, make out of it. Second, bringing issues to the attention of policy makers and making a local connection in a respectful and thoughtful way can make a difference. We'll be working hard for the next six or so weeks to develop materials and leverage existing ones for outreach around this event, so stay tuned.
Cameron Wilson
ACM Director of Public Policy
Posted by cstephenson at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2009
Looking at the Programming Language Options
It is interesting to follow the debate among college CS educators over time. At one point in the distant past, there was a large camp of CS teachers pushing for a breadth-first approach to intro CS, providing beginning students with an overview of the discipline before going full-out into programming. There are still some schools that follow this approach, but most teach programming as the first majors course (breadth is often "delegated" to a CS0, non-majors course). The choice of language is always a topic of feverish debate. Scheme has has been taught successfully at a number of schools and has many staunch supporters touting its strengths. In the past few years, there was talk about moving to scripting languages, particularly python, as an alternative to a full-featured object-oriented language. Related to this are a number of theme-based intro courses that have been developed, utilizing a central theme (e.g., robotics, multimedia, games). While all of these approaches can point to success stories, the fact remains that most intro CS courses in colleges are still focused on object-oriented programming, using either Java or C++.
The problem with teaching beginners using an industry-strength, object-oriented language is complexity. There is significant overhead involved in learning a language like Java, and all too often that means boring details - not inspiring applications. To address this problem, the latest trend in intro CS, as I see it, is the use of simplified environments as a way to introduce programming fundamentals while also engaging the interest/imagination of the student. Alice is no doubt the most popular example of this. A large number of intro CS courses at colleges start with Alice, introducing concepts such as classes & objects, loops and conditionals, etc. in a visual environment that can be fun and inspiring to students. From this foundation, students go on to learn Java or C++. Similar examples include Greenfoot, Jeroo, GameMaker, GridWorld, and Karel.
The environment that I am most excited about right now is Scratch. Scratch was developed at MIT as a tool for teaching programming concepts to students from K-12 all the way through college. It has a simple drag-and-drop programming interface (similar to Alice, although slightly more intuitive, in my opinion). Using Scratch, students can build 2-D animations or games very easily, and there is an amazing online community for support. The Scratch Web site (http://scratch.mit.edu) currently has more than half a million (!!!) projects uploaded, which can be viewed and sampled for free. In the first two weeks of my intro CS course, I introduced my students to Scratch and was able to cover all of the basic programming constructs (assignments, conditionals, loops, event-handling) and introduce object-oriented ideas (classes, objects, fields, methods). But most importantly, the students learned these concepts by exploring existing code and building their own animations and games. In the first week, they were able to program a choreographed dance animation, a Frogger game, and a slot machine simulation. In the second week, they designed and implemented their own animations and games.
Surprisingly, the 2-D nature of Scratch actually has some advantages over 3-D Alice. Using a built-in Paint editor, students can draw their own animation objects, or edit existing objects or photographs. The resulting animations/games look very much like Flash animations, which students are already familiar with through the Web. Sound is simple to add, be it sound effects, background music, or recorded snippets. And, the fact that students can upload their projects to share them with the world is very motivating.
If you haven't done so already, check out Scratch!
Dave Reed
CSTA Board of Directors
Posted by cstephenson at 01:50 PM | Comments (1)
October 12, 2009
The Benefits of Using Paired Programming
Have you tried pair programming yet in your classroom? I started using it in my classroom five years ago and will never go back to the one computer per student model.
In my classroom, students are randomly paired for a lab. I use the term "randomly" loosely, as I must admit to some tweaking, especially at the beginning of the course, to ensure partnerships that will be beneficial to moving both members forward. I try to make sure each student has an opportunity to work with every other student at some point during the year. One student is the "driver" and has control of the keyboard and mouse. The other student is the "assistant" and sits to the side, but works with the driver, advising and catching errors. Every 15 minutes, an alarm sounds (a cow moos in my classroom), and the students switch positions. Partners receive the same grade on the lab. Part of their grade includes how well they work together as a team: sharing the workload, staying on task, working cooperatively (outlined in a rubric so they know this ahead of time).
The benefits of pair programming are numerous. First, the practice teaches students to work cooperatively. Students learn from each other, picking up new skills and techniques. I have also found that pair programming results in students giving a problem a concerted effort before turning to the one or two programming gurus in the class for the answer. The empty screen facing the student is somehow less frightening with another person by his/her side. I have seen a much higher success rate in a team's ability to figure a solution on their own without having to seek out others. Confidence levels rise as students find that, working cooperatively, they can arrive at a solution. In particular, females who are intimidated by computer science are able gain confidence by successfully working through labs with their partner. They begin to see themselves as valid contributors to the partnership, and start to take initiative in the problem-solving process.
There are drawbacks. Advanced students sometimes overwhelm students whose skills are at a lower level. The more adept students sometimes resent having to work at a slower speed, but upon reflection, can see the benefit of explaining their thinking to their peers. Sometimes advanced or motivated students go home between classes and complete the entire lab on their own. I have thwarted that by giving "dessert" problems for those students to work on, telling them they must save the regular problems for class time.
Occasionally, later in the year, I will have the students work alone on a lab, to see if they are able to arrive at a solution on their own and to give those who prefer to work alone that opportunity. The majority of students states in post-lab reflections that they found working alone a challenge and they see the benefits of working with a partner. Most tell me they prefer to work with another student on future labs. There are a few who enjoy the solo experience more, but I am never surprised at who those students are. They are usually students who don't like to work in groups, no matter what the subject.
Overall, however, the benefits of overall higher confidence levels and more concerted efforts to develop a solution before turning for help vastly outweigh the occasional inequities within groups. On a selfish note, it also means half the number of labs to grade! If you haven't tried pair programming in your class, you might try it on just one lab or assignment to see how it goes.
Karen Lang
CSTA Board of Directors
Posted by cstephenson at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2009
Webinars for Professional Development
I have given webinars this fall using WebEx (http://try.webex.com) and Elluminate (http://www.elluminate.com/). I used WebEx during a webinar for Pearson on Alice and Media Computation, and I used Elluminate during a webinar on Greenfoot.
With both WebEx and Elluminate you use a browser to go to the url for the webinar. You have to download some software and then you are ready to be part of the webinar. With WebEx you also have to dial in to a conference call to hear and participate in the audio. With Elluminate you can use a microphone to participate in the audio and just your computer's sound card to hear the audio. With both you can have a text chat and can see the presenter's screen and powerpoints.
I found Elluminate better for the presentor. With Elluminate I could share my screen and still see the participants text chat window which made it easier to see participant's questions. And, webinars can be recorded, which means that they are available long after the actual webinar has finished. But, I don't know, though, how effective a webinar would be for longer than an hour.
Many teachers are having a hard time getting the funds to attend professional development events, so webinars might be one way to still get professional development at a low cost. And, the National Science Foundation would like to have 10,000 teachers teaching the new Advanced Placement Computer Science course currently being developed by 2015. Training that many teachers is a major logistical problem that webinars might help solve.
Have you participated in webinars? If so, what did you think of them?
Barb Ericson
CSTA Board of Directors
Posted by cstephenson at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)
October 07, 2009
Sadker Awards for Teachers and Students
The Myra Sadker Foundation has established teacher and student awards to support the creation of teaching and learning materials that advance educational equity and social justice.
Myra Sadker was one of the early researchers examining gender bias in the classroom. Her work uncovered the subtle and not so subtle biases that shape the lives of girls and boys. The foundation, established in her name, is dedicated to promoting equity, eliminating gender bias, and enhancing the lives of children.
The Sadker Foundation teacher award ranges from $1,000 to $2,000. It is designed to promote and support teacher projects (K-12) that help students learn about and respect group differences, promote fairness. Each project must include a gender dimension.
The student awards range from $100 to $1,000 and are designed to encourage student ideas, activities and projects (K-12) that promote respect for group differences and fairness.
Both awards are intended to support projects that build upon the values and contributions of Myra Sadker's work.
You can find more information about these awards or apply for one online at:
http://www.sadker.org/awards.html
The awards are distributed throughout the year.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director
Posted by cstephenson at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2009
Leadership Cohort Ohio Update
I decided to read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell as it was recommended to me by several people. That in turn let me to read his first book Tipping Point. This may seem a little unrelated to CS but bear with me.
Tipping Point addresses how epidemics get started from certain fashions to widely accepted thoughts. The idea is that there are these critical people that help "tip" things. They are people who are good salesmen or who are connected in many different circles of influence. Here is where I started thinking about the leadership cohort and what we are trying to do.
Someone referred to the leadership cohort as a grass roots movement in CS Education. I think this is a reasonable description and I started thinking about how to get to our tipping point. When does CS Education become a trend or a popular catch phrase in education?
Those of us in the leadership cohort were all trained in advocacy for different stakeholders, but everyone concerned about computer science education deals with some set of stakeholders every day. If I may stretch this a little further when we are presenting to stakeholders or deciding who to approach perhaps we need to also consider what type of person they are. Taking cues from the book we need connectors, mavens, and salesmen on our side. I think it might be as important to look at the type of person we are approaching as well as what type of stakeholder they are.
If we can find those people that can sell or influence what we are trying to promote and educate people on, we can have our tipping point. We need to find stakeholders who can get excited about computer science and then pass it on for us. I have found in my own experiences this past year that while I am working with different stakeholders it has been much more successful with people that have a passion like mine and who have some type of influence. It really has been more about the particular person than what level of stakeholder they are.
I think we are all headed in the same direction for that "one voice" for CS Education and I am just looking at ways to keep progressing. Sometimes outside sources such as the book Tipping Point can influence the way we go about things. I am not promoting that we all have to read the book but just that we need to think about different ways to approach our stakeholders and evaluate what they can do for us.
Hopefully we all find the right people to help us as we move forward!
Stephanie Hoeppner
CSTA Leadership Cohort Member (OH)
Posted by cstephenson at 05:32 PM | Comments (1)