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