CS2013 and K-12

Posted on June 25, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Are you interested in what the future of computer science and computer science education at the college level looks like?
Roughly once per decade, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE-Computing Society form a joint task force to identify important developments and future trends in computer science, and to recommend best practices in CS education. The latest such effort, Computer Science 2013 (CS2013), is nearing completion with a final report scheduled for the fall of 2013 (drafts are currently available at http://cs2013.org).
While CS2013 is focused on college-level education, awareness of its content, including changing expectations of computing careers and evolving practices in college curricula, will empower K-12 educators to better prepare and advise students.
The CS2013 Task Force consists of educators and industry representatives, including two members of the CSTA Board of Directors: myself and Alfred Thompson. If you plan on being at the CSTA Annual Conference in July, be sure to come to our session on CS2013 and its impact on K-12.
Dave Reed
College Representative
CSTA Board of Directors

REACHING OUT TO CSTA’s INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS

Posted on June 20, 2013 by CSTA Blog

When you are a Computer Science teacher there is a universe of knowledge that you can transfer to your students, depending on the interest they show. You can teach how to code, design video games, robotics, Web design and many other things. The universal language for computer science software and applications is English, so when you are a computer science teacher teaching outside the U.S. or any other country where English is the native language, new challenges appear. Such is my case. I teach in a Latin American country where Spanish is the native language but my school is an American School and therefore 90% or more of the subjects are taught in English. What does this mean and why is it important?
As an American School, we have a clear mission to prepare our students to be able to succeed in any college or university around the world but because of our geographic proximity to North America, most of our students envision themselves in a college in the United States. For this reason, we teach the “American Way”. This means that inside our campus, the English language and a U.S.-based curriculum are standard. At the same time, however, we must comply with national Education Ministry requirements.
As a Computer Science teacher, I deal with a triple threat very few teachers face:

I teach in a non-native language

I teach in a subject matter or field that is not very traditional or whose teachers rarely have the same type of qualifications required from other subject matter teachers in Latin America

I must work with software that is purchased almost exclusively in the original language it was designed.

In addition to these challenges, professional development in my area is scarce and basic compared to that provided for other subjects. So it becomes pretty easy to feel isolated and with no support system even in this social media and Internet era.
So, what to do? I went to my old reliable friend, the Internet, and started researching for blogs, forums, or associations that would help a K-12 Computer Science teachers whether U.S. native teaching abroad or local teaching in English or in American schools. I needed to find quality professional development, standards that could grow with my school’s expectations, resources and ideas to use with my students. I also needed all of these benefit to be accessible to all teachers, regardless of their location.
Fortunately I found CSTA and I immediately applied to become an international member. Why was CSTA different than other associations? Although CSTA is U.S.-based, it supports more than 14,000 K-12 Computer Science teachers all around the globe. Within CSTA’s webpage you can find a treasure of resources, articles, blog posts and documents to make your life easier and your class, better.
Reading the posts in CSTA’s Advocacy blog made me feel like I belong now to a larger community within my field and that the challenges and adventures that CS teachers live are similar no matter what part of the world you are in. I am not alone. I also found a set of standards that can be applied to any level my students are currently at and aligned with other sets of standards to make the CS instruction more complete and comprehensive.
CSTA also offers great professional development opportunities especially during the CSTA annual conference. This conference takes place in the U.S. since the majority of the members reside there but, if, as an international member you are unable to attend, most of the information and presentations are later posted on the website and you can make great use of it. If you can get your school, your administration or department to send you to the CSTA Conference this summer, you are in for a treat. Check out the agenda on the website to know what will be going on. As a preview, I can tell you from my past summer experience that the annual CSTA conference is a great venue to make great connections with other teachers and supporters, attend hands on workshops and get a feel of what other teachers are experiencing in their classrooms or labs plus ways to approach different challenges we face every day as CS teachers. Every year CSTA invites great speakers and presenters to make the conference as broad and useful as possible. As far as professional development goes, it is a great opportunity to have some face time with leaders and advocates of CS education in K-12 with invaluable information to take back to your schools and students.
CSTA also participates in several conferences sponsored by similar associations or affiliates in different countries and provides presentations so we keep in touch with our international audience to bring feedback and work on resources to support our international members.
If you are reading this, you probably are a member already so it might seem that I am preaching to the choir but I am writing about it because it took me quite a while to explore all the information available for me by CSTA.
Michelle Lagos
CSTA-International Representative

New Code.org Video Released

Posted on June 17, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Code.Org has just released a new video promoting computer science that may be especially effective for creating broader public awareness among policy leaders and parents.
The video, Code – the new literacy is shorter than the previous Code.org video and is focused specifically on the importance of computer science knowledge.
The video includes new footage from high tech industry leaders such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Code.org founder Hadi Parvoti notes that, like the previous release from Code.org, it is intended as an advocacy tool to help raise public consciousness about how critical these skills are for all students.
“This short 2-min video is focused on computer science education as a matter of literacy. It is a great tool for engaging administrators and policy makers to pitch the case for teaching CS to all students, especially at an early age.”
Code.org has stepped up to take a leadership role on state-level advocacy to ensure that all students have access to rigorous computer science in schools. CSTA is part of a community of CS education organizations working with Code.org on this critical initiative.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

AP CS Principles Course Moves One Step Closer

Posted on June 14, 2013 by CSTA Blog

This morning the College Board announced that the National Science Foundation has committed $5.2 million in funding to support the continued development of the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles course with the goal of officially launching the new course in the 2016-2017 school year.
Most CSTA members are aware of the ambitious development project that has been underway to create a new computer science course that is more engaging for all students and rigorous enough to receive AP credit. This work began in 2007 and has been supported by computer science educators from all levels and most recently by the universities and high schools that have been pilot testing the course and assessment approaches.
When development is completed, the course package will include a curriculum framework, a digital portfolio, and a final assessment. The final assessment will not be tied to a particular programming language, enabling teachers to select the language of programming instruction that they believe best meets the learning needs of their students.
This continued commitment of NSF funding is critical because it supports important next steps, especially the provision of professional development for teachers. As the NSF’s Jan Cuny has noted since she launched the CS10K project supporting its development, successful implementation of this new course will require a large cadre of well-trained teachers with sufficient computer science expertise to teach the material. Through programs such as the NSF’s Broadening Participation in Computing and Computing Education in the 21st Century and Google’s CS4HS, universities across the country are now offering an unprecedented number of workshops focusing on K-12 computer science.
Over the last year, CSTA (with help from Google and Oracle) has also been working with its 46 chapters to build local capacity for offering professional development, with the expectation that CSTA chapters will serve as supportive learning communities for teachers adopting and implementing the AP CS P course.
Wide-scale adoption will also requite the development and dissemination of teaching and learning resources. Toward this end, the College Board has committed an additional $1.5 million for the creation of support materials and professional development and an additional $2 million for the development of a platform that will deliver the digital portfolio assessment.
These new funding commitments are a clear indication of both the deep need for the new course and of the tremendous commitment of the computer science community.
Karen Lang
CSTA 9-12 Teacher Representative

The Challenge of Teaching Computer Science (in Brazil)

Posted on June 4, 2013 by CSTA Blog

I just got back from a week in Brazil. My Portuguese isn’t very good (I need to take a Portuguese word, figure out its Spanish equivalent, and then try to translate that word to French — any many in Brazil speak quicker than I can do my double translation), so I’m not sure I fully “get” the status of computing teachers in Sao Paulo, the city where I was. Computer science is taught in high school, but it seems primarily limited to the technical high schools, many of which are co-located on college campuses. I had a great deal of sympathy, however, when the teachers complained about the challenges of keeping up to date with technological and pedagogic change as well as the challenges they faced trying to change courses they were teaching.
At both the high school as well as at the college level teachers I spoke with indicated that they typically taught four different classes per semester. That didn’t seem so bad until they told me that many/most had a second full-time job (either teaching at another school, or working in industry). The cost of living in Sao Paulo is quite high. Imagine spending more than $30 for a pizza, not to mention the fact that taxation results in electronic equipment costing more than double what it does in the US. And, these teachers are teaching two or more jobs simply to make ends meet.
I recall recently reading an online article describing the plight of adjunct instructors at colleges in the US, and their need to teach at multiple institutions, and thinking that those teachers who teach CS are probably “protected” from such conditions.
Well, I guess in other areas of the world, teaching in CS doesn’t afford such protection.
Steve Cooper
Chair, CSTA Board of Directors

Maybe Centralizing Education Isn’t the Best Idea

Posted on June 3, 2013 by CSTA Blog

A year and a half ago, after I had returned from Costa Rica, I extolled the virtues of a centralized (i.e. national) education system. In Costa Rica, an intelligent government, could make the introduction of computer science into the K-12 curricula work. Having just returned from spending a week in Brazil, I see the opposite side of centralizing education. In Brazil, there are many teachers who would like to see computing curricula, and indeed the teaching of computer science, rolled out at scale to K-12. But without a strong supporting voice in the Ministry of Education, it is unlikely to ever happen.
As I sit in the U.S., and think about the decentralized approach we have towards education, perhaps the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
Steve Cooper
Chair, CSTA Board of Directors

Nanotechnology Careers

Posted on May 29, 2013 by CSTA Blog

The career prospects look bright for CS graduates and according to the Kiplinger Management Group Letter there is an exciting reason for the news.
Amazing new computer chips are in the works as American chip makers, universities, and the US Government have ramped up semiconductor research and development. The new chips will revolutionize existing products such as mobile phones and medical equipment. Research centers are popping up across the US. Over $200 million in investments (public and private) will go to dedicated microchip research centers including the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Nanotechnology will get a boost from all of this and this is great news for your students! Exciting new nanotechnology careers will emerge. Think about:

Human implants to deliver cancer-fighting drugs.

Bioelectronics in which microscopic circuitry is paired with biological components to create artificial eyes or repair spinal injuries.

Optoelectronics that include remote sensors and flexible 3D displays.

A quick web search yielded many sites on nanotechnology. I found this one particularly interesting for K-12 teachers. The National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). In addition to resources for computer scientists, there are many classroom resources including curriculum resources, projects, and the Nanooze magazine for students. Most items appear to be created by teachers (many of whom have participated in Research Experience for Teacher (RET) programs in Atlanta, Phoenix, Santa Barbara, and Minneapolis).
One more exciting topic for your CS classroom.
Pat Phillips
Editor, Voice

This is My Dream Job

Posted on May 22, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Long ago in a land far away (well, actually only about 2.5 hours east of here — but definitely a very different day and time), I started teaching high school math (in a very progressive school system), and I thought, “This is my dream job.” Every day was different and working with students and other educators was wonderful. Farther down the road in a new time and place, I started teaching computer programming to high school and college students, and I thought, “No, this is my dream job.” Not only was every day different and the students were still fabulous, but teaching with computers was fun! They were actually paying me to have fun! Now, much later in my career path, I am no longer in the classroom, so I miss the students. However, every day is still different, and the responsibilities of my position are so varied that I am still enthusiastic about education — specifically Computer Science/IT Education.
My primary job responsibility is in the development and maintenance of our statewide IT curriculum. I have the pleasure of networking with business and industry partners and in working closely with teams of our state educators to develop or revise curriculum. That in itself is rewarding, challenging, and fun. We recently revised our very outdated Computer Programming I and II courses. The courses are being field tested in schools throughout the state this year. Last Monday, I had the pleasure of visiting a terrific high school in the southern part of our state. I was participating in a monitoring visit (monitoring and accountability are some of my other job responsibilities). What a pleasant surprise it was to me to visit both a Computer Programming II and a Computer Programming I classroom and to see the students actively engaged in programming games to test the computer programming coding skills that they had learned earlier in the year (C# and Visual Basic 2010). They were so engrossed in their work and having so much fun working, that I hated to interrupt them, but I did. I asked what they were doing (and all were able to articulate that quite clearly), and I asked if they liked the class (and they overwhelmingly said yes). Some of the students told me that they were going to college to study Computer Science, and some told me they were going to take another programming course or take AP CS. How great is that! I was able to see the “curriculum in action” with students who loved it. What fun! Almost as much fun as teaching it, but not quite.
Responding to inquiries from stakeholders and interested parties is another fun part of my job. In January of this year, my division director forwarded me an email from a Russian Computer Science professor who was a Fulbright Scholar at the local state university. He wanted information about our Computer Science and IT curriculum, which I shared with him. He then shared a paper he had written about high school informatics in Russia. I read the paper and then we had the pleasure of meeting in person to discuss the similarities and differences between CS & IT in the United States and Informatics in Russia. Of course, the discussion included the new CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards. We had a delightful meeting (though occasionally I had to ask for him to repeat something he had said), but otherwise we communicated quite well. We decided that there were many similarities and some differences, and that both countries had room for improvement. (Which is a perennial state, as the CS and IT world changes constantly and poses a challenge to try to keep up to date!)
Soon after I met with my Russian friend, I was asked to meet with a Japanese Computer Science Professor in my role as the CSTA Curriculum Committee Chair as well as the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards Task Force Chair. We met briefly at SIGCSE (though we saw each other in breakout sessions quite frequently throughout the conference). We also had a discussion noting the similarities and differences between Computer Science in the United States, and Informatics in Japan. Once again, we found many similarities in the two countries. We also had a delightful conversation before heading off to enjoy SIGCSE. Again, what fun to meet such diverse people who share the same priorities and passions for computing education as I do.
One area where both Russia and Japan seem to have a bit of an edge on us is in the integration of informatics throughout the curriculum, from the lower grades through high school. But we are working on that! Every day articles find their way to my email box and tout successes in computing education in the K-12 spectrum. Many of the newest developments are in K-8. What an exciting time to be a CS/IT educator! Every day is different. There are advances in computing technology and computing education every day. And the students are so motivated to learn computing. They just want current, relevant curriculum that provides them authentic experiences. That is our job. My primary job is coordinating teams of teachers to develop that curriculum and then providing professional development for our educators so they can facilitate the delivery of that curriculum. Even though I only get to see and work with students on an occasional basis, I do get to impact what is taught in their classrooms. I do get to meet and talk with interesting people who also love computing. This is my dream job.
Deborah Seehorn
CSTA State Department Representative, Chair Elect
Curriculum Committee Chair

Meet The Statistically Average Computer Science Teacher

Posted on May 20, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Every two years, CSTA conducts a survey of current computer science teachers. We have an excellent response rate and now that the results have all been tallied, I would like to introduce you to the “average” Computer Science teacher (statistically speaking).
The average Computer Science teacher is a white male who has been teaching for more than 15 years and has been teaching Computer Science for about 13 years. He is a member of CSTA.
He teaches in a public, suburban high school with approximately 1500 students in grades 9 through 12. Almost 300 of those students speak a different language at home. He is part of the Business Department and teaches Computer Science courses full time. His state and district have no Computer Science standards.
His school offers Computer Science at the pre-AP level. The 25 students enrolled in his Computer Science elective will earn a Computing/Technology credit for the course. Three of these students are female and three represent ethnic minorities. In this class, he teaches problem solving, programming in Java, and the social and ethical issues related to the field. He’s never even heard of the proposed AP Computer Science Principles course, not surprising in light of the fact that his school does not offer AP Computer Science A. He also teaches elective courses related to web design and development.
What does he think of his enrollment numbers? He believes there are students who would like to be in his classes who aren’t. He thinks these students are dealing with full schedules and the perception that electives are not as desirable on a transcript.
His biggest challenges to teaching Computer Science? Lack of interest in the subject — from both the adults and the students at his school.
He would really like more time for professional development, as long as he can find a workshop or seminar that is relevant, nearby and inexpensive.
Are YOU the average Computer Science teacher? Leave a comment below and share your reactions!
Tammy Pirmann
School District Representative

Random Hacks a Great Success for Students

Posted on May 15, 2013 by CSTA Blog

Great experience! Provided teamwork for all of us! It made us work super hard! Really Fun!” exclaimed Isabel, age 11. Fun and hard work are just the words teachers yearn to hear from their students. Over the past year, I’ve been searching for the perfect experience for my students, something that would inspire them while providing a challenging and fun introduction to the power of computer science. I think I finally found it.
On Saturday, May 4, after months of preparation, my Random Hacks of Kindness Junior event finally unfolded. Over thirty students, along with computer science professionals, subject matter experts and humanitarians converged at my school in Newtown, CT, to create smart phone apps. According to the parent organization, Random Hacks of Kindness, this was the first time ever that young people came together to “hack” for humanity.
When I had first learned about Random Hacks of Kindness last summer, I was drawn to the organization’s mission of “creating a self-sustaining global community of innovators building practical open technology for a better world, and to ensure their work creates impact in society.” But I was not sure how I would pull off such a lofty goal with 4th – 8th graders, whose primary use for computer is playing games. Would it really be possible to convince them to give up a Saturday and spend it indoors, working with strangers to help others? I am thrilled to say the answer is yes!
I relied on my previous experience with a similar event for college students this past December at Trinity College. The day went off without a hitch. I contacted local charitable organizations and invited them to participate in the event. As a result, I had representatives from Ben’s Bells, Newtown Kindness, Polar Bears International, American Diabetes Association, Autism Speaks, and The Newtown Animal Center. These charities were selected from my students’ interests and passions. I also contacted a variety of high schools, colleges and universities from across Connecticut to ask for their assistance by providing mentors. Students and professors from Quinnipiac University , University of Hartford and Trinity College’s HFOSS gladly agreed.
All of the participants in RHoK Junior found the opportunity to work on real-world problems to be both inspirational and challenging. The students were thrilled to be working side-by-side with the subject matter experts and computer professionals. According to Christopher MacNamara, a 4th year at Fraser Woods Montessori School, “I liked that we got to create Apps and had a chance to help the community”. This was music to my ears. The students enjoyed the challenges set before them and realized the importance of creating computer applications that served a bigger purpose than just entertainment.
Now that we know that Random Hacks of Kindness Junior events can be as successful as the ones for adults, I am sure more will follow. Discussions are already underway to create a weeklong event next summer at Quinnipiac University.
Jamesan, a college student from the University of Hartford, summed it up perfectly “This app development teaching idea is totally amazing in my opinion as it teaches kids the power that they have, shows them that the possibilities are limitless with computers”. Exactly!
For more information about creating a Random Hacks of Kindness Junior event at your school contact Thea Aldrich, from Random Hacks of Kindness at [email protected].
Patrice Gans
CSTA K-8 Representative

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