Recently, Stephanie Hoeppner, CSTA Ohio Vice President, and I met with Dr. Rob Williams at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Fairborn, Ohio, to learn about a program that Wright-Patterson is currently conducting with high school and undergraduate students. The program is summer based and centers around research projects in Virtual Worlds, Smart Phones, and Robotics. Dr. Williams is looking to expand the program to teachers and students during the school year through a virtual world which the students in the summer program have developed.
This exciting program opens up connections between the computer science classroom and the work world. Students in the program work with mentors from the Air Force Base to create applications which might be of interest to the Air Force. CSTA Ohio is currently working with Dr. Williams to find CS teachers who might like to work with Dr. Williams on a collaborative effort which could bring this program to others areas of the state during the school year. Participants in the no cost program could participate during the school day or as an afterschool activity.
As CS teachers come in contact with exciting opportunities such the one mentioned above, we need to share the ideas with others within our community. While this program is currently localized to Ohio, there may be others who could bring a similar program to their area providing more opportunities for CS students.
What collaborative opportunities for CS students exist in your area? The CSTA Blog is a great site to gain attention within the CS community about the programs being conducted in your area.
Dave Burkhart
Governance Task Force Chair

Many of us who teach college level computer science have been happy with the latest news about computing and IT related jobs. With the promise of fast growth in these job areas through at least 2018, we can expect to see our enrollments increase. And hopefully this will be the end of the spate of CS department closures that has been the response of some colleges to the current tight economic situation.
At the same time, those of us who teach CS in liberal arts colleges sometimes have to argue vociferously for our place at the table. We’ve been challenged by colleagues and administrators. How dare we bring something so “vocational” into the liberal arts setting?
A commentary in the Christian Science Monitor
(http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0725/Liberate-liberal-arts-from-the-myth-of-irrelevance)
argues for the value of a liberal arts education. One key point: employers want to see analytical thinking, teamwork, and communication skills. These are all things that we focus on at liberal arts institutions, particularly the smaller colleges. Another key point: students need to graduate with “transferable skills” so that they will be able to adapt to a changing job landscape.
I would add to this my own view that it is precisely CS students and those students who have experience with applications of computing in their own disciplines who are best prepared to adapt to the technology driven developments we will continue to witness in the coming years and decades. They will be well prepared to offer up innovative solutions to difficult problems. Consider disease spread, drug development, and the push to digitize medical records. A biology student who has experience with computing, who has taken courses in visualization, modeling and simulation, and bioinformatics will better understand and contribute to progress in these areas than will the student whose curriculum has remained static. The medical researcher whose undergraduate exposure included computing will be well equipped to collaborate with the computer scientist whose undergraduate exposure included bioinformatics. The interdisciplinarity, cross-fertilization, and critical thinking that are hallmarks of a liberal arts education will create graduates who are ready to embrace technology and utilize it to advance a host of fields.
Valerie Barr
Computational Thinking Task Force Chair

Students love competitions!
* Show off their skills
* Earn public recognition for their work
* Collaborate with other students
* Solve deep and typically meaningful problems
And teachers should love them too.
* Self-motivating activities
* Opportunity for developing problem-solving and team-work skills
* Combine a variety of student skills and knowledge
* Opportunities for differentiated learning
* Showcase your CS students
* Spotlight your CS courses and department
Competitions can be sponsored local within schools or districts, regionally by CSTA branches or colleges, nationally by organizations or companies, or internationally. The challenge is to learn about them in time to prepare and participate.
Summer is a great time to explore the possibilities and dig up the details on contests so your students will be ready to jump in when the details are announced for the next school year.
Please add to this list short list with the a few details about contests your students have participated in or others you know about.
* Bliink Web Design Competition www.bliinkcontest.com/
* Microsoft Imagine Cup www.imaginecup.com/
* NCWIT Aspirations in Computing www.ncwit.org/award/award.index.php
* TCEA Robotics Contest www.tcea.org/collaborate/robotics/Pages/index.aspx
* VisFest Film & Game Festival, Kent WA School District, www1.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/IT/visfest/index.htm
What are your favorite student competitions?
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

Summer is here. My textbooks are neatly placed on my bookshelf and my Kindle comes out. I rarely have time to pleasure read during the school year. What did I just write? It’s true. I most often use paper textbooks for educational needs and e-books for pleasure. I have mixed feelings about e-books. I own and love my Kindle but I have been known to purchase a paper copy of a book I have on my Kindle for easier reference to diagrams and such.
Many of the texts I use in class are available to students in the e-book format. Some students take advantage of this offering. Many of the reference texts I list for students are free on-line texts. Personally, I find it cumbersome to read a Java program that is pages long “on a screen”. With most e-books it difficult to print pages for easier reference.
In some CA school districts, e-texts have been used and administrators boast that “The greatest immediate observable result is how quickly the kids get engaged.” Yet several university students believe that e-book devices are good if you’re using them on “a beach or on an airplane,” but “not fully functional for a learning environment.”
I teach computer science. What does my ideal textbook look like? Ideally, it is an “interactive” e-book. I read sections, take self-check quizzes that give me immediate feedback, watch videos of algorithm animations, see diagrams of data storage, link to current events having that deal with computer science in the world today (I mean TODAY as in the day I am reading my text) , have the ability to highlight text and write in the margins, submit and/or answer questions to a blog or wiki, have the ability to print pages from the e-book, etc. Current technology provides all of this in different formats through different course delivery systems. I just haven’t found MY ideal e-textbook yet.
In most K-12 school districts, this type of e-textbook might be somewhat of a dream. Providing access to e-book devices for every student is costly and districts are finding ways to cut costs. Access to on-line materials for current events is not permitted in many public schools.
But, wouldn’t it be nice? Your thoughts on e-books?
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison
Resources:
Reading from paper versus screens: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~adillon/Journals/Reading.htm
Pros and Cons: E-books and E-book readers: http://nssea.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/pros-and-cons-e-books-and-e-book-readers/
Book Smarts? E-Texts Receive Mixed Reviews From Students: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203577304574277041750084938.html
Tablets make digital textbooks cool on campus: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-06-17-digital-textbooks_n.htm

It is summer and time to reflect upon the past school year. Course evaluations are in, and provided some interesting insight into how my students perceived my class. The standard complaint is there. They don’t like the language I use (Racket). But two other recurring themes appeared that will change the way I teach next year.
The first negative came from the weaker students; that I assumed they knew what programming is and that the start of the year went too quickly for them. I have the luxury at my school that all students (high school juniors) must take computer science. The students are all high achieving students, yet computer science is a new subject to the vast majority of them, and many are intimidated at the beginning of the year. So, I intend to slow it down in the fall.
The second complaint came mostly from the more advanced students, but I saw it in many of the evaluations, so it struck a chord. The students complained about my strict requirements for thorough documentation and complete testing of their functions. My usual reaction to this complaint is, “you’ll thank me in ten years when you are out in the work world”, but my reaction this year is that I might be turning some students off to computer science because I am battering them with the not-so-fun aspect of computer science. Since it is the first time many of my students have been exposed to computer science and to programming, I believe I have to focus more on the fun aspects of computer science, that is, the problem solving. It will be a shift for me, but I want my students to end the year thinking, “that was fun, I want more”, rather than, “testing is unbearable, biology is looking good”.
I intend to let them play more, explore, get joy out of seeing their program finally execute and find satisfaction in arriving at a good solution to a given problem. I think I’ll have more fun too! What about you?
Karen Lang
CSTA Board Member

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a workshop (conveniently located) at Purdue University. The workshop was sponsored by an NSF project title CS4EDU (http://cs4edu.cs.purdue.edu/). The goal of the CS4EDU project is as follows: to create new pathways for undergraduate education majors to become computationally educated secondary teachers. This includes a joint effort between faculty in the Department of Computer Science and the College of Education to create a Computer Science Teaching Endorsement program, based on the educational computing standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education.
The workshop brought together people from many different entities: university personnel, NSF personnel, CSTA personnel, and many high school teachers. The intent of the workshop was to discuss the CS Principles course, to share ideas and experiences, and to learn what others are doing in computer science education. However, I think the outcome of the workshop provided so much more. At the end of the two days, the organizers had each participant state what they gained from attending this workshop. So many teachers mentioned that they were thankful for the opportunity to network and meet other teachers with similar goals to them.
As a deliverer of professional development workshops, I am often so worried about the content of said workshops that I forget that there is often a bigger focus and purpose to these events. Teachers need that time to get together with other teachers so they can get new ideas and share their current ideas with like-minded people. There is a flipside to this though too- I know quite a few teachers who select their professional development opportunities based on what they can get out of it (stipends, fun location, etc.) But how many people opt in to a workshop based on what they can GIVE to the workshop? I’d like to challenge your way of thinking as you go through the next year. Teachers need other teachers to be there for them. The content of a particular workshop may seem like something you already know- but just think of all the experience you could share with a community of colleagues with a common interest!
So who is willing to step up to the plate and ask not what your professional development can do for you but what you can do for your professional development?
Mindy Hart
Chair, CSTA Professional Development Committee

I am in the midst of a three-times-normal-speed theory of computing class for graduate students who need to know this material for the qualifying exam, so I have not had lots of time to contemplate metaphysical things (or write a blog post). On the other hand, Michelle Hutton’s post of 6 June, 2011 resonates with me as I try to get the students to think (and write) in precise mathematical ways.
I am reminded of the time many years ago when I had breakfast at a restaurant in Tallahassee on a lecture trip. As I looked at the sentence with the options of toast, biscuits, hash browns, grits, etc., I noticed that whoever had written the menu had clearly not studied disjunctive and conjunctive normal forms of Boolean expressions. Although I suspect very few people misunderstood what was intended as the possible set of options (breakfast, after all, not being rocket science), what was written would not have been parsed as intended by the Gnu Breakfast Compiler.
We have had similar issues in the theory class. It is one thing to ask: For every integer n, describe a finite automaton F that will multiply by n. It is quite another thing to ask: Describe a finite automaton F that will multiply by n for every n. But our students learn this kind of precision; it doesn’t (seem to) come as a natural part of the rest of their experience and education.
My wife used to teach technical writing. She always argued that the purpose of technical writing was to be clear, not to be great literature. And as I try to impress on students: the problems in software, as in nearly all technical projects, lie at the interface between two human beings. Inside one (technically competent) person’s head, there usually isn’t much confusion about what ought to be done and what is being done. It’s the communication from that person to the next one down the line that causes the problems.
Being clear in one’s writing and speaking is very important.
Duncan Buell
CSTA Board of Directors