Are You Ready for #CSTA2019?

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Vicky Sedgwick

I am counting down the days to the 2019 CSTA Annual Conference. How about you?

My countdown actually began at the start of the month when we held a special #csk8 Twitter chat about Getting the Most from #CSTA2019. Here’s some of the wisdom shared during and after the chat to help you make the most of the conference!

Why should CS teachers & teachers of CS attend the 2019 CSTA Conference?

For me, a CSTA conference is THE place to be because I don’t have to search the schedule for sessions that are CS related – they’re ALL CS related.
This will be the largest CSTA Annual Conference ever. Come & make history with us!
I think CS teachers & teachers of CS should attend #CSTA2019 because it’s a great opportunity to network. I always meet so many amazing educators at this conference and gain a plethora of resources to use in my classroom.
I went for the first time last year, and really felt like it was the BEST PD/conference I attended all summer. We have so much available freely and online, but there was just something AWESOME about connecting with other CS educators in person.

If you’ll be in Phoenix before Tuesday when sessions begin and you’re not attending pre-conference workshops or the Chapter Leadership Summit, what can you do to get your learning started and/or to network with fellow attendees?

Visit the exhibit hall on Monday afternoon and evening – yes, it’s open before the conference officially starts and during the conference, of course!
My favorite thing before sessions start on Tuesday are the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions on Monday evening – casual conversations with like-minded CS educators! Yes, you can go to these even if you didn’t register for any workshops.
Come early and earn a certification in the Certiport Lab which is open on Monday from noon – 5pm and during the conference, if you aren’t in Phoenix early.
Don’t forget the Welcome Reception on Monday evening starting at 5:30pm.

How do you choose from the 40+ sessions, 3 mini-session blocks w/8 minis, and 12 posters at #CSTA2019?

Posters are new this year. Definitely stop by these to see the amazing projects that CS teachers are doing in their classrooms.
Go for variety. Try some sessions that include ideas/topics that you may have never considered.
If you are attending with others from your school or district, split up and attend different sessions and share what you learned!
Use the filters on program to search by keyword for topics and grade levels.
I’m a planner and like to go through the program before a conference and make a list of all of the sessions I would like to attend and that apply to the grade levels I teach. I can’t possibly go to them all but I can use the list to check for resources that may have been shared later.

What suggestions do you have for networking and social activities after conference hours?

There will be a Whiteboard in the registration area where you can add after hour plans or see what others are planning and sign up if you’re interested in joining. Make sure to check it out!
Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself & to network with others. CSTA Conference attendees are the best! Ask around as to what is going on. Just do it!
Grab some peers to network and celebrate Taco Tuesday. It’s a great way to experience Phoenix like a local!
If you’re doing something with a group, invite someone new along.

Is there anything else you would like to share about getting the most from the 2019 CSTA Conference?

Make sure to exchange contact information with people that you meet at #CSTA2019 … maybe even bring a business card with contact information that you can hand out.
I LOVE learning about awesome, free curriculum available to all CS educators. We will have an incredible array of offerings for our kiddos right at our fingertips in the exhibit hall. The exhibitors do a great job showing off those tools!
Go up and say “hi” to people. Don’t be afraid to join a discussion!
Be sure to play the Conference Game. Not only will it be lots of fun but it will give you reasons to talk to people!
Don’t just sit with friends at meals. Find someone in a session you attend to have lunch with or ask to join others at a table.

There you have it … some crowd-sourced ideas to help you have a great CSTA 2019 Conference. I thank the #csk8 chatters for their ideas and their ongoing support of the #csk8 Twitter chat. I can’t wait to see them and all of you in Phoenix! If you’re not able to be there, make sure to follow all the fun on the #CSTA2019 hashtag!

Vicky Sedgwick K-8 Teacher Representative

K-12 Teacher Takeaways from SIGCSE 2019

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Bryan Twarek

The SIGCSE (the ACM Special Interest Group for Computer Science Education) Technical Symposium is the largest computing education conference worldwide. While the majority of sessions target higher education, there is a growing focus on K-12 education. I’m excited to share some learnings and research nuggets relevant to K-12 CS teachers from SIGCSE 2019.

EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES

In his keynote, Mark Guzdial made several recommendations for improving computing education:

Teach CS in other courses/contexts. Mark used an analogy of visiting a foreign country: how much language do you need to know to get by? It’s better to know more, but you don’t need to be fluent to enjoy your time. There is amazing learning power even knowing a small subset of CS.
Ask students to make predictions during live code demos. Get them to explicitly commit to a prediction, then test, and prompt reflection.
You don’t have to write code to learn from code.
Subgoal labeling improves understanding, retention, and transfer, in both blocks- and text-based programming, for both high school and undergraduate students. In fact, just adding text labels to video tutorials makes a significant difference.
Do what works: pair programming, worked examples, Parsons problems, media computation.

Helen Hu presented a POGIL (process oriented guided inquiry learning) lesson that guides teams of students in constructing their own style conventions for naming variables and writing expressions. See full activity and role cards. See also additional POGIL activities for CS Principles courses.

David Weintrop and colleagues presented research comparing high school students’ performance on blocks-based and text-based questions (similar to the formats used on the AP CS Principles exam). Students across all racial and gender groups performed better on the questions presented in blocks-based form, for all of the concepts studied.

Reading and tracing code is useful in understanding how program code actually works. PRIMM is an approach to planning programming lessons and activities and includes the following stages: Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify, and Make. See sample PRIMM activity sheets.

INCLUSION

In her keynote, Marie desJardin identified five pernicious myths that impede diversity in CS:

“He was born to be a computer scientist”
“Computer scientists are… {Insert Stereotype Here}”
“Anybody can be a computer scientist – girls just don’t want to”
“It’s just a joke – don’t you have a sense of humor?”
“ ‘Diversity programs’ are just political correctness”

Colleen Lewis created an Apples to Apples-like game for teachers to identify opportunities for inclusive teaching strategies and practice responding to microaggressions. View the printable cards and instructions. See also the critical listening guide from NCWIT (National Center for Women in Information Technology).

The 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (NSSME+) surveyed over 2,000 U.S. schools and asked targeted questions about computer science for the first time. A key finding is that most current PD efforts focus on deepening teachers’ CS content knowledge, and there needs to be a greater focus on pedagogy and supporting students from diverse backgrounds. See detailed report and slide deck.

DEBUGGING

An interesting panel on debugging included several useful tidbits:

Deborah Fields suggested that teachers celebrate a “favorite mistake of the day” to create in-time teaching moments and encourage students to ask questions and share their mistakes. This can lower the stakes of failure and normalize mistakes as part of the process.
Colleen Lewis encouraged educators to live code in front of classes and explain their thinking, testing, and debugging processes. Model immediate and frequent testing, and promote growth mindset by learning from mistakes. See CS Teaching Tips for debugging.
Gary Lewandowski synthesized common types of bugs in programs:

The Everyday Computing team presented their newest K-8 learning trajectory on debugging. (See other learning progressions on sequence, repetition, conditionals, and decomposition).

UNPLUGGED LESSONS

Stan Kurkovsky and Stephanie Ludi have developed many hands-on lessons for teaching software engineering principles using LEGOs.

Zack Butler and Ivona Bezakova have curated many different pencil puzzle types and ideas that can be used as context for many high school CS concepts such as arrays, loops, recursion, GUIs, inheritance, and graph traversal. View a sample of puzzles.

TeachingSecurity.org introduces foundational ideas of cybersecurity, built on threat modeling and the human-centered nature of authentication. The lessons are designed to meet the cybersecurity learning objectives in the AP CS Principles (CSP) framework, but they are flexible enough to be used in any high school CS class.

Shuchi Grover and SRI developed a series of unplugged and non-programming, computer-based activities to develop conceptual strong understanding of variables, expressions, loops, and abstraction.

PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS & CURRICULA

p5.js is a Processing JavaScript library and web editor. Processing is a programing language developed specifically for visual artists; p5.js enables web-based programming in Processing. The New York City Department of Education has developed an introduction to media computation course using p5.js.

MYR is an online editor for editing and viewing virtual 3-dimensional worlds. The Engaging Computing Group’s goal is to make programming virtual reality (VR) accessible to beginners. Real-time sync allows users to program and enjoy their work almost instantaneously on a VR headset.

EarSketch is a programming environment that teaches (JavaScript or Python) coding through composing and remixing music in a format similar to Garage Band. The environment enables students to create studio-quality music using over 4,000 samples created by professionals (including Jay Z’s DJ!).

MakeCode from Microsoft is an online, blocks- and text-based programming environment for micro:bits. It has an ever-increasing number of tutorials and course, including a new set of science experiments designed by Carl Lyman to help middle and early high school grade students better understand the forces and behavior of the physical world. Another course uses micro:bits to teach the basics of computer networks.

BlockPy is a web-based, blocks- and text-based Python environment designed for data science and to allow users to authentically solve real-world problems.

The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) team recently published a new e-textiles unit and resources called Stitching the Loop. Students learn to create paper circuits, wristbands, a collaborative mural, and wearables with sensors.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

The AI4K12 Initiative is joint project of CSTA and AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) to develop national guidelines for teaching AI in K-12. The working group has developed five big ideas in AI and has begun developing a curated AI resource directory for K-12 teachers. See slide deck.

One example of an 11th/12th grade resource in the directory: TensorFlow allows users to tinker with neural networks in the browser.

Of course, this is only a small glimpse of the content presented at SIGCSE 2019. If you want to learn more, view the ACM Digital Library and consider joining SIGCSE in Portland next year.

Bryan Twarek School District Representative

Welcome to the Silicon Prairie!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Dave Reed

The 2018 CSTA Annual Conference is only days away, and I am looking forward to welcoming everyone to Omaha. We have an exciting conference planned, with workshops on Saturday and Sunday (along with a Chapter Leader Summit), birds-of-a-feather session on Sunday afternoon, and keynotes and sessions on Monday and Tuesday. There are numerous social and networking events, including a big reception on Sunday evening and a tour/reception at the University of Nebraska Omaha on Monday. This looks to be a record-breaking conference in a number of ways (no spoilers) and we locals are working to make it the friendliest as well.

Some last-minute pieces of advice as you prepare to come to Omaha:

The convention center and conference hotels are only 3 miles from the Eppley International Airfield, and both the Hilton and Marriott have free shuttles. If you choose a cab or ride-share, we are still talking 5-10 minutes to get from one to the other. Pay attention on you ride from the airport and you will notice that you briefly pass from Nebraska into Iowa and then back to Nebraska. It’s an interesting historical fact that the Missouri River, which forms the boundary between the two states, changed its course in 1877, leaving a small piece of Iowa stranded on the Nebraska side.
There is a lot to see and do around the convention center and hotels. If you are a baseball fan, TD Ameritrade Park, where the College World Series is held every year, is just next door. There are restaurants, bars and a movie theater adjacent to the park. The Marriott is connected to the new Capitol District, which also has restaurants, bars and shops and an outdoor social space. Within easy walking distance is the Old Market district, which has all kinds of dining, shopping and social establishments. If you are considering dinner some evening, I would recommend getting reservations ahead of time, as it is a busy place.
If you have time to explore Omaha, I would recommend downloading the Omaha Savings app from the Omaha Visitors Center (https://www.visitomaha.com/savingsapp/). It has discounts on museums, restaurants, and the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. The Doorly Zoo has been named the #1 zoo in the world by TripAdvisor, and is well worth the trip (it is 6 miles from downtown, and can be reached using the hotel shuttle). My institution, Creighton University, is less than a mile to the west of the conference hotels. It is a beautiful urban campus, so if you are looking to stretch your legs, I would recommend checking it out. We will have maps of the downtown area available at registration.
This has been a hot summer across the country, and Omaha has been no exception. The weather forecast calls for highs in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s. Currently, there is no rain in the long-term forecast, but that can certainly change. If you are staying in the Hilton, there is an enclosed walkway that goes directly to the convention center, so you won’t have to go outside if you don’t want to. The Marriott is on the adjacent block, and many other hotels are close by as well. Plan to bring some warm-weather clothes and get out. In addition to the Old Market, you’ll want to walk across the award-winning pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri River to Iowa. There are many walking and bike paths along the river and over on the Iowa side. There are several bike rental stations in the downtown area, including one right by the pedestrian bridge.
Omaha is a clean, vibrant, and friendly Midwestern city. The population in the metropolitan area is around 930K, but it still has the feel of a small-town. The area also has a rapidly growing tech-sector, earning it the title Silicon Prairie. If you have never visited here before, I know you will find Omaha welcoming and engaging. Enjoy your time here!

On a personal note, this meeting marks the end of my term on the CSTA Board of Directors. I have made so many great friends and colleagues over the past nine years, and want to thank you all for the hard work and passion you bring to CS education. I look forward to continuing to work with you all, and I know that CSTA’s future is bright with Jake and Fred at the helm.

JRN, Journalism, Media, Computing faculty members

Dave Reed
CSTA Board Member, Past-Chair

Reflections on the NCWIT Summit

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Bobby Schnabel

Last week, I attended the annual summit of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). (CSTA executive director Jake Baskin was there too.) The NCWIT summit is a meeting of about 700 people who are involved in the activities of NCWIT – K-12, higher education, workforce. It’s a working meeting – people come to discuss and learn ways to effectively increase the meaningful participation of women and girls in computing-related fields. It also always includes several inspiring keynote talks related to diversity, ranging from motivational to scholarly.

One thing that always has been special about NCWIT is the active participation of men as well as women. The issue of striving to improve the involvement of women and girls in IT is crucial to all of us in computing and to our entire society, and requires the involvement of all of us. The gender breakout at the summit reflected this.

Two of the keynote talks at the summit embraced this theme of shared responsibility and took it further. One, by Dr. Jackson Katz, addressed the more general issues of sexual harassment and gender violence by men towards women, and their hugely harmful effects that can go well beyond the people directly involved. The speaker stressed the responsibility of men not only not to behave like this, but to not tolerate this behavior by other men. Another keynote talk by well-known sociopolitical comedian Kamau Bell addressed racism in the United States, with an analogous message: the responsibility of Caucasian Americans not only to not behave in this manner but to stand up to this behavior by others.

How do these messages impact all of us, particularly educators in K-12 and other settings? Very directly. We each have the responsibility to assure that all voices are given equal opportunities to be heard, in our classrooms and in our professional meetings. We also need to model inclusive behavior, and to stand up to behavior that is discriminatory. Ideally, we will do this not by shaming, but by making responses that sustain a positive environment and often, create a teachable moment. Doing this in the heat of the moment isn’t easy and can be aided by some preparation, such as the NCWIT resource https://www.ncwit.org/resources/interrupting-bias-academic-settings or many resources that have become available on “Bystander Training”.

Bobby Schnabel, Partner Representative

CS for All Means All Y’All

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Deborah Seehorn

Right about now you should be thinking how great it is to be a K-12 CS educator. If not, let me give you a few reasons. How terrific it was to hear that President Donald Trump had re-purposed $200 million dollars at the US Department of Education to support STEM Education, including K-12 computer science education programs. Women, minorities, and students in rural communities will particularly benefit from this presidential memorandum. That’s exactly what we are talking about when we champion “CSforAll.” And to sweeten the pot, a coalition of tech businesses including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and many others agreed to give $300 million spread over the next five years to boost K-12 computer science programs. So, it really is a great time to be a CS educator!

If you need more proof that it is a great time to be a CS educator, on October 16 and 17, over 170 organizations made new commitments to support CSforAll students. These pledges were celebrated by a stakeholder community of educators and other supporters at the 2017 CSforAll Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. You can view those commitments in this pdf Fact Sheet to see how many of our long-time friends and supporters are in the list and how many, many more you might not have known about. CSTA made a commitment to continue to promote the new CSTA K-12 CS Standards broadly so that all states and school systems have rigorous models for their own standards and to work with 3-5 CSTA chapters to help them establish their CS program while developing state standards and supporting CS teachers. Did you make a new commitment to support CSforAll students? If not, why not do one now? After all, it’s a great time to be a K-12 CS educator!

And, speaking of commitments, have you made a pledge for 2017 CS Education Week? CS Ed Week is December 4 – 10, 2017. What a great time to champion CS education, celebrate Grace Hopper’s birthday (December 9), and introduce students to computer science. It’s a great week for elementary/middle school educators to partner with high school students and educators to show the younger students how great CS is and to allow the older students to share their enthusiasm. This year, CSTA is partnering with Family Code Night to encourage parents to join their children in coding at their local school—another great way to interest younger students in CS education. Plan to participate in Family Code Night (or even better to help organize Family Code Night events in your community). After all, it’s a great time to be a K-12 CS educator. And, as we say in the south, All means All Y’all!

We know you are all doing spectacular work in your own schools, school systems, and CSTA chapters. We look forward to reading about what you are doing to promote and bring CS education to all students.

Deborah Seehorn , CSTA Interim Executive Director

Vintage Computer Festival — five events this year!

Posted on April 12, 2016 by admin

If you’re looking for novel ways of inspiring students, then consider giving them some hands-on exposure to the past at a Vintage Computer Festival event.

Vintage Computer Festivals are a series of family-friendly events celebrating computer history. The event formed in the 1990s and gradually spread to other parts of the country and into Europe. Each event has an exhibit hall where anyone can see and try out historic computers from the 1960s-1980s. There are also keynote speeches by celebrities and VIPs, technical classes, tours of nearby museums, consignment sales, and more.

Upcoming editions include VCF East (April 15-17, New Jersey) and VCF West (August 6-7, Silicon Valley). Children enter free for most of the event.

These events are the only place where your students can see things such as a 1960s DEC minicomputer, 1970s systems such as an Altair 8800 or Apple-1, and all manner of 1980s eight-bitters — all up-and-running. Take a learn-to-solder class, play a round of Zork, see a UNIVAC mainframe, and learn how to load BASIC from paper tape.There’s no better way to make students appreciate modern smartphones than to see an 800-pound Cray supercomputer or boot a Commodore 64 into a flashing cursor prompt.

The series producer is Vintage Computer Federation which is a 501(c)3 educational non-profit. In addition to the shows, the Federation also owns the Vintage Computer Forum online discussion site, incubates regional chapters, and operates its own hands-on computer museum.

– Evan Koblentz, president, Vintage Computer Federation

www.vcfed.org

evan@vcfed.org

facebook.com/vcfederation

twitter.com/vcfederation

Introducing CSPdWeek

Posted on April 7, 2016 by admin

We shine a spotlight on CS education for students each December during CSEdWeek. Why not do the same with a perennial offering for CS professional development for teachers?

After all, professional development has long been recognized as one of the key ingredients in CS education. Bringing even one PD provider to train a handful of teachers and counselors in a small district is prohibitively expensive, and even the smallest school district will need multiple solutions to implement the dream of CS4All. One way to solve this problem is with grants and sponsorships, subsidizing local workshops for a handful of teachers at a time. However, this only solves part of the issue–even with limitless dollars, scheduling constraints make it extremely difficult to bring multiple providers in at the same time. This makes it nearly impossible for most districts to adopt the broad mix of offerings that are necessary to increase diverse participation in computing. In other words, coordination can be just as large a bottleneck as funding.

CSEdWeek is a model for coordinated advocacy. Schools in a district, in a state, and across the country effectively leverage funding and volunteer efforts at the same time every year. It’s time to do the same for professional development, and this is the impetus and foundation for CSPdWeek.

The first annual CSPdWeek is this July 18th-22nd, 2016 – find out more at www.CSPdWeek.org!

CSPdWeek Events

An inaugural event, offering PD from Bootstrap, NCWIT Counselors for Computing, AP CS Principles, and Exploring Computing Science will be held during the week of July 18-22nd at Colorado School of the Mines. The event is sponsored by the Infosys Foundation USA, with additional support from the National Science Foundation, The National Center for Women & Information Technology, and the Computer Science Teachers Association. We invite teachers and counselors from across the US to apply for full funding (covering travel, food, lodging and PD), with an emphasis on those working in high-needs schools. Join nearly 300 educators from across the country, and spend the first CSPdWeek with us in Golden, Colorado!

Can’t make it to Golden? That’s okay! CSPdWeek is for everyone, and we encourage other PD providers to offer their own professional development events during the week. Professional development matters, and will be a crucial component of CS4All. By staking out one week during the summer, and coordinating our efforts, we can amplify the impact of everyone in our community.

It’s going to be an incredible summer, and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating CSPdWeek 16!
Owen Astrachan (CS Principles)
Gail Chapman (Exploring Computer Science)
Joanna Goode (Exploring Computer Science)
Jane Krauss (NCWIT Counselors for Computing)
Emmanuel Schanzer (Bootstrap)

Are You Ready for Computer Science Education Week?

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Myra Deister

As I write this blog post, I am in the middle of planning for Computer Science Education Week. I have prepared my Eventbrite site (http://2015-hour-of-code-shhs.eventbrite.com) and have emailed the link to the principals of the neighboring schools. This year will be the third year that my computer science students and I have hosted a community Hour of Code event at the high school for elementary and junior high students.

Last year I was so overwhelmed with the number of attendees, I have decided to move the event from the two adjoining computer labs to the library where I can better manage a large group. I will have stations for each age group and a marker station where the students will create a light-up Christmas card. Laura Blankenship (CSTA board member) helped me with some suggestions. I also found on line the directions for a Christmas tree card (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/let-it-glow-holiday-cards )that I plan on using.

I am also planning on setting up three tables with old computers that can be taken apart. I will have index cards with pictures of the main parts and an explanation of their purpose. My students will be preparing the cards.

Finally, there will be stations setup by age groups for students to use the code.org tutorials (https://code.org/learn). The Computer Science students are looking forward to helping with the event.

For the high school student event, I have a local college student who will come to class to discuss her internship at an aerospace company and her experience as a college student. I have also requested skype calls from professionals in the computing industry at https://education.microsoft.com/connectWithOthers/techguestspeakers. I had two speakers last year that worked for Microsoft and they were so patient with my students! I will also play the morning announcement created by CSTA on Monday, December 7, announcing Computer Science Education Week (http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/sub/CSEdWeek.html). On the same webpage are video announcements if you have that feature available at your school.

I have another Hour of Code event planned for lunch for students on campus with my Computer Science students assisting. Additionally, my school district will be honoring Computer Science students at the school board meeting on December 8 in honor of Computer Science Education Week.

I am looking forward to a busy but exciting week.

Please share your plans for Computer Science Education Week.

Myra Deister
CSTA At-Large Representative

RESPECT for Diversity (in Computing)

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Deborah Seehorn

Last week I had the honor and pleasure of attending the 10^th annual STARS Celebration collocated with the first annual RESPECT Celebration in Charlotte, NC. STARS Computing Corps is a community of practice for student-led regional engagement as a means to broaden participation in computing. RESPECT is the acronym for Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology.

The celebrations highlighted the widespread and diverse efforts to broaden participation in computing (BPC). NSF was a proud sponsor of the celebrations along with Google, IT-ology, Duke Energy, Bank of America, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina, UNC-Charlotte, and others. In addition to the many rising “stars” in computing education from the colleges and universities as well as high schools, the attendees included many well-known computer science educators. The sessions for the RESPECT attendees included engaging presentations of research on diversity in computing, a panel discussion on why we can and should keep diversity in focus during the college/university surge in CS enrollment, and lightning talks. Friday evening’s highlight was a STARS and RESPECT reception at Discovery Place—featuring food and fun with interactive science exhibits in addition to the RESPECT poster session.

The STARS attendees had ample choices among sessions addressing mentoring, professional preparation for students, outreach, and sessions of interest to faculty members. The STARS participants also participated in a Career Fair sponsored by IT-ology and a parallel STARS poster competition. The Saturday sessions for STARS participants focused on topics in mentoring, professional, outreach, grad school, sustainability and a track for faculty as well as a track for high school students and teachers. Several CSTA members were in attendance on Saturday and brought their students with them to participate.

The opening keynote address was delivered by Richard Ladner, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, who presented a fascinating discussion about accessibility in computing education (you may have met Richard at the CSTA Annual Conference in Dallas). Richard is the PI for the NSF-funded AccessComputing Alliance dedicated to increasing participation of students with disabilities in computing fields. He is also a PI for the NSF-funded AccessCS10K, which has a goal of preparing K-12 teachers to be more inclusive in their computing courses, particularly ECS and CSP, of students with disabilities.

The Friday lunch featured a BPC Fireside Chat presented by representatives from Special Technical Community on Broadening Participation (STCBP), Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), CDC, the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, AccessComputing, Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology (CMD-IT), STARS, the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), and the Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (IAAMCS). The presenters represented the multitude of organizations devoted to broadening participation in computer science and the collaborative relationship among the organizations. Conference participants were given an overview of each organization and the resources that each organization provides to broaden participation.

The keynote on Saturday was presented by Teresa Dahlberg, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University. Teresa was co-founder of the STARS Computing Corps and presented a brief history of the organization.

This was a great conference for me. In addition to thoroughly enjoyable and interesting presentations, the conference served to bring broadening participation in computing back to the forefront—though it has never been far from it. This is a critical focus for computing for many reasons. Working together, we can accomplish the BPC goal. As you begin another academic year, take some time to reflect on how you are broadening participation of women and underrepresented minorities as well as those with disabilities, in your computing program. If you are a K-12 educator, have you considered partnering with a STARS member at a local university? Have you attended Tapestry Workshops? Have you taken time to visit the websites of the groups mentioned in this blog post to see what resources may be available to you? If you are a college or university educator, have you considered adopting the STARS Leadership Corps model for service learning? Have you joined the STARS Online Community? In short, what are you doing to actively promote broadening participation in your computing program? This post provides you with ample resources to do just that.

Deborah Seehorn, CSTA Board of Directors Past Chair

Websites:

http://www.starscomputingcorps.org/

http://respect2015.stcbp.org/

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503593

http://www.discoveryplace.org/

http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/home/accesscomputing-homepage

http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/accesscs10k

http://stcbp.org/

http://cra.org/cra-w/

http://cahsi.cs.utep.edu/

http://expandingcomputing.cs.umass.edu/

http://www.cmd-it.org/

https://www.ncwit.org/

http://www.iaamcs.org/

An extra reason for you to head south this July!

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Mina Theofilatou

July is probably the most important month in the CSTA agenda: it is the time of year when computer science teachers from all over the world join to exchange ideas and practices while attending the premier professional development event tailored specifically to their needs.

This year, the CSTA Annual Conference will take place from July 12th to 14th in Grapevine, Texas; the lineup of workshops and presentations is so stimulating that many of us will have a hard time choosing which concurrent session to attend! But this year there’s an extra reason to head south, that many attendees may not be aware of: it so happens that this year the Annual Conference of Wikimedia* enthusiasts from all over the world will be held from July 15th to 19th in Mexico City, Mexico.

The conference is aptly named “Wikimania”: ask any long-time Wikimedia editor why and she’ll talk passionately about the values of the largest crowd-sourcing community in the world. I, for one, have been a Wikimedia editor since 2007 and most of my edits have been made in the context of school projects involving students of all ages in Grades 7-12. Over the course of nine school years to date, my classes have gained skills, knowledge, appreciation for teamwork and pride in contributing to five of the total fifteen Wikimedia projects in two different languages; it’s been an absolutely priceless experience, and every year it just gets better.

The Wikimania conference is annually held in a different place in the world since 2005.The conference program encompasses a number of tracks, which means there is always something fascinating going on no matter what your interests are: this year the first two days (15th-16th) will host a Hackathon (or DevCamp), followed by three days of workshops, presentations, quick meetings and much, much more. The tracks that educators will be most interested in are, no doubt, Education and GLAM (that’s Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums)… and of course, computer science teachers and enthusiasts will be sure to enjoy the hackathon.

Each year the Wikimedia Foundation awards around 100 Wikimania scholarships to active members of the worldwide Wikimedia community to cover travel and accommodation expenses; I am proud to be one of the two Greek Wikimedians who earned a scholarship this year. So, why not join me as I head further South after Texas this July?

All in all, an exciting week of professional development, hacking, learning and sharing (not to mention, tequila parties!) lies ahead this summer… hope to see you in Texas and Mexico:)

More information about registration here (link should be active in a matter of days)… or just drop me a line and I’ll be glad to assist.

Read this post for more about how integrating Wikimedia projects into your classroom can enrich your students’ learning experience.

*Wikimedia is the “umbrella” Foundation for Wikipedia and it’s 15 sister projects.

Mina Theofilatou
CSTA International Representative
Kefalonia, Greece

The CSTA Advocate Blog

Category Archives: Events