I teach in a rural high school where I am the only person to teach computer science as well as computer technologies. Collaborating with others within my building isn’t something that I am able to accomplish because I feel sometimes like I am on an island of my own. I do enjoy the time between class changes because I get to talk to the Science teachers across the hall from me as we are on hallway duty. While I do enjoy my fellow teachers’ company, it is nice to have others who can help you out with specific questions or just to share ideas.
Two years ago, Angie Thorne and Stephanie Hoeppner took the initiative to start a local chapter of CSTA here in Ohio. This local chapter brought together a handful of computer science teachers from around our state and provided me the opportunities that I was looking for outside my school building. It is great to be able to attend the CSTA Ohio meetings and meet my colleagues from around our state. I now have a support system of teachers who can help me out and offer suggestions when I have questions.
CSTA Ohio, under Angie and Stephanie’s direction, has offered me and others several professional development opportunities as well as social gatherings. I look forward to the eTech Ohio Conference each year as CSTA Ohio provides several informational sessions dealing with computer science topics. Plans are in the works for another eTech conference again this year.
If you aren’t a member of a CSTA local chapter, check out the listing of the current CSTA Local chapters at:
http://csta.acm.org/About/sub/CSTAChapters.html
f your area doesn’t have a chapter, why not check into creating one. What could be more rewarding than helping others within your area and within your field. Join a CSTA local chapter today!
Dave Burkhard
CSTA Governance Task Force Chair

Recently I started a 10-week contract, filling in as a Math teacher at a local high school. Naturally one of my early questions was “So what senior computing classes do you have?” The answer, from the principal, was “None”. A bit of further digging revealed that a similar school had been told a number of years ago by the local university that they didn’t need high school students with any computer science of programming. “Just give us good students”.
It is an argument I have heard more than once. What it belies is the fact that students at high school are strongly encouraged to have goals, determine where they are headed, what degree will the need at younger and younger ages.
So if students don’t know what computer science, software engineering etc. is, why would they choose it at university? They’ve probably already settled on a course. And naturally the problem of numbers enrolling into such courses at university linger.
The fear that inexperienced, unknowledgeable teachers will somehow mess the students up has to be exposed for the fallacious nonsense it is. Within days, I discovered that the Math teacher who was most helpful to me starting the new job actually has a Computer Science degree. He was so energized by my talking about high school academic computing that he got a bunch of his bright year 10 students to come to a lunchtime programming club, which we teach together.
I believe that well qualified, expert teachers exist (as I have a number of similar stories) but our administrations need to notice, understand why its important to use them and use them appropriately.
So before I leave, I will seek out the school principal and let him know what a great resource he already has on board.
Margot Phillipps
CSTA International Director

This past summer marked the addition of a full day of workshops to the CS&IT Symposium. More than 120 individuals attended morning and afternoon sessions on a variety of topics, such as BYOB Scratch, Google AppInventor, Videogame Programming, and AP Teaching. I’m happy to report that the day was very successful, with 97% of attendees rating “Session effectiveness” as either Good or Excellent, and 98% of attendees rating “Met expectations” as either Good or Excellent. Thank you to all of the session presenters who made the first CS&IT Workshop Day go so well.
The experience of chairing the workshop sessions prompted me to reflect on workshops that I have attended over the years. Many have been instructive and inspiring, but others have been demoralizing wastes of time. To me, an effective workshop has to have a significant hands-on component, but it also has to provide enough conceptual content to allow me to build upon what I have done. If it doesn’t enable me to continue learning on my own afterwards, it is really nothing more than a few hours of entertainment and/or confinement.
For example, I attended an outstanding workshop some years ago on Bioinformatics Education. The session integrated engaging hands-on exercises, but also provided conceptual background and resources for going beyond the exercises. It inspired me to dig deeper into the material once I got home, and I learned more after the workshop than I did in those few in-class hours. In contrast, a disappointing App Development workshop I attended led me through the development of some really cool applications, but no conceptual understanding of what I was doing. I left the workshop with some impressive apps, but absolutely no idea how I would do anything else.
I’m curious how other people view workshops.
What do you look for when you register for a workshop?
What features do you think are necessary for a workshop to be effective?
What are the biggest mistakes that you think workshop presenters make?
Please share your thought, and if you have a great workshop that you have attended and want to plug, have at it.
Dave Reed
CSTA Board of Directors
College Representative

Well, it’s back to school time and most of us have done some professional development over the summer to rejuvenate and enhance what we are doing in the classroom.
I had the privilege of attending MIT’s CS4HS offering in July, sponsored by Google. The focus of the three-day workshop was on using the Scratch programming language as a means to teach computational thinking skills using design based learning. Mitch Resnick and Karen Brennan of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group led the workshop and did an amazing job.
I must report, I drank the koolaid. The experience was exciting, motivating, and energizing. The forty-four educators, administrators, and researchers who participated were definitely buzzing with excitement. By the end of the workshop, there was a definite cult atmosphere in the room. The workshop was broken down into themes: art, stories, and games. Participants were given ideas and instruction on developing projects in all areas. Much time was spent on individual work related to a theme of interest.
It was a real treat for most of to have a solid chunk of time to play with Scratch, bounce ideas off of our colleagues, and to explore the possibilities. Most participants reported staying up until the wee hours of the night to work on their individual Scratch projects. It is an addictive tool, so easy to use, intuitive, and very engaging. I am excited to bring what I learned back to my school and to figure out the most effective way to implement Scratch with my high school students.
What about you?
What professional development did you do this summer that got you pumped for the school year?
Karen Lang
CSTA Board of Directors
9-12 Representative

I recently had the good fortune to participate in this year’s Creative Computing workshop at MIT. The program, which ran from July 27-30, was organized by the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with Google’s CS4HS initiative. The four day workshop provided K-12 teachers with an opportunity to explore computational thinking and creativity in the classroom.
Over the course of four days, I met with teachers from around New England (and some even as far away as California) to experiment with new educational technologies and instructional strategies to engage students in creative design activities. The workshop focused on Scratch as the vehicle for cultivating creativity and problem solving. Scratch:
http://scratch.mit.edu/
a programming language geared for children and teens, was developed at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group
http://llk.media.mit.edu/index.php
at the MIT Media Lab and was created to provide children with the opportunity to learn how to design, create, and express themselves through technology. I saw the workshop as the ideal vehicle for me to develop lessons which will motivate my students to become creators, not just users, of the technology that permeates their world.
During the workshop, I experienced first hand the joy and wonder that Scratch brings to learning. We started the program by exploring three essential questions:
(1) What is Scratch?,
(2) What is Scratch good for?, and
(3) What is good Scratch?
My initial response to those questions was pretty straightforward. Obviously, I knew what Scratch was and I believed that I knew what Scratch is good for, and I definitely thought I knew what was good Scratch. But over the course of four days, as I built new computer programs with my colleagues, toured the Media Lab, and heard from a variety of experts, I came to realize that these three questions mean more than I had ever imagined.
I discovered that Scratch is much more than a computer programming environment. It is a community. Scratch is not only good for making computer games, animations, stories, and art. It is also good for making social connections. It is a place where today’s technologically savvy students can come together to exchange sprites, remix programs, and collaborate on projects with other Scratchers. The same experience of sharing and collaborating can be found at the educator’s website, ScratchEd
http://scratched.media.mit.edu
And good Scratch, well, that is what ever you want it to be. As a teacher, I feel that my students produce “good” projects when they are actively engaged in the learning process. For the most part, every time a student builds a Scratch program, engagement takes place. I can’t wait for the school year to begin so my students can start “scratching.”
Patrice Gans
CSTA K-8 Representative

Mark the calendar, gather up resources, and make some plans!
Computer Science Education Week (December 4th through 10th) is the opportunity to be part of a unified force of CS teachers across the US and around the world to impact CS education.
What did you do last year?
What ideas do you have for this year?
We would love to hear about your 2010 CSEd Week successes, how you plan to build upon them this year, or your great new ideas for CSEd Week 2011. A few stories will be selected to feature in the November issue of the CSTA Voice newsletter.
You will find posters, flyers, classroom activities, videos and more on your own CSTA website:
http://csta.acm.org/
If you are looking for ideas and resources, check out the CSEd Week website:
http://www.csedweek.org
On the “Pledges” page you can read about these cool projects and many more!

Leisa Thompson (NCWIT) Included a message within her email signature to promote CSEd Week.
Tell us about CSEd Week in your school!
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

This summer I was able to attend three Computer Science conferences this summer which were CS4HS:
http://www.cs4hs.com/participating-schools-2011.html
at two different locations and CS & IT:
http://www.csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/sub/CSITSymposiaSite.html
CS4HS is offered at several different college and university campuses throughout the world and is sponsored by Google. CS & IT is the annual conference organized by CSTA that “provides professional development opportunities for high school and middle school computer science and information technology teachers”. This year the sponsors were Microsoft Research, Google and Anita Borg Institute.
The first CS4HS I attended was on the Cal Berkeley campus and hosted by Dr. D. Garcia. To attend a CS4HS held in the state where I am teaching was definitely an advantage. The conference attendees educated me about websites that are only available for California teachers. One website was Calaxy which hosts a website of tools and free Moodle hosting. I had been using Moodle but my current host informed me that they would begin charging for the service so this was a website I definitely did investigate. Additionally, I entered into a discussion about recruiting and was given a suggestion about using my students to recruit students through their membership in ethnic clubs on my campus. I also learned about BYOB which is an extension of Scratch. I have been practicing with BYOB this summer to use with my students when school begins in a few weeks.
The second CS4HS I attended was on the Carnegie Mellon (CMU) campus and hosted by Tom Cortina. The participants were treated to: An introduction to AppInventor, a presentation from Eric Nyberg about Watson, a hands-on presentation about Finch Robots
http://www.finchrobot.com/
introduction to CS Unplugged activities and a presentation about Raptor (a free flowchart interceptor):
http://raptor.martincarlisle.com/
I purchased a Finch Robot and plan to have my Data Structures students review Java with the Robot and I plan to use Raptor to have students verify their logic.
Finally, I traveled from CMU to New York for the CS & IT Symposium. The conference was held over three days. The first day, the attendees could choose at most two workshops, the second day the attendees could choose at most four sessions and the third day the scheduled included 3 speakers and entrance to the Imagine Cup.
In the morning I attend the workshop about BYOB. Dr. Dan Garcia and Josh Pauley presented a hands-on workshop about BYOB. If you haven’t had an opportunity to try out BYOB, it is a free download from:
http://byob.berkeley.edu/
The site also has links to the slides from the conference and sample lessons.
The afternoon session I attended was trying out some labs using AppInventor presented by Hal Abelson, Betsy Dillard, Pauline Lake, Ralph Morelli, and Chinma Uche. You can download a copy of the slides from the presentation from the CSTA website.
The second day of the conference began with a keynote speech by Douglas Rushkoff the author of Programmed or Be Programmed: Ten Commandments for a Digital Age. He was a very dynamic speaker and gave us some ideas to think about regarding the web and how we are manipulated by it. The closing keynote speaker was Ken Perlin, Professor of Computer Science NYU Media Research Lab and Director, Games for Learning Institute. He was another dynamic speaker who discussed, among other things, using Kinect to communicate with a computer.
I also attended four great sessions during the day. You can review the slides of the sessions on the CSTA website as well as slides and videos from previous CS & IT Symposiums. In addition, Alfred Thompson:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alfredth/archive/2011/07/12/cs-amp-it-conference-day-1-2011.aspx
and Doug Peterson:

CSIT Symposium 2011

discuss their experiences at CS & IT on their blogs. Additionally, I exchanged contact information with other CS teachers. I hope to collaborate with them on lesson planning during the school year.
Another source of PD for me is Twitter. Through Twitter, I discovered Socrative:
http://www.socrative.com/features.php)
It is a “smart student response system” using web enabled devices. I plan to use it for “Checking for Understanding” and Exit Slips.
Finally, my next step then is how to incorporate what I have been exposed to this summer into my computer science curriculum. That is the best part of summer professional development, relating it all back to the students.
What PD have you participated in this summer?
Myra Deister
CSTA Board of Directors
At-Large Representative

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