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

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

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

I recently came across an interesting publication that looks at patterns in STEM education and it provides some surprising insights into students’ interests in STEM education and career pathways.
The report Where are the STEM Students is jointly published by myCollege Options and STEMconnector. It profiles the national high school student population (by graduation year) including more than one million students interested in STEM careers. The element of the report I found most interesting details the national trends in STEM among female and under-represented minority students.
The study results indicate that female interest in Engineering increased after a significant dip between 2001 and 2005 but that it seems to have leveled out at about 3% of the high school population for the 2012 to 2016 graduating classes. Female interest in Technology showed a similar drop beginning in 2001 but that drop lasted much longer and the numbers did not begin increasing again until the graduating class of 2013! And despite this increase, the percentage of female students indicating an interest in careers in Technology remains below 2%.
The results for under-represented minority students are very mixed and somewhat surprising. According to the study, since the graduating class of 2000, African American student interest in all STEM disciplines has dropped by nearly 30%. After reaching a high of just over 28% in 2001, African American student interest began a significant downward trend, bottoming out in 2004. Despite a bumpy trajectory since then, the numbers have never really recovered beyond 22%. While African American students’ interest in Engineering continues to plummet, interest in Technology is showing significant improvement and is now trending toward its previous (2000) high of 10%.
Reported interest in STEM by Hispanic students also bottomed out at 22% with the graduating class of 2004. Interest among Hispanic students, however, seems to be trending upward despite another minor dip for 2009 with 27% of students graduating in 2016 expressing interest in STEM courses and careers. (The report did not include the discipline-based results for Hispanic students.)
Interest in Engineering remains highest among American Indian students, with the graduating class of 2016 reaching an all time high of 17%. And despite a dip that reached bottom (4%) with the 2010 and 2011 graduating class, student interest in Technology is also trending steadily upward, reaching between 9% and 10% among the 2016 graduating class.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

According to the Harvard Business Review and reported in the New York Times data science is “the sexiest job in the 21st century.” Experts expect that this hot new field promises to revolutionize industries from business to government, health care to academia.
According to Rachel Schutt, a research scientist at Johnson Research Labs who taught an introduction to data science course at Columbia, a data scientist is “a hybrid computer scientist software engineer statistician.”
The exciting news for CS educators is that is data science offers that exciting blend of CS with real-world problems to be solved in medicine, social media, business — basically everything. Universities are busy creating courses and programs to fill the growing demand. It is estimated that there will be almost half a million jobs in five years, and a shortage of up to 190,000 qualified data scientists. In addition, 1.5 million executives and support staff who have an understanding of data will be needed.
Want to explore the concepts a bit yourself or invite students to take a test drive? Check out the free online course Introduction to Data Science, offered by the University of Washington.
Pat Phillips, Editor
CSTA Voice

Once again, my family has come through just in time for another blog posting. This past weekend, we were able to celebrate my grandfather’s 97th birthday. It was a momentous occasion- more than 40 family members there to celebrate with him, including his 90 year old sister! My grandparents have 9 children, most of which are within driving distance to visit.
About a week before the event, I received a message from my aunt who lives many states away wondering if I might be able to help them FaceTime with my grandfather during the party. Their 12 year old grandson had taught them how to do it, and they thought since I worked in computers, I could be the one to help them figure it out on the other end. They could then have their whole crew of 8 grandkids there to celebrate alongside the real festivities.
So the time comes for us to connect- and success! We put the computer in front of grandpa, and the Colorado crew begins to give him their well-wishes, one by one popping up in front of the camera. All the while, grandpa (and his sister) looks perplexingly at the screen. We encourage him to wave and talk to them, which is met with scoffs and quizzical glances, followed by some half-hearted waves. (as seen in the photo below).

We asked grandpa quite a few times if he realized what was going on and he still thinks he was just watching a pre-recorded video of everyone saying hello. For a man who has seen so many inventions in his life, from not even having electricity to being able to video chat with someone 1,000 miles away, that’s quite a jump for someone to make.
However, the point that we are missing is that this all happened because of a 12 year old boy. I certainly would not have thought to set this up. I’m in the generation that emails to communicate. But this is how a 12 year old communicates with everyone. His friends, family. It just comes naturally. There are no technology boundaries for him. It would have never occurred to him that video chatting with a 97 year old might be out of the question.
These kids that are born as digital natives are going to be the ones who shape our future. Technology opens up a world of opportunities to them. This is the generation that is finally realizing technology is a tool they need for survival. So what is it, that when we are 97, these kids will have developed that we will no longer be able to understand or comprehend could actually be happening? Is there a point where we will shut ourselves off to the possibility of technological advances? Longing for days of simpler cell phones, having to do math in our heads instead of having it easily calculated for us on a computer, or going to a physical store to purchase our music in hopes that the new album has not sold out. I can honestly say, I hope not. Most technology is developed to fill a need. As times change, needs change. I gladly commit my technological future into the hands of the digital natives and cannot wait to see what comes of it.
Mindy Hart
At-Large Representative

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the dearth of computer scientists in the workforce, and the corollary, the need to teach computer science to help fill that shortage. At the same time, a lot of people argue that software engineering (design) is being outsourced to India (and other places), so the real picture can be rather confusing. A recent program on NPR, Who’s Hiring H1-B Visa Workers? It’s Not Who You Might Think added more fuel to the debate. However, as a K8 computer science teacher, my impetus for teaching CS, is not about long term career opportunities, but about the actual power of computing and its impact on society.
My experience last December at the Global Random Hacks of Kindness event, brought the idea into focus, when I developed an app called Empowering Girls with Trinity College student, Pauline Lake, for the World Bank as part of the Sanitation Hackathon. The goal of the hackathon was to encourage “citizen-designed and technology-enabled solutions to sanitation challenges in the developing world.” This event was not about landing a job. It was about helping people. I also did not know at the time, that there were other computer programmers from around the world, who would be developing their own solutions as well.
Our app was the direct result of the “Sanitation + girls = education + empowerment” problem that was posted to the Sanitation Hackathon site. The problem called for a text-based app that could be used to track girls’ attendance in Cameroon schools, before and after gender-friendly facilities were introduced into these schools. As both educators and females, Pauline and I found that the “Sanitation + girls = education + empowerment” problem hit close to home. Also, with previous experience using mobile app creation using App Inventor, we felt that we could use our expertise to make a useful app to address the sanitation problem in Cameroon. Thus our app, Empowering Girls, was born.
The objective of our app is to help determine the impact of an NGO by tracking girls’ attendance in conjunction with the implementation of a school-based health education program, improved girl-friendly sanitation facilities, and the introduction of proper feminine hygiene products. By empowering the girls at the local schools to record their own attendance, the app would help the NGO evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions.
Sadly, many girls in developing countries do not get a proper education. According to a 2005 report from UNICEF, Sanitation: The Challenge, 1 in 10 school-age African girls drop out of school when they enter adolescence or miss school approximately a week a month because of poor sanitation facilities in their school.
The lack of proper sanitation facilities and timely health and hygiene education has been shown to play a significant role in the attendance rate for young girls. It has been theorized that with proper mitigation attendance rates would rise, thus helping girls get the education they deserve.
I had no idea, when I created Empowering Girls last December, that the app would become part of a bigger project, the Sanitation Hackathon App Challenge. Over 30 apps were developed and submitted to the World Bank for review. On March 22, the World Bank announced the finalists for the Sanitation Hackathon App Challenge. Much to my surprise, our app was in the top 10.
Now we wait. The Grand Prize Award winners of the Sanitation Hackathon App Challenge will be announced on April 19, on the eve of the World Bank’s Spring Meeting. In the meantime, I am thrilled to have been able to participate in such an important event. My first experience “hacking for humanity” was very inspiring. I was not looking for fame or fortune, however, I was looking to have an impact, and by participating in the global event, I did just that.
No matter how this ends, the journey is one I look forward to repeating and one I can’t wait to share with my students. Hopefully they will walk away from their first Random Hacks of Kindness event with the same feeling of accomplishment, because I want more than anything for my students to believe they can make a difference.
For additional information about the finalists and to watch the videos check out:
http://sanitation.hackathome.com/
Patrice Gans
CSTA K-8 Task Force Chair

Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni, Stanford University computer science students who refer to themselves as “good girls gone geek,” are the founders of she++.
She++ is a catchy title, exciting challenge, and clever ideas for engaging more women in CS. On the website (http://sheplusplus.stanford.edu) you will find information about an upcoming second conference, several interesting videos, several links to classroom resources, news of a recently released documentary and — most interesting to me — opportunities for one-on-one mentorships between high school girls and undergraduates, graduate students, and recent graduates majoring in CS or related technical fields. According to Ayna and Ellora in the “Word from the Founders” video, role models were the keys to their transformation into ‘femgineers.’ Perhaps some of your students who would value this opportunity; maybe some of your former students would be perfect mentors.
Shee++: the Documentary, with inspirational pieces on Silicon Valley’s unsung heroes, was written and directed by Ayna and Ellora. The Documentary “encourages the future CEOs, the innovative engineers, the techies and the fuzzies, the sisters, cousins, and daughters, to break away from the stereotype into a revolutionary field. As technology is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, all demographics must harness new ideas to transform and empower technology.” They invite girls to think of what more ‘femgineers’ could do. Watch the documentary trailer; Jocelyn Goldfein, Director of Engineering, Facebook, cites the numbers that reflect a dire need for more computer scientists and an invitation to grab the opportunity for a “Rosie the Riveter” moment.
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

The code.org video has started a lot of conversations, but it takes you to bring that conversation home to your school district. Here is a 5-minute advocacy idea.
Write an email to the superintendent of your school district. Start with the link to the full 9 minute version of the code.org video. If your district is the one in ten currently offering a computer science class, make sure the superintendent knows that the community would like to hear that from them. If not, ask about plans to include computer science classes.
This may be an opportunity to start a conversation with the person at your district who controls what courses are offered. If your district has only the AP Computer Science A course, or equivalent, without any preliminary courses, this video could help you start a conversation about why it is important to offer entry-level courses in this discipline. Share the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards with them and the cross-walk to the common core standards. Alternatively, if your school does not have any rigorous computer science courses, this may help you get them on the roster for an upcoming school year.
Real change takes time, but all change has to start somewhere. Start a conversation, start real change.
Tammy Pirmann
CSTA School District Representative
Hyperlinks:

I just got back from a week’s vacation to what is supposed to be the happiest place on earth – Disneyworld. I come from a family that is not very technical or even technology oriented. Oh, they like to use it, but they have no concept of how any of it works. So these are the people I was vacationing with- and knew it would be a challenge but wanted to see what they would do when surrounded by technology.
I decided that I would do a case study while there, and collect anecdotal evidence of when technology was presented and how my family reacted without my jumping to help or explain how it was used. Okay, perhaps it was for selfish entertainment reasons. But still, it is nice to renew that childlike faith in technology and see it from another’s eyes.
Our first encounter with technology was getting into our room. We had our magic key card but did not know how to use it. There was no place to put a key or card in. But there was this odd gray box on the door. After my sister pulled the cover of the gray box off, and realized it was some sort of computer, she quickly put the cover back on and realized that maybe we just had to swipe our card in front of the box and see what happens. Sure enough, the key lock is an RFID reader and just like that we were in the room.
Another encounter we had with technology was at a show called Turtle Talk with Crush. Basically, you have an animated turtle on a screen, which interacts with the audience in real-time and can even call out things about people in the audience. My sister still cannot figure out how this works. “But he’s animated and knows stuff about the people in there and talks about it on the screen. How?” I just could not bring myself to tell her there were still humans involved in the whole process. And that a computer can do that kind of stuff really quickly these days.
A final story Ill share about our trip involved the dread of amusement parks waiting in line. My sister had not one, but two apps on her phone that tell you how long the wait is for certain attractions. Sure, you have the fast pass option. But you have to find things to do while waiting for your fast pass time for other rides. So out comes the app. It was funny to see how much confidence my sister had in the data on those apps being correct. Even though, each time we would look up a ride, it would give us an expected wait time and upon arrival to the attraction, inevitably the wait would be 2-3 times as long as posted on the app. What was even more perplexing is her amazement that the app could be wrong. “But the app said it was only 20 minutes. I don’t know why it is so long now.”
Okay, so why am I sharing all of this? It is not to make me look like a technological genius and my family to look technologically incompetent. It reminded me of Douglas Rushkoff’s book Program or Be Programmed. Are we allowing ourselves to be controlled by technology, or are we willing to master the technology and become the creators of it? I have worked with many schools and many different classrooms throughout my professional development experiences. And I often see teachers trying to use technology for the wrong reasons. Just because it is there and someone says they should. I kind of felt that way on this family vacation. Were we relying on the technology just because we could or someone said we should?
I think one of the biggest disservices we do to our students is to just let them use technology and NOT explain to them how it works. Sure, maybe that takes some of the magic out of it, and had I dispelled some of these things to my family, it might have taken the magic out of the Magic Kingdom. But to me the magic is not in the end product, it is in the understanding of how it works and dreaming of taking it one step further.
So you be the judge. Technology: A blessing or a curse? Or just a fun experiment on a family vacation?
Mindy Hart
At-Large Representative