By Dan Lewis
Today’s college-bound students have grown up immersed in the technology of computing, and what interests them is no longer the same as what attracted previous generations to computing. For them, computers have become an appliance and the Web is their new communication medium. So why should we expect that learning how to put hello world on the screen would motivate students who are used to computer games and Web pages filled with images, animations and other forms of multimedia?
University computer curricula are changing in response, but most still fail to attract girls to the discipline. A recent WGBH/ACM report found that instead of being intrigued by how computers work, today’s students (especially the girls) are much more interested in “social interaction” and “making a difference in peoples’ lives”.

At a recent Preview Day, the Computer Engineering Department at Santa Clara University surveyed students who had been admitted for the fall of 2010 regarding their interests in computing. The results in Figure 1 highlight several key differences between the male and female students who attended the event. As anticipated, robotics, game design and computer hardware design were of greater interest to males, while females were more concerned with how computing can be used to benefit society. But what was not expected was how significant a factor gender is relative to interest in how the Web works and in the use of computers in graphic arts.

These differences are also reflected in our admission statistics. Last fall the department introduced a new degree program in Web Design and Engineering that combines the Web technologies of content creation and content delivery with Web-related courses from the fields of graphic arts, communication, sociology and applied ethics. As shown in Figure 2, this interdisciplinary approach has attracted a significantly greater percentage of women who (to our delight) also happen to have the highest SAT scores and high school grade point averages of all students who will join the department this coming fall.
Reference:
New Image for Computing, WGBH Educational Foundation and the Association for Computing Machinery, April 2009. See http://www.acm.org/membership/NIC.pdf.
Dan Lewis
Santa Clara University

By Joanna Goode
I recently had the opportunity to travel to South Africa to talk with teachers and computer science education faculty about the computing curriculum in South African and the United States. They are concerned with low numbers of high school students pursuing computer science, the lack of gender and racial diversity amongst computer science students, the lack of regular support for professional development, and the programming-centric nature of the national curriculum.
At a colloquium for IT teachers and national policymakers, a discussion arose about how to make computer science more relevant for 21st century students. Many of the teachers felt that a three-year sequence of programming languages did not tap into students’ interests, but the national policymakers argued that folks could adapt the standards in ways that made the curriculum more interesting and simultaneously maintain the required curricular standards.
It became clear that teachers needed more regular professional development and support to be able to engage in this innovative teaching, but apparently, the national curriculum designers and the national professional development designers work in different offices and do not collaborate. This was a frustrating realization for the teachers.
As we work on computer science policy at the local, state, and national level in the United States, it is more clear to me than ever that we must continue to couple curriculum reform and professional development opportunities to improve computer science education.
Joanna Goode
CSTA Equity Chair

Karen Lang
Plagiarism has turned out to be a major problem this year in my Computer Science class. I have had five separate situations where I caught students handing in copied code. I seem to be the only teacher in our building (there are only seven of us) that had any issues with plagiarism this year. I wondered, “Why me?” Is it that my course is so difficult that students must turn to copying? Is it that I read my students’ code so closely that I am able to catch these duplicates?
Carolyn Duffy Marsan, in her article in NetworkWorld contends that students in CS don’t necessarily plagiarize more. It is just that CS teachers are able to catch them due to access to automated tools. I didn’t use any software. I just used good old detective work. It wasn’t too tough to catch, frankly. One student’s use of odd variable names or a unique indentation of code, when replicated, jumped off the screen with a big red flag.
All copying occurred between students, not from online resources. I encourage collaboration between groups so students are allowed to ask other students for help. However, I draw the line with transferring of files. Students try to wiggle out of the infraction on that technicality, stating that they sat next to each other and programmed together, or one showed the other what he/she had done, while the other sat and typed.
I could use the approach that Georgia Tech uses, according to the article. They allow students to copy, in order to encourage collaboration, as long as the students can demonstrate their understanding of the code. Assessments count for more than homework assignments.
Plagiarism is a problem in this day and age of information at your fingertips. Technology makes it very easy to copy and call it your own. Students have such a cavalier attitude about copying and using music, video, and software without paying for it. Is that different than handing in an assignment for a grade, without working for it?
I experience disappointment and anger when plagiarism situations arise. And I am not naive enough to think that I found every copied piece of work this year. I look on the ones I do find as a teachable moment and see it as a good early warning to students before they get to college and beyond where it can have much large consequences.
Do you have plagiarism issues in your classroom?
How do you handle it? What do you do to prevent it?
Karen Lang
CSTA Board of Directors

By Duncan Buell
For me at least the academic year is about to end; my final exam is ten days away.
And then I have to gear up full time for a June gaming institute for students and faculty from the humanities. This has been a somewhat different experience for me, and it has led me to think about how broad the whole computing industry is. We tend to focus on the obvious deeply geeky aspects of computer science, perhaps because that’s what we know better and what we have seen. But the digital humanities is a growing, and in many ways a very different, side of the world. And the concept of gaming in the humanities is a different concept from first-person-shooter games or even the more naive pedagogical games.
Some of the gaming in the humanities involves using the digital world to learn more about who we are as human beings and about how to appreciate literature and the arts. The usual nature of a game is of something that is unguided, as is unguided learning in artificial intelligence. This is different from literature, that has been through an editing and a vetting process. When we read, we are following in a narrative a path that has been specified for us. Relatively few books (The French Lieutenant’s Woman is a rare counterexample) offer a choice of endings, although the world of visual and performance arts has provided more examples of works of art for which the “ending” is not automatically specified. Digital gaming, however, permits the “reader” or readers to find multiple, alternate, paths to the same learning process, and it could (perhaps?) be more absorbing to participate in the process of the story than simply to have at the end the book club questions that are supposed to help us understand what we have read.
This kind of “game” presents any number of problems for developing the computer game itself. The content of the story and its various paths must be programmed in and accounted for. The usual first-person-shooter game is episodic as a story. Each encounter leads to winning or losing, and losing usually means game over. If the goal is for the digital game to lead to an understanding of oneself or of a message conveyed through “literature,” then that context must be programmed in.
This may seem far afield from hacking code in Java or VB or C++. But if there is to be a game, someone will have to program it. There must be rules, choices, and paths. In the end, though, it’s another of the uses to which this “computer” device can be put, provided we have those with the talents and background to create the games.
Duncan Buell
CSTA Board of Directors

By Robb Cutler
Some books I’ve read recently have a lot of applicability to education in general and computer science education in specific. So I thought I’d share…
The Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart talks about how to fix the study of math that we’ve made so boring and uninteresting, it’s no wonder kids don’t like it. Read this and think about how we teach computer science.
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein. Sally Fincher talked about this book in her SIGCSE keynote this year, though I first learned of it about in the fall from my Human Factors professor. Even though it’s about building, the idea of abstracting salient design patterns is brilliant.
The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander. This is a beautifully-written book which I read before reading A Pattern Language (and which probably should be read before reading APL). While APL is the what and how, TWB is the why and provides the motivation for thinking about design in this manner.
Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists by Cliford Stein, Robert “Scot” Drysdale, and Kenneth Bogart. Although I’m not quite through it yet, I’m excited about finally finding a discrete math book that:
1) is written in clear and accessible yet precise language (that could be used in an upper-level high school course), and
2) provides application to computer science problems and algorithms.
Drysdale is the former Chair of the APCS Development Committee, and if you’ve read his posts on the APCS listserv, you’ll understand how clearly written this book is. (Disclaimer: Scot was my undergraduate advisor.)
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. You should read this book (and read it again if you haven’t read it in a while) if you ever write a computer program with a user interface, even though Norman never discusses computer interfaces. (If you’ve read it recently and want something more practical for interface design, Jennifer Tidwell’s Designing Interfaces: Patterns [there’s that word again] for Effective Interaction Design is quite good.)
The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library of Babel by William Goldbloom Bloch. If you haven’t read The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, you should (it’s a short story that’s freely available on the web). Bloch describes the mathematics behind the story in a very accessible and interesting way.
Feel free to add your favorite books (or even just what you’ve been reading recently) in the comments!
As John Steinbeck once said, “I guess there are never enough books.”
Robb Cutler
CSTA Board of Directors

By Fran Trees
As computer science educators, we think of ourselves as computer savvy. We are knowledgeable about social networks and online communities. I’ll wager that a good many of us have accounts on Facebook (even if we do not actively post what we do every waking moment of our existence).
I have a Facebook account. My activity is very limited. I confirm friends when I receive an email requesting me to do so and I have a clue who the person is! I login to my account occasionally to find that my friends are finding Ugly Ducklings on their farms, building horse stables, sharing flowers with me, and doing whatever is happening in Mafia Wars. In a way (a very small way), I’m jealous. How do these people find time to do these things?
I do find joy in keeping up-to-date with activities and events in the lives of my friends: pictures of new grandchildren, accomplishments of dogs in of agility competitions, pictures of vacationing children, new pets, experiences on cool dive sites, and great ski adventures.
I also question some of the information people post. I hesitate to tell the world where I am each day. I doubt that they would care. I don’t think I would tell the world where my children are, either. I know, when I post information to Facebook, it’s not really “to the world.” I do have a bit of control about just who my friends are and who sees what. So, maybe, I’m just a bit old-fashioned.
Lots of people post how they are feeling: it’s a bad day today; it was a great day at the mountain; it’s only Wednesday; I need sleep. I need chocolate.
Just what is appropriate? Is what’s appropriate for one person inappropriate for another?
I was floored when I read the following article about a professor being suspended for comments made on her Facebook page:
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100226/NEWS/2260344
There are many similar stories:
A student being suspended after threatening remarks on Facebook:
http://www.mndaily.com/2009/12/16/u-student-suspended-after-threatening-remarks-facebook
This makes for a great class discussion (or writing assignment).
What are your thoughts?
Do you have a Facebook account?
How active are you on Facebook?
I can’t wait to see how many friend requests I get as a result of this blog!
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison

By Karen Lang
I am just coming off the spring local programming contest circuit, as many of the nearby universities held their contest during their spring break. Unfortunately, that meant that two of these contests also fell during our spring break.
I put it out there to my students, asking if anyone was interested in spending a day or two of break at a programming contest? Surprisingly, I got two teams together and even had to turn down students. It’s usually not too hard to convince students to give up a day of classes to go to a contest, but to have students give up their vacation day(s) really impressed me.
I sometimes wonder about the benefits of these contests. Some would argue that the contests don’t reflect real-life situations. Out in the real world, programmers would not be sitting in a crowded computer lab, four to a single computer, racing to find a solution to ten random problems, meeting a three hour deadline. They would not be limited to hard-copy resources.
When I asked my students why they gave up their day off, they said simply, “because this is fun”. They enjoy the challenge of solving hard problems quickly under time pressure and in a team situation. They get an opportunity to visit a college where they see professors and college students enthused about computer science. They become part of a group of people enjoying their geekiness for a day. They meet other students who love programming as much as they do.
Do contests help to promote Computer Science as a discipline? It does get the attention of the other students, especially if the team does well. But, I often take my better students, the ones who will be able to do well in the contest. It is not really an opportunity for students curious about the subject to see what it is like. It is more of an opportunity for students who have an interest to get confirmation. Yes, CS is fun and there are plenty of others who feel the same.
What do you think? Are you pro/con for contests and why?
Karen Lang
CSTA Board Member

By Barb Ericson
On 2/18/2010 I went to a talk on getting students involved in classes even if there are 200 of them in the class. It was about active learning, and not surprisingly it used active learning during the talk. I really enjoyed the talk and learned some things from it.
* Students will listen best after the first 5 minutes of class and up to about 10-15 minutes tops. They are busy getting settled for the first 5 minutes do they don’t pay much attention then. After 10-15 minutes, you will lose most people’s attention during a lecture.
* You can re-engage the students by making them think at least every 15 minutes. You can do this is a variety of ways. One way is to ask the students what the next step is in what you are doing if you are demonstrating something. You can also give them a handout that has questions that they have to answer. You can ask one person to explain to the person next to them what you just said. You can ask the students to think about a problem and talk about it with the person next to them.
* You also need them to believe that they may be called on to report what they think. Don’t just ask for volunteers. Pick at least 3-4 students to report and then you can also take volunteers. Pick different students each time.
I have had to lecture to 300 students at a time and it is hard to keep them awake. Some of the things that I figured out on my own are:
* Don’t stay up on the stage (or front of the classroom). Wander around. People have to look at you when you get close to them.
* Don’t ask if there are any questions. There are, but nobody wants to admit that they have questions. If I can, I walk around the room when I have assigned a project and ask how things are going. Then I get lots of questions.
* Repeat things. When I show how to do something I undo it and show it again. This is especially important if I have people following along.
When I lecture, I try to keep the lecture part very short (10-15 minutes tops). Then I always have an assignment that incorporates what I just talked about.
I am currently helping in an AP CS A class and I do very few lectures. I give the power point slides that I normally use in a lecture to the students to read and then mostly assign active work in class. I am doing things this way in part because I can’t be at the class everyday (I help on Monday and Friday and usually also on Wednesday) so I can’t lecture as often I would. It is also partly because the projector doesn’t work very well and students wouldn’t be able to see what I am doing. I the ask the students to apply what they should have learned from the powerpoint slides (and book).
This approach seems to be working very well for the top and middle students in the class. But, we have a group of students who are way behind. Some of them are trying, but are just moving much more slowly than the rest of the class. Some students, however, simply don’t try and do very little of the work.
I once had to give a lecture that I prepared powerpoint slides for and the projector didn’t work. So, I consulted my slides, but mostly just talked and wrote on the board. Students afterward told me that it was a great lecture. So, I am trying to reduce the amount that I actually use powerpoint slides. You can just give out handouts with complex drawings on them or just use a few slides.
What have you learned from what you have tried in your classrooms?
Barb Ericson
Georgia Tech
The url for the class I am helping with is http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/1043

By Ron Martorelli
I recently read Ken Auletta’s book Googled, about the creation and rise of Google. I read it as both a techno-geek and as an educator. There were two particular things about Google that I contemplated as an educator.
Among the more interesting tidbits I learned about how Google works was how they encourage their engineers to spend twenty percent of their time exploring ideas they find interesting and ideas they are passionate about. Many of the more innovative Google ideas, products, and initiatives have sprung from this allocated “free” time, which is encouraged further in meetings set aside where these engineers can discuss their ideas openly to benefit from brainstorming session with other engineers, as well as programs that mentor and team up engineers for further their ideas.
Interestingly, Auletta gives credit to the founders of Google for borrowing this idea from Stanford University, which both Sergey Brin and Larry Page attended, and at which their initial ideas for Google were formed and tested.
Contrast this time to develop ideas and creativity to the typical day of a K-12 teacher. If you consider a typical day as a series of forty-minute sessions or periods, a K-12 teacher will probably have one “prep” period, one lunch period, and one supervision period. So, in a seven hour school day, this teacher would have zero time to explore new technologies, teaching ideas, develop creative lesson plans, etc., unless one counts day dreaming at lunch as creative time. Yes, there is time after school and at home, but when you factor in the time it takes to create and grade assessment material, this teacher still has very little time to explore anything new.
The second thing about Google is the open door policy of management, the idea of supporting and mentoring innovation, and the willingness to test these ideas and encourage the development of those that are successful and discarding without prejudice those ideas that fail.
In one week my email box is inundated with information and newsletters about technology and education. I have bookmarks on my browser for CSTA and a host of other blogs and information portals. I receive magazines or E-zines like Edutopia which are full of creative ideas for the classroom. Announcements for grants, scholarships, and contests arrive every month with opportunities to engage my students in interesting and innovative projects.
I wonder if we have fallen into a trap of demanding more technology-based innovation and creativity in the K-12 classroom without being willing to discuss the need to change the very structure of the education system. Should K-12 school years be extended or modified? I ask this as I have a week off for “winter break”. Why do our teachers or students need a week off, just a few weeks after an extended holiday break, and a few weeks before the spring break? Should K-12 school days be changed to block schedules or alternating school days so that both teachers and students can spend more in-depth time on subjects? Should teacher schedules be modified to enable them to spend more time exploring ideas and innovation, and with time to develop the ideas for classroom instruction? How many of our schools are set up to brainstorm ideas, or to mentor and team teachers to develop their passions? Instead, we often find administrative bureaucracies that discourage the very innovation they seek.
As we watch Google grow to dominate the Internet, media, and software worlds, many of their competitors have acknowledged that they must adjust their own methods of developing and delivering software and other technology to their customers. Perhaps it is time for the educational system to face similar realities and change our methods of development and delivery to our customers – our students.
Ron Martorelli
CSTA Board of Directors

By Michelle Hutton
Did you know that January is (US) National Clean Up Your Computer month? I didn’t manage to clean up my computer, but I did clean up my blog subscriptions, by deleting ones I don’t read very often. Here are the computer science and education blogs that made the cut:

• Wicked Teacher of the West, a middle school computer science teacher who reflects on her practice
• Computing Education by Mark Guzdial, professor at Georgia Tech who thinks about the world of computer science education
• Computer Science Teacher by Alfred Thompson, who many of you have met at conferences and the CS & IT Symposium (by the way, have you registered yet?)
• Knowing and Doing by Eugene Wallingford, professor at University of Northern Iowa
• In Need of a Base Case by Leigh Ann Sudol who used to be a high school CS teacher and CSTA board member and is now pursuing a PhD in CS Education at Carnegie Mellon University
• Dy/Dan by Dan Meyer, who is a very thoughtful high school math teacher and is also an intern at Google working on computational thinking and programming in math classes
• Ideas for Teaching Computer Technology to Kids is full of links to computer science resources

Three that don’t make the professional development grade but I think might be of interest anyway:

• Learning Curves is currently my favorite blog. Rudibecka Hirta is a delightfully snarky math instructor at an unnamed southern university or college. One of my dreams is that I get to meet her some day. This one doesn’t provide much professional development, but it is full of personality. Also, she takes computer science and stats classes and reflects on them.
• Indexed is Jessica Hagy reflecting on the world using graphs
• xkcd is popular among all the geeks I know

Do you have a blog? Or one you think I should add to my (pared down!!) blog reader? Post a response and let us know.
Michelle Hutton
CSTA President