Technotrash and the Future

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Dave Reed

Part of our job as teachers is to excite our students about computing and to show them how computers affect their lives, both now and in the future. These days, many of our students are (rightly) concerned about the environment and are aware of stories in the news about the growing problem of technotrash. As the latest technological gadgets are released, the obsolete technology is discarded and finds its way to landfills, where toxic and non-biodegradable components raise environmental issues. I ran across this interesting article the other day on Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150526123835.htm. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have developed a technique for building the substrate layer of computer chips from wood (technically, from a biodegradable cellulose nanofibril). Greener computers may be on the horizon.

Dave Reed
Chair-Elect, CSTA Board of Directors

The Computer Scientist who Challenged the Nash Equilibrium

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Mina Theofilatou

In November 2014, I was privileged to meet Constantinos Daskalakis, a Greek Computer Scientist and Associate Professor at MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department. Daskalakis is best known for his work in the field of Game Theory, and his research on the Nash Equilibrium has earned him prestigious awards and an international reputation.

Constantinos Daskalakis and Mina Theofilatou, November 2014

I had contacted Constantinos by e-mail earlier in 2014 regarding the awareness campaign Greek CS Teachers were running against the insane decision of the former Education Ministry’s administration to eliminate Computer Science from the National University Entry curriculum (read more about the problem here and about how it was resolved here) and, as one would expect, he was very supportive of our cause. When I wrote to him after booking my air travel for the CSTA November Board meeting – I had a 12-hour layover in Boston on the return leg, perfect for a visit to MIT! – he was willing to make some time in his hectic schedule to meet with me.

The meeting took place in his office at CSAIL in the Ray and Maria Stata Center; I had never been to Boston or MIT before so I followed the instructions he gave me (“it’s a crazy Frank Gehry building, you can’t miss it!,” he wrote). Our conversation naturally started with the situation in Greece, and inevitably ended with a discussion on the future for young computer scientists. I asked what he would advise exceptional students wishing to further their education at establishments such as MIT. He mentioned that what he is mostly looking for in Ph.D. applications is evidence of potential for ground-breaking research; that the clearest form of such evidence is prior research engagement; and that recommendation letters are crucial in assessing the student’s research potential.

That’s sound advice for those pursuing post-graduate studies, perhaps even an academic career. But what about Computer Science in Primary and Secondary Education? I asked Constantinos if he could write a few words about the importance of students having early exposure to computational thinking and computer science principles. Here is what he had to say:

“‘Information’ and ‘computation’ are just such fundamental concepts that there is no doubt they should be an integral part of primary and secondary education. All that takes place around us (or inside us) can be viewed as computing on information. Sometimes we want to process information efficiently—think Google trying to rank webpages. Other times we want to mine interesting information from vast amounts of raw information—think trying to identify chunks of the genome implicated in some disease. Sometimes we want to hide information—think cryptography. Other times we may want to release information while respecting privacy of individuals—think releasing medical data. Some other times, we want to incentivize individuals who have information to reveal that information to us…. And it is not just us trying to gain or operate on information. Biological, physical, and social processes are fundamentally computational, operating on information in some application-specific medium. Computer science principles can change one’s perspective on life, science, and society. Our educational system should teach that way of thinking early on.”

And a summary of how his work has impacted international knowledge in computer science?

“My research studies the foundations of Economics from a computational standpoint. The starting point is that, besides sometimes being irrational, humans are definitely computationally bounded – in some sense, irrationality is a form of computational boundedness. So, studying economic behavior needs to incorporate computational thinking into economic thought. My research focuses at this interaction between Economics and Computation. One of my most celebrated results was showing that the Nash equilibrium – the crown jewel of prediction tools in Game Theory, defined by John Nash, the mathematician portrayed in “Beautiful Mind” – is computationally intractable. This means that, in complex interactions, it may take centuries of time before humans (even if they have access to super-computers to help them with their computation) behave as Nash equilibrium predicts. This casts doubt on how accurate the prediction ability of Nash equilibrium is, calling for better, computationally aware tools for predicting behavior. Research at the interface of Computation and Economics hopes to shed light on such issues of fundamental importance for understanding human behavior.”

A big thank you to Constantinos for providing valuable insight into the importance of Computer Science at all levels of education.

Mina Theofilatou, CSTA International Representative, Kefalonia, Greece

AccessCS10K: helping make high school computing courses more accessible and welcoming to students with disabilities

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Tiffany Nash

By: Richard E. Ladner
University of Washington

In 2010-2011, approximately 13 percent of K-12 students have a recognized disability according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This represents about 6.5 million students with disabilities in the K-12 education system. This only counts those students covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990. There are many more who have 504 plans (under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973). Students with 504 plans need some accommodation to attend school, but not an entire Individualized Education Plan (IEP) like those under IDEA. In any case, teachers of high school computing courses are likely to have students with disabilities in their classes.

One group of students, namely blind students, are already severely disadvantaged in high school computing classes that use programming tools such Scratch, Snap, Alice, Processing, Greenfoot, and other highly visual user interfaces that are generally inaccessible to blind users. Will teachers in these classes say, “Sorry you cannot take my computing course because you cannot use the tools we are using to teach programming?” Will a special education teacher or guidance counselor recommend to the student that she consider another career choice than the one the student wants to pursue? This should not happen. Computer science is a great profession for blind people and they should not be discouraged from pursuing it at an early age. (For profiles of blind individuals – and other individuals with disabilities – who have pursued computing visit the Choose Computing website.)

The goal of AccessCS10K is to help make it possible for all students with disabilities who are intellectually capable of learning computer science to have the opportunity to do so. The project is specifically focusing on the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) course and the Computer Science Principles (CSP) course, both of which are being supported by the National Science Foundation’s CS 10K initiative.

AccessCS10K has two objectives to reach its goal:

Build the capacity of ECS and CSP teachers to serve students with disabilities through professional development training and individualized real-time support.
Create accessible materials that ECS and CSP teachers can use in their classrooms, both tools and curricular units.

To build the capacity of teachers, AccessCS10K is partnering with as many of the CS 10K projects as possible to help them include information in their professional development about inclusive teaching strategies and accessible tools and curricula that can be used in the classroom. AccessCS10K holds capacity building institutes for the leaders of these projects as one way to help them integrate this information in their professional development. It maintains a community of practice whereby teachers can share resources among each other. It maintains a searchable knowledgebase of articles that can help teachers find information they need to solve problems. Finally, it provides real-time support for teachers who have specific questions about how to integrate a student with a disability in their computing class. To get support call 509-328-9331 or e-mail [email protected].

AccessCS10K is building accessible tools and curricula that can be used in ECS and CSP courses. One major tool is the Quorum language which is an easy to learn text-based programming language that can be used for both visual and non-visual projects. AccessCS10K’s development partners are working to make other accessible tools and curricula, not only for the programming components of these courses but for the other components as well.

In an upcoming blog post we will present an introduction to Quorum. If you are curious about Quorum we encourage you to visit the Quorum web site http://quorumlanguage.com/ or to try the Quorum Hour of Code http://quorumlanguage.com/documents/hourofcode/part1.php.

AccessCS10K is funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the Computing Education for the 21st Century program of the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (Grant #CNS1440843). AccessCS10k is a collaborative project between the University of Washington and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

CSTA Certification Committee

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Tammy Pirmann

Have you taken at any time a computer science teaching methods course?
If so, at what university or college?

I hope you answered these questions on the recent survey from CSTA. The answers to these two questions will help the Certification Committee determine which Colleges and Universities are offering a Computer Science Teaching Methods course. Most certification paths include a methods course in the discipline.

Some information is very difficult to pin down and teacher certification for computer science is one them! When we asked you how computer science teachers are certified in your state, we often received multiple and contradictory reports. After all of the research and verification was done, we published the “Bugs in the System: Computer Science Teacher Certification in the U.S.” white paper and its corresponding interactive site.

Look for an update to the interactive map of the US based on the information you provided in the most recent survey.

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

Welcome to our treehouse

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Fred Martin

This is a guest blog post by Kim Douglas, a student at UMass Lowell. Kim has a BA degree from Emerson College in Animation & Motion Media.

When people ask me what I’m studying, and I tell them that I’m pursuing a degree in computer science, they usually say one of two things.

“Oh, I totally should’ve done that. Tons of great-paying jobs in that field!”
or,
“Oh, I totally should’ve done that. But I’m not smart enough.”

I usually just smile politely and deflect, because these conversations tend to happen with adults who are well on their way, doing whatever they’re doing with their lives. But the truth is, responses like this frustrate me.

I wonder if the people with this first response are being earnest; whether their interest is for the right reasons. After all, everybody hates it when their favorite song becomes popular—especially if that song came from a collection of painstakingly curated mixtapes. I’ve only been programming for a few years, and still I feel this way.

Here I am, just halfway up the ladder to the neighborhood treehouse, and I already want to put up a “KEEP OUT!” sign for the kid behind me!

Then I think about how computer science makes me happy, and how it makes other people happy. Now, the second response—“Oh, I totally would’ve done that, but I’m not smart enough”—is even more frustrating. Because chances are, it’s just not true!

These people probably are smart enough, but got intimidated by the steep learning curve nonetheless. Yes, we should blame the media for that, but we should also blame ourselves. People start to see the KEEP OUT signs at a pretty young age.

Wait, come back! We need your hammer to fix our treehouse!

I am a researcher in the Middle School Pathways in Computer Science project, which is designed to make it so that Johnny who lives next door (and, in particular, Sally, Jane, DeShawn, Rudjit, Liliana, Esteban, and Amira) never see the KEEP OUT sign in the first place.

In my first week in project classrooms, an eighth grader—let’s call him Jake—asked me if I went to MIT. Understandable, since App Inventor has MIT literally written all over it.

“No, I go to UMass Lowell.”

“Can you make apps?”

“We make all kinds of cool stuff! So can you.”

“Nah. I’m not smart.”

Inside, I hang my head. I show him a demo app I had made in the fall, as part of the teachers’ professional development. It has pictures of some planets whose buttons play audio files and change colors when you press them. It’s no Candy Crush, but Jake is visibly more interested in it than the text-to-speech button he’d just made.

“Of course you’re smart. You can totally make something like this.”

“I can’t. I told you—I’m not smart, I’m an athlete.”

“Athletes can’t be smart too?”

“Well, they don’t have to. I’m gonna play basketball in college, and all you really need to get in on an athletic scholarship is a C.”

Then I show him an app that another teacher had made—this one is similar in its functionality, but has pictures, text, and audio clips of different people talking about the Ferguson protests. His eyes widen. He takes the tablet from me and starts playing with the buttons.

“I know about this!”

I think at this point in his life, Jake is more excited about making a basketball game app designed to rack up mad points than a Ferguson app designed to provide social commentary. He’s thirteen, after all.

But that’s okay. When he played with the app, he saw people that looked like him. He didn’t see a KEEP OUT sign.

The next week, Jake was a little more engaged in the lesson. He got further than some other kids on that day’s tutorial, and even gave them pointers on fitting the blocks together. They went back and forth between their workstations, laughing at the sounds they could make the tablets produce, playfully chiding each other’s screwups, and peering at how the next kid fit her blocks together.

I think, overall, it’s going pretty well.

For more, see Kim’s blog at http://kmbrlynn.github.io/weblog.

End of year thoughts

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Stephanie Hoeppner

Its that time of year for end-of-year projects, crazy state testing schedules (in Ohio at least) and other random activities. As an end-of-year project, many of us assign open ended projects so our students can demonstrate their knowledge, do something that interests them, and to stretch their minds. This year I have a very eclectic group of programming students and have been surprised many times by their interests and abilities. This end-of- year project is no exception.

What I have learned is that they are stretching my brain in the process of stretching theirs. I have spent more time sitting next to students analyzing a problem, discussing possible solutions, teaching them a particular construct that they need that maybe we haven’t covered, and loving every minute of it. I have been busier than normal with questions and they are not slowing down.

This project had a component in it that previously failed with another class. However, I think it is what has pushed this group to envision possibilities. In the students project plan I had them give me four different variations of the program they could do – “something that works”, “average program”, “extras included”, and “the sky is the limit program”. This group really thought about what they would do to have something working and then many different possibilities of the other versions. Most of the students are shooting for the sky and I am thrilled to watch them. Unfortunately, with time constraints, many will end up in the “extra” version of their program but even that will far exceed my expectations.

This class of students has reminded me of the old saying about if you have high expectations the students will rise to the occasion; however, in this case the students have the high expectations and are working hard to not let themselves down. These past couple of weeks have reminded me of why I am a computer science teacher and just how exciting CS can be when “the sky is the limit”.

Public-Private Partnerships in Computer Science Education

Posted on May 5, 2015 by admin

By: Lorilyn Owens, Director, Oracle Academy North America

Industry partners are content providers, augmenting and enhancing curriculum resources. Industry partners are funding sources, helping support classroom resources, professional development, and extracurricular clubs and activities. Industry partners provide volunteers to support classroom teaching, lending expertise and credibility to real-world ideas. All of these ideas were expressed by experienced educators at the 2014 CSTA conference during the Oracle Academy panel discussion focused on how to maximize public-private partnerships to better support computer science (CS) education. When it comes to CS education, which approach is right? Or are they all right? The lively discussion only began to scratch the surface. We did learn, however, there is no one right answer.

For more than 20 years Oracle, through its flagship philanthropic Oracle Academy program, has worked to advance computer science education and make it more accessible and engaging to students everywhere. Oracle Academy supports continuous computer science learning at all levels, and makes available a variety of resources including technology, curriculum and courseware, student and educator training, and certification and exam preparation materials.

Over the years, we have seen tremendous progress with public-private partnerships. Recently there has been an influx of both industry and nonprofit organizations that provide support for computer science education. While some of the resources come with a hefty price tag, many of them are free or low cost. The resources often differ in scope and objective. Some resources are vendor specific and some are vendor neutral and focus on core concepts and foundational knowledge. Some resources are event driven and others are curriculum based. Some resources focus on students and others focus on educators. There are e-books, videos, software, games, and countless websites with downloadable resources. With so much available, how do you choose what is right for you and your students? Rather than solely considering the available resources, perhaps you should also look at the resource provider and seek an opportunity for a public-private partnership.

Although we cannot provide specific guidance, in our experience, effective public-private partnerships in support of CS education do three things:

They provide an opportunity for true engagement. If an industry partner is seen only as a project funder with little direct engagement with students or teachers, it is a missed opportunity for all involved. Seek a partnership that helps foster a strong and supportive community of practice, and provides support for educators at all levels.
They are mutually beneficial. The arrangement should clearly articulate what the industry partner can offer the educational institution and what the educational institution can offer the industry partner. All involved need to be sure they deliver on commitments.
They help address the need. Don’t lose sight of the problem you are trying to solve. Have a good understanding of what you are trying to accomplish and what is needed to achieve that goal. Then, seek a partnership that truly helps to deliver what is needed. Finally, consider including success metrics as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of the public-private partnership in addressing your needs.

Access to computer science education, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, is a defining 21^st century social issue. Technology permeates our lives and drives the global economy. Future growth requires people with strong computer science skills. As we work collectively to prepare the technology innovators of the future, consider engaging in public-private partnerships to support your efforts. They can be effective avenues to increase access and opportunity in CS education.

Extending a conference invitation to your administrator

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Pat Phillips

By: Pat Phillips

As you are well aware, the Annual CSTA Conference is only a couple months away. Registration and housing are open, the agenda nearly set, and anticipation is soaring for another extraordinary program of workshops, sessions, and events. This is a wonderful event for CS and IT educators to learn about new tools, teaching resources, pedagogy, and all things CS education professional development.

But what about your administrators? Is your district rich in CS education or just at the beginning stages of building a strong program? Are there administrators, principals, curriculum directors, or IT professionals that you just wish could know what you’ve learned about why CS education is vital to a 21^st Century K—12 program and a vibrant community? Why not invite them??

There are dozens of reasons for them to attend! You know how contagious the excitement about CS gets at the conference…what better way than to share that excitement with the people who can make a difference in your program.

Go ahead. Send this link to all of your administrators with a note about how excited you are about attending, why it’s the best CS education conference, and why you hope they might come along. cstaconference.org.

Did you hear?

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Tammy Pirmann

Photo courtesy of Ben-Avraham

At this time of year, you may be hearing this phrase just before some news about a colleague retiring, taking a new position, or deciding to stay home with the children. Spring is the season of applications and resumes for educators all around the country.

If you haven’t checked out the CSTA Job Board yet, now is the time! So often we are the only Computer Science teacher in a school and having to find a new position can seem daunting. As a job seeker, the Job Board allows you to upload your resume and even set up search alerts to let you know when a position is posted that meets your criteria!

What if you are in the envious situation of having done such an excellent job of recruiting that your school needs to hire another Computer Science teacher? Tell your Human Resources department about the CSTA Job Board. Your school wants to have a highly qualified applicant pool for such an important position. They can get that from the CSTA Job Board, where they can look at many resumes and post a detailed job description.

CSTA Career and Job Center

Tammy Pirmann
District Representative, CSTA Board of Directors