Header

Computer Science: Filling the Education Pipeline Gap

December 12th, 2012 | Posted by Emily in Promote IT - (0 Comments)

We are almost half way through Computer Science Education Week 2012 (CSEdWeek) (December 9-15) and I have been taking stock of the things I have seen this week and over the past several months, the state of K12 computer science education is heading down a dangerous path.

Running On Empty: The Failure to Teach K–12 Computer Science in the Digital Age released by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) found that only one-third of states in the United States have rigorous computer science education standards for high school, and most treat computer science courses as an elective (often in vocational technology) and not part of a student’s core education. This not only fails to encourage students to seek out opportunities in this rapidly growing field, it actively discourages students from taking a computer science academic track, since it is not offered or does not satisfy a graduation requirement.

Even interested, high potential students are being kept out. I recently spoke with a young woman in Massachusetts, who when asked if she planned to take the Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) course, said “I’m hoping my teacher will let me sit alone in a classroom and work on it by myself,” and that it wasn’t offered at her school or through their virtual school exchange. Nationwide only 7% of high schools offer the APCS course. This is a wake up call. We are squandering a precious resource – our students.

CSEdWeek is a call to action to raise awareness about the importance of computer science education and its connection to careers in computing and many other fields. Getting involved is easy. The first step is to voice your support by taking the pledge. Next do something. It can be as simple as writing to your local superintendent to express your concern about the issue or as big as organizing a public event. Wondering where to start and how to plan it? CSEdWeek has a toolkit to help you organize an event that fits your needs.

We are seeing some pockets of hope in places like Massachusetts and Georgia, having just received a National Science Foundation grant to build on their successful work in drawing more women and under-represented minority students to study computer science, as well as Chicago and their project Taste of Computing which is working to improve and expand computer science education at the high school level throughout the Chicago Public Schools system.

These are all steps in the right direction, but there is still more to be done. To learn more about this issue and ways to support CSEdWeek, please visit www.csedweek.org.

CSEdWeek 2012 is led by the Chair Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives for the National Center for Women and Information Technology. CSEdWeek is an outreach activity of Computing in the Core (CinC), a non-partisan advocacy coalition that strives to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education.

 

, ,

CS4HS Workshop for CSTA members

September 26th, 2012 | Posted by Emily in Promote IT - (0 Comments)

We came across this great opportunity through our friends at CSTA!

Announcing a CS4HS Workshop, Oct 27-28 at Duke University, $250 Stipend 
Among the topics at the workshop:

Exploring Computer Science
Computer Science Principles
App Inventor
Scratch
Alice
Hands-on Activities

We invite all CSTA members to our CS4HS workshop on Saturday and Sunday, Oct 27 and 28, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Although we are giving preference to local teachers we anticipate being able to accommodate several others as well. A $250 stipend will be given to those completing the workshop. See the website for details. We’ve got several great speakers and sessions scheduled including the following:

Gail Chapman and Baker Franke for ECS: Exploring Computer Science
Brook Osborne and Owen Astrachan for Computer Science Principles
Ralph Morelli on App Inventor 
Michelle Chung and Ricarose Roque from MIT on Scratch

There will be both presentations and hands-on activities and ainner provided on Saturday evening. We can accommodate roughly 30 teachers.

For more information see the website or contact

R Brook Osborne
National Director of Outreach, Computer Science Dept. Duke University
Pilot and Outreach Coordinator, CS Principles

Office: 919.660.4009
Mobile: 513.374.3778
rbo@cs.duke.edu

, , , , ,

School’s out for summer!

May 30th, 2012 | Posted by Whitney Williams in Education | Promote IT - (0 Comments)

CampersIt’s hot and muggy, and the afternoon storms have started popping up. We know summer has arrived. Schools are starting to let out for summer vacation, and that means a lot of students are wondering what they’ll spend their summer doing. We’ve put together a quick list of computer and IT-related summer camps that we’ve heard about recently. Forgive us – this is not an exhaustive list by any means! If you know of more, please let us know!

Middle School Camps

High School Camps

, , , , ,

USC to offer Summer Institute in Computer Science

February 20th, 2012 | Posted by Whitney Williams in Education | IT-oLogy Defined | Promote IT - (0 Comments)

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina will offer in summer 2012 an institute in Computer Science for prospective teachers of AP* Computer Science A.

The plan is for the on-campus part of the institute to be held from 18 June through 22 June 2012. Some preparatory work will be required in the two weeks prior to the week on campus, and some work will be submitted in the week following the week on campus.

This course will qualify for USC graduate credit from the College of Education as EDSE 773 provided that the appropriate (and independent) process, including payment of the application fee, is done with the Graduate School of the University of South Carolina. Potential institute participants must apply on their own to the Graduate School, pay application fees, submit credentials, etc., in order to obtain the graduate credit for this course.

Funding from the state Department of Education will cover the USC tuition contract for EDSE 773 from the College of Education as well as the instructional materials for the course (the AP “bundle”). Participants will be expected to pay a $150 fee for this institute. Participants must pay for their own housing and meals during the week on campus, although we expect to be able to arrange for on-campus housing for out-of-town participants. These, together with the USC graduate application fee (if necessary, for those not already enrolled as USC graduate students), should be the only out-of-pocket expenses for participants.

The programming language used in AP CS is Java. The USC Department of Computer Science and Engineering uses Eclipse as the development environment, although it is possible that a different development environment will be chosen for this institute. Java is available as a free download by itself, or can be obtained bundled in with the free download of Eclipse . If a different development environment will be used, it will also be a free download.

Institute participants are expected to have some familiarity with computer programming; it is not possible to compress all the needed Java instruction and the pedagogical instruction into the short time allowed. The preliminary work will involve download and testing of simple Java programs, and participants will need to have access to computers prior to and after the week on campus at USC. Instruction at USC will take place in a computer lab, but the use of personal laptops is also possible. Some support in getting downloads installed will be available prior to the week on campus.

Further information can be obtained from contacting Duncan Buell, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, contact information found at Dr. Buell’s home page.

Those teachers who are not already USC graduate students should contact the USC College of Education and the USC Graduate School for information about applying for admission as a graduate student to USC; this status will be necessary to obtain credit for EDSE 773.

To register, please fill out RegistrationForm.

*College Board, AP, Advanced Placement Program, APVertical Teams, Pre-AP, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. Used with permission.

, , , ,