Five Things YOU Can Do To Help Computer Science Education

This week Time magazine ran an article: Can We Fix Computer Science Education in America? You should go read it. No problem, Ill wait.

The tech industry is one of the few bright spots in a dim economy. So why arent we teaching kids the skills they need to participate in it?

Indeed.

The good news is there are a lot of folks out there working on this.

 

  There are of course there are programs like Exploring Computer Science and the new CS Principles pilot that offer curriculum and training for teachers trying to build computer science in our schools.

But the real question is what are YOU doing? This issue impacts all of us. It is not OK to just sit there hoping someone else is plugging away at this. Seriously, Cameron Wilsons great, but hes pretty busy already.Five things you should do NOW to help computer science education:

1. Get every kid you know under the age of 10 hooked on Scratch or Alice or even QBasic. Let them play, and ask questions, and show off what they make.

1. Ask if computer science is in your local schools - then ask why not. Oh, and dont just ask about your school...ask about that other one, down the block. The urban/rural/under-served school. Those kids need this too.

1. Stop blaming guidance counselors and administrators and every other bogey man out there. No one likes whiners, and those folks are busy worrying about dropout rates and intruder drills and grumpy parents. Give them something to value in computer science. Positive energy breeds long term success. Make the Computer Science program something they can brag about.

1. Go to a CSTA meeting. No local chapter? Start one - its super easy. 

1. Select one:

• If you are in Virginia - comment on the new technology SOLs. Not sure what to say? Hows this: Computer Science is the discipline underlying all innovation, especially in the STEM fields. Our students need to move beyond just working on learning computer applications to learning the computer science topics that will build their success in school and future careers. Computer Science should be included in the Computer Technology SOLs.

• Dont live in Virginia? First, yes our standardized tests are called SOLs. No, that is not a joke. Second - find your state standards. Is computer science in there? Just figuring out where you state stands is a great first step.

So my question for you - what are YOU doing?

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Top Five Industries go Mobile

This is from Mashables Business Section. It lists the top five businesses that have embraced mobile technologies.

For high school students it raises some interesting questions about where they might be working in the future. Many of the kids I teach do not end up working in fields strictly defined as computer science, yet no matter where they go they will be using computing devices.
So what does that mean for our students? To be part of the group of people that have influence...the deciders if you will, means you need to have a specific set of skills. Last century it was literacy. To have a chance at being a person of influence meant you had to read and communicate well.

Clearly those skills are still crucial, but in the past few decades a parallel set of skill has emerged. Computing.

I dont mean typing and application literacy. Beyond that students need to understand computing at a deeper level to be able to decide what problems computers can, and cannot, be used to solve.

That is why this graphic is so interesting to me. Think about your student planning on going into the restaurant/food industry. While mastery of a particular programming language may not be something they need I would argue that the underlying ideas and concepts of computer science will serve them well. That skill sets them apart in an industry that is becoming more and more reliant on computing devices.

Its an advantage more of our students should be getting.

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Data Unit Day Five

(This is a day by day of the Data: Lets do the Numbers Unit in CS Principles. The overview is here.)

Today is the end of the marking period, so we only had class for 45 minutes.

We started by posting some of the questions they developed last class about the crime data set we have been looking at. I use the LinoIt website a lot for these kinds of activities. It lets them post sticky notes on a website. Some of these questions are shown above. The advantage is you can sort the sticky notes into piles.

Next I had them read through the questions and see if they could come up with two broad categories for the questions. We had to talk it through a bit, but they decided some of the questions could be answered with the data they were given, and some needed more information.

In general this is the difference between being the original researcher and being the end user of data. For the portfolio we are the end user.

For that last part of class we watched Rick Smolans talk at the Ted Youth conference earlier this year. Skip ahead to minute 11.

When we come back from break they will be starting with their partner on the data portfolio.

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