Future of Computing Education, Part 3 - The American Perspective May 4, 2007
Posted by Mark Tennant in : Computing, Subject Support, future of computing , trackback
First real talk of the day came from Chris Stephenson. She is one of the executive directors of the Computing Science Teachers Association in the USA, and was invited to give the US perspective on things.
She first of all spoke about the CSTA being an international organisation, who’s core objective is to provide support, guidance and training for increasingly isolated Computer Science teachers. CSTA is an international organisation which is now driving much of the progress in the US.
She explained there is much confusion amongst non-specialists as to what Computer Science is, i.e. is is Software/programming, ICT, Info Systems, Skills-based, Mathematics, and so on? This is one of the areas the CSTA set out to tackle, as having others able to easily understand your importance and raison d’etre was key. She emphasised that the educational administrators at all levels must be educated and informed on the importance of Computing.
There is also a ‘shrinking pipeline’ in the US too, affecting HE centres (should that be centers?) Chris firmly blamed the ‘dot bomb’ – the collapse of so many early computing businesses – and the impression that IT jobs are being continually offshored.
Most concerning, the US curriculum is defined at school level, so the experience among students – and even staff – is hugely varied. She spoke of a number of findings that the CSTA has derived from research, namely,
- The national No Child Left Behind policy has proved disastrous for computing, with funding being taken away and redirected to high-achieving schools.
- There is no national, or even state-level computing curriculum.
- However, 72% of schools offered an intro to Computing, and at 31% of centres this was compulsory (though mainly in private funded schools)
- Being too ‘geeky’ and too male dominated were not seen as big issues.
- “21st Century skills” and learning how to teach them was severly limited by time in the US, as well as Canada and Israel.
- Rapid Change in technology was a major problem – “occasionally in Geography the African nations shuffle around and change names, but the plates are moving too slowly so we can keep up.” In computing, our plates keep turning somersaults, crashing to the floor, taking off, wobbling without any predictability.
CSTA curriculum solutions
- A model curriculum has been drawn up and used to shape what is being taught from school to school and state to state
- “New Educational Imperative – Improving Computer Science Education” report.
- “Java Engagement for teacher training” CPD prompted by the huge jump to OOP.
- “Teacher engagement in Computer Science” CPD program for introducing non-specialists into delivering a computing programme.
- National Bank of teaching materials
- Posters and Brochures highlighting importance and relevance of CS.
In summary,
- Systemic Change will require three things
o Long term engagement
o Support
o A vision
- The gaming curriculum will not solve the lack of women in the subject.
- We must define ourselves as a scientific discipline unique in our features and benefits.
Overall, a hugely interesting talk. Chris can be contacted on 1-541-687-1840 or email cstephenson@csta.acm.org
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