fitness computer programs
Computer Science Teachers Association
- Online Professional Development Opportunities
As much as we would all like to get away and go to as many conferences as we can during the year, often we are restricted to one conference or workshop based on what is close, or what we can afford. This is one of the reasons I love web 2.0. Right now the How To Organize Your Teaching Conference is going on at http://k12onlineconference.org.
Want something new to use in your class? Thinking about encouraging students to blog about their solutions or code? Or want to just see what new ideas exist? Head on over to the site and take a look at the schedule. All of the presentations can be viewed at any time, so you don't need to schedule yourself out of class.
There is a first-timers area (see links in the near-upper right hand side of screen) which brings you to the wiki that explains the conference and how to navigate the sessions, as well as links to previous year's conferences. There is also a link to the wiki as well in that area so you can read and take part in the conversations that we all know are some of the most important parts of attending any conference. There are also a series of live events, named Fireside Chats and When Night Falls.
While none of the content is specifically computer science generated (there are no java workshops). There are some great workshops that can be applied in any discipline, including ours. I encourage you to go and take a look, view at least one session, participate in one discussion and perhaps pick up one new idea for your classroom.
Leigh Ann Sudol
- The Most Important Book You Will Read This Year
You might remember Jane Margolis' and Allan Fisher's book from a few years ago called "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing". That book was a germinal work about computer science education and it fundamentally changed how many of us look at issues of gender and computing.
Well, Jane has done it again, and if you can find time to read nothing else this year, read "Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing".
This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the critical intersections of education, race, and computing. It is shocking and sad and uplifting and it is essential reading for educators, administrators, parents, community leaders, policy makers, and anyone who cares about the future.Margolis and her team show that when it comes to education and computing, the emperor has no clothes. Schools may be filled with shiny new machines but this is no guarantee that students are learning the high level critical thinking skills they require. The writers also lay bare a pervasive and systemic racism that virtually guarantees that even the best and brightest minority students receive nothing more than rudimentary point and click computing education, severely diminishing their abilities to succeed at the post secondary level and to thrive in the increasingly technological world in which we live.
Set all of this in a bureaucratic quagmire where actually educating the students (rather than just managing them) is a near impossibility and one begins to feel as though this is a hopeless situation. But this is where "Stuck in the Shallow End" actually triumphs. In the midst of grim reality it offers hope (grounded in solid research), showing how researchers, teachers, and administrators can work together to acknowledge and overcome the ingrained inequalities that keep so many of our students from achieving their full potential.
And it should also be mentioned that this is not just a thoughtful book, it is also extremely well-written and accessible, even to the most dedicated non-techie.
If you are an educator, if you care about educating all students, if you care about understanding what is going on and doing what is right, get this book. I know your time is precious, but it will be worth every minute you spend reading it. I promise.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director - Computer Science Without Programming?
There have been some interesting discussions in the blogosphere recently about whether computer science could (or should) be taught in K-12 without programming.
At the elementary and middle school levels, the CS Unplugged curriculum is one way to engage students in real computer science without even needing computers. And when we do use programming tools at this level, they tend to be exploratory -- a developmentally appropriate way to learn.
In the high schools though, I think we have it completely backwards. Too often, we teach programming without computer science. Courses such as "Introduction to Java" and "C++ Programming" abound. Even the remaining AP course is focused almost solely on programming. Although we're now becoming "enlightened" and are moving towards programming environments such as Scratch, Greenfoot, and Alice, we still gear our courses around the tool rather than the computer science. We're just replacing "Programming with C" courses with "Programming with Alice" courses.
There's somewhat of an analogy in the mathematics curriculum these days. I recently tutored a student who wanted to review for the SAT math exam. As we were going over sample problems, we'd talk about approaches to solving the problem. Much too often, when I'd suggest the traditional mathematical solution (for example, using the quadratic formula or factoring a quadratic polynomial to find its zeros), she would tell me that she didn't know how to use those methods. Instead, she'd graph the function on her calculator and use the built-in solver to get the answer. Moreover, she could get the answer in about one-third the time it took me to solve the problem by hand.
I hate this. Not because I dislike the tool, but because she (and too many students) use the tool to solve the problem without having any real understanding of the underlying math concepts. Take away the calculator and her SAT score would have dropped several hundred points.
While some would say my quarrel with the AP and SAT exams is an issue with standardized tests, not with mathematics or computer science education, I would argue that problems go well beyond those multiple choice exams -- that the fault lies in our curricula and our approaches to education. Perhaps I'm too much of an idealist, but shouldn't our students' education be at a higher level? Whether it's math or computer science, shouldn't we first be teaching our students the conceptual framework and then (and only then) teaching them what buttons to push?
Robb Cutler
CSTA Past President - The Psychology of Learning: How to Organize Your Teaching
CSTA is a professional organization and so we wear many hats for our membership. Here in our blog we give you updates about the state of the organization, its outreach, and the resources that we put together for you. In addition we like to believe that we also help you become better teachers. I have blogged before about the Doing What Works website maintained by the US Department of Education. They recently added a new resources called How To Organize Your Teaching which I believe can be useful to teachers both new and old.
As a new teacher, feeling a little overwhelmed at times I would imagine, this resource can help you find research based practices for meaningful instruction. Presenting the information to students in such a way that it makes use of their prior knowledge, creating advanced organizers, and many other strategies that can help you with both the day to day planning of your lessons, and also the long term unit planning in your courses. This is especially helpful for computer science teachers as we are often the only teacher in our area within our school and therefore have to do this type of long term planning on our own quite often.
As an experienced teacher I never underestimate the value of looking either at something new or reminding myself of something I learned in a methods class a long time ago. Sometimes with more experience I am better able to understand and integrate a teaching method that seemed abstract or useless for my subject when I first saw it as a novice. I also find that there is ever more research on learning and memory that becomes useful to me in my instructional strategies.
What essential teaching strategy can you experienced teachers share with our membership? If you are a new teacher, what would you like help with? Post a comment here!
Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Volunteer - CSTA Now HAS RSS
CSTA has just added an RSS feed for its news updates on the homepage. If you already have an RSS reader either installed in your browser or through a service like Google reader, just use the orange icon to have your reader include our news!
If you don't have an RSS reader set up, you should consider it! It is a great way to have updates from your favorite web sites sent to you like email. Rather than having to navigate the web, you can simply choose to have yo