Socially Relevant Computing in Undergraduate Education

1. Socially Relevant Computing in Undergraduate Education Monisha PulimoodThe College of New Jersey Presented at PostgreSQL Conference, U.S., East 2010, March 27, 2010

2. Mission critical thinking respectful community changing needs of society service learning formal and informal interaction academic freedom engaging educational environment valued contributions intellectual inquiry creative expression ethical, leaders highly technological living-learning environment multicultural

3. Figure 1.  Computer science enrollments by gender. Curves indicate percentages of incoming college freshmen listing computer science as a probable major. Source: Gilbert, Juan E. “Making a case for BPC” Computer. IEEE, March 2006

4. Database Systems

5. Goals • Database Systems: database modeling; queries; normalization; transactions; concurrency control; fundamental design issues and trade-offs • Software Modeling and Analysis: requirements process; documentation. • Tools: DBMSs; development environments; versioning systems; presentation tools; project management tools. • Group Dynamics and Communication Skills: dealing with uncertainty or ambiguity; reading, understanding, and summarizing source code, documentation;

6. Collaboration • Journalism with Donna Shaw and Emille Lounsberry • Data collection and analysis • Investigative report • Excel • Database • Analysis

11. Outcomes • For students • Better understanding of real world needs • Engagement • Accomplishment • For collaborators • Piloting a new model for investigative journalism • Investigative series

18. Computational Thinkingvia Interactive Journalismin Middle School with Ursula Wolz, Kim Pearson, Meredith Stone, Mary Switzer http://www.tcnj.edu/~ijims Funded by NSF CNS 0739173

19. How K-8 “Sets Up” For HS Courses • Biology starts in preschool when the first butterfly emerges from a chrysalis – what’s the analogy for Computational Thinking • Curriculum is already too full – if you add CT, what do you take out? • Grade-level experience is too compartmentalized – how do we avoid becoming a “special” in a tightly scripted, sound bite day? • Teachers say their curriculum is too “chunked”, how do we avoid creating another chunk?

20. Big Themes • STORYTELLING!!!!! • Constructors not simply consumers of information • Language Arts curricula are the most “squishy” – this flexibility invites innovation • Journalism is the perfect place for civic engagement – the social context! • Language Arts least likely to be squeezed out

21. Computational Thinking and Journalism • The Process: (Inquiry, create, build, invent, polish, publish) • Iterate on: define problem, research it, draft solution, test (copy edit and fact check), rollout (publish) • Isomorphism between journalism and software design • Need for CT Skills in Language arts: • Information access, aggregation, synthesis • Concerns for reliability, privacy, accuracy • Algorithm design (including logical consistency) • Knowledge representation (granularity) • Abstraction from cases

22. The Summer Program at The College of New Jersey • Fisher Middle School • Technology conservative, diverse population, urban rim school • One week with just teachers • One week with teachers and students • Recruited kids who were not necessarily math/science ‘types’ • Immersion into the process of publishing an online journal – students and teachers assigned “beats” (e.g. politics, environment, sports, arts) • Minimize didactic instruction, emphasize collaboration

23. The After School Program at Fisher Middle School • Meets each week for an hour • Students propose and volunteer for beats. • Weekly tasks managed through “deliverables sheets” • Instruction completely informal • Put out two issues per year • http://highered.commandprompt.com/news

24. Technology • Word processing • Spreadsheets • Video recording and editing • Procedural Animation via Scratch • CAFÉ –Collaboration And Facilitation Environment

25. CAFE

26. Multimedia Reporting

27. Magazine Management

28. The Editorial Process

29. Their Work on The Web

30. The Kids Made it Their Own

31. Our Results • The kids and teachers “get” that CT, programming and computer science are accessible. THEY WANT MORE • They articulate that programming and journalism are alike. • They articulate that you don’t have to be a “math type” to program. • They are using CT skills in areas outside our project.

32. Summer Results Rapid change in attitude

33. After School Results Sustained Change in Attitude • Kids: • 2/3 keep coming despite technical setbacks and competition from sports, music, • On surveys they still respond interactive Journalism can be a lot of fun (4.41), working with computers means I can be creative (4.47) • Teachers: • Increased sessions from twice per month to weekly, took over the program in October 2009 • Lobbied for 7th as well as 8th graders for sustainability • Committed to running the program without us next year

34. Our Next Steps • Disseminate our approach – problem of scale up of an immersive approach. • Support for teachers to share experiences and materials • How can collaborating teachers support increased exposure to CT concepts, e.g. partnering Language Arts and Math • Address the question: but ARE they doing CT/programming/SE? • How sophisticated are their Scratch scripts? • How would more explicit instruction in Scratch/CT/CS techniques improve their animations. • Sustain the program at Fisher without research funding – teachers want more professional development

35. Lessons Learned, Best Practices • Language arts teachers with minimal exposure to computational thinking can see its synergy with language arts and run with it. • They can ignite enthusiasm and confidence in their students to become computational thinkers – and programmers • We need to adapt curriculum and pedagogy to the culture of the school - don’t try to impose our preconceptions • Partner with teachers, respect their skills, let them take ownership

36. http://www/tcnj.edu/~ijims

37. Questions

38. More Information • Contact me: • pulimood@tcnj.edu