Directions
I sometimes wonder if we are making our lives harder than it has to be.
As someone who is working towards the goal of having K12 students exposed to computer science as a part of their schooling, I have listened to and heard a variety of debates on how to go about this. One common presupposition in all the conversations is that computer science as a discipline should be taught in a computer science classroom and for the most part involve programming or programming-type skills.
Yet looking at the level 1 curriculum put forth by CSTA and the ACM (http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K-12ModelCurr2ndEd.pdf) many of the topics presented there will fit into other disciplines.
Even beyond that, why fight to add to the already full school day? Why not look at classes that already exist and are perhaps outdated and work with those disciplines to modify the curriculum to present computer science topics in a way accessible to all.
Computer Applications is a course that was orignially designed to give students experience with computers with sub topics of keyboarding skills, software applications and their use, and some hardware as well. Consider the New York State recommended Computer Applications Syllabus Ignoring the first paragraph about computer languages, and reading the stated goals of the course - much of it is what we are trying to accomplish in getting to K12 students. Perhaps the teachers do not have experience with computer science concepts and so they fall back on devoting most of the course to what they know and have experience with. Notice the last section even talks about robotics!
Should we include in our mission to not only strive for creating a CS requirement as a part of HS, or even to fill more seats in a programming elective - but also to help provide quality materials and support for those teachers teaching computer applications? Lets give them some lessons and units that they can work with. Lets find them and bring them together in professional development seminars that offer them curriculum that meets our goals and their needs.
What do you think?
Saturday, January 19th, 2008