In need of a Base Case
Comments about coding, research and life

So, those of you who have talked to me in the past year or two probably know my opinion about “computing for everyone”. I believe that we cannot push an additional course into the already packed HS student schedule, and should instead take advantage of the computer applications requirement that exists in most schools.

That means re-designing computer applications and providing quality professional development for MANY applications teachers that often have business backgrounds and not computer science ones. I think this is much more feasible than requiring a computer science course for every student in addition to the current requirements and trying to put a qualified computer science teacher in each of those classrooms.

In a resent browsing of academic standards in the 50 states for another research project (that you will hear more about later when it becomes public), I came across a newly minted course description for computer applications in Alabama. Now I know you may say - Alabama? when thinking about rigorous standards and technological advances your first thought probably isnt Alabama (unless you are going alphabetically). Yet they seem to be ahead of the rest of us. The course standards can be found here, Its the Technology Education Course of Study.

Tell me what you think. What are they missing? Why are they good standards for EVERY child in high school? I’d love to start a conversation about the standards (not the tools or languages - I think thats another conversation).

(BTW - I REALLY like this course description. REALLY REALLY… I think all they are missing is a standard about open source at this point.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 1:11 pm and is filed under 21st Century Skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.