cacm;online

ACM
Member
News
DOI: 10.1145/1839676.1839681
David;Roman
a Preference for PDf

When it comes to electronic formats, Communications readers prefer PDF to HTML, according to data on a year’s worth of published articles. PDF’s faithful reproduction of magazine pages appears to give it an edge. Legacy is another factor. Every article in Communications’ 52-year history is available in PDF, while HTML versions date back to 1999. Also, members are accustomed to accessing ACM’s many transactions, proceedings, and journals exclusively in PDF.

The table shows how the most popular articles published over a 12-month span were accessed from the DL and Communications’ Web site.

72,000

1

11

25,000 50,000

htmL
Pageviews

12

13

14

3

2

5

6 79 10 8

4

75,000 115,000 more pDf downloads than HtmL pageviews. no pDf downloads (on cacm Web site only)

PDf Downloads title

chRis stePhenson
on K–12 cs eDucation aCM Member News recently interviewed Chris Stephenson, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers association, about the status of
K–12 CS education in the u. S.
and how aCM members can
help. “I think computer science
teachers in the u.S. face a
number of challenges that make
it difficult for them to teach to
their full potential,” says
Stephenson. “First, computer
science is poorly understood in
the u.S. school system, so
administra-tors and decision-
makers have no idea what CS
teachers do or why it is
important. This means teachers
have to continually fight for
their programs and their
students and are often
under-supported in terms of
resources. also, our teacher
certification requirements are
a complete mess, and CS
teachers in many states must
first be certified in some other
discipline. This doubles the
time and effort required. and it
means CS teachers can be
assigned to teach something
other than computer science at
any time. Finally, our discipline
requires teachers to continually
upgrade both their teaching and
technical knowledge, and there
is very little access to relevant
and timely professional
development.
“The most important thing
aCM members can do is to
advocate for computer science
courses in their local schools….
The other really important action
that u. S. members can do is
to contact their congressional
representatives and request
that they support the Computer
Science education act [hr 5929].
With enough support, this bill
has the power to fundamentally
change computer science
education in this country.”
a new joint aCM–CS Ta
report, Running on Empty: The
Failure to Teach K–12 Computer
Science in the Digital Age, is
available at http://acm.org/
runningonempty/.

—Jack Rosenberger