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of the digital economy. These systems need to be fundamentally transformed and modernized. In January
2018, a Digital Education Action Plan,
1
which set out a number of priorities,
was published by the EU. The most relevant priority for our initiative is “
Developing relevant digital competences
and skills for the digital transformation,” and the Plan suggests one way
to implement this is to “Bring coding
classes to all schools in Europe.” This
is important, but more is needed, as
we will explain in this article.
ACM Europe and Informatics Europe.
ACM Europe ( europe.acm.org) was
established in 2008, and Informatics Europe ( www.informatics-europe.
org) in 2006. From the early days, the
two organizations have collaborated
on educational matters; through this
liaison, they are seen to project to the
wider community a single message
about aspects of informaticsa education. In 2013, the two groups set up
and funded a Committee on European Computing Education (CECE)
to undertake a study that would capture the state of informatics education across the administrative units
of Europe (generally, these units are
the countries, but within Germany,
for instance, there are 14 different
administrative units with autonomy
regarding education).
The CECE study paralleled the
highly influential U.S. study Running
on Empty11 that had drawn attention to
the state of computer science education in the U.S. The CECE study gathered data from 55 administrative units
(countries, nations, and regions) of
Europe (plus Israel) with autonomous
educational systems through the use of
questionnaires and a wide network of
reliable contacts and official sources.
The report on that work was published in 2017.3 The three themes
of informatics, digital literacy, and
teacher training provided the framework for the study. Informatics was
a In most of Europe, informatics is synonymous
with computing or computer science.
INFORMATICS FOR ALL is a coalition whose aim is to
establish informatics as a fundamental discipline to
be taken by all students in school. Informatics should
be seen as important as mathematics, the sciences,
and the various languages. It should be recognized
by all as a truly foundational discipline that plays a
significant role in education for the 21st century.
The European scene. In Europe, education is a
matter left to the individual states. However, education,
competencies, and preparedness of the workforce are
all important matters for the European Union (EU).
Importantly, there is a recognition that the
education systems of Europe do not collectively
prepare students sufficiently well for the challenges
Informatics
as a
Fundamental
Discipline
for the 21st
Century
DOI: 10.1145/3310330
BY MICHAEL E. CASPERSEN, JUDITH GAL-EZER,
ANDREW MCGETTRICK, AND ENRICO NARDELLI
