CACM_TACCESS_one-third_page_vertical:Lay
concerning ECS and CSP courses, how
computer science differs from technology and information literacy courses,
the costs of computing education, the
resources needed (computers, software, curricula, and so forth), professional development requirements, and
ways to partner with local industry to
obtain support.
learning. Creating such a CoP is the
means to the end of having an impact
on practice. A vCoP can create opportunities for teachers to connect and to
check in with others, and opportunities for teachers to lurk and observe.
Teachers want a place that provides
real benefit to them. Creating a vCoP
can help CS instruction find its place in
ACM
Metrics to assess the programs and
the vCoP. Validated instruments are
needed to measure student learning.
The College Board’s AP CS exam, and
Elliott Tew’s validated instrument
measuring student learning in CS13
help from the cognitive perspective.
Moskal’s validated instrument,
4 and
Weibe’s unvalidated instrument9 help
from an affective perspective. But
more work is needed to understand
student learning of computing in
K– 12. SRI’s assessments for ECS are
a crucial first step, but assessments
are needed for teacher professional
development. It is necessary to show
whether NSF-funded CS10K projects
and other projects trying to meet similar goals work and how such projects
compare to other projects. Varying
project objectives, multiple evaluators, and multiple designs require
common data collection and measurement of overall impact.
K– 12 education.
Transactions on
Scaling interventions and innovation nationally, and ultimately worldwide, is an enormous undertaking. It
is one that will need to involve thousands of schools, and many different
governmental entities at many different levels. It is our hope that a well-designed and well-constructed vCoP can
begin to help address these challenges
of scaling K– 12 computing education
to a much wider audience than it is
currently addressing.
Accessible
Computing
References
1. Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. The Social Life of
Information. Harvard Business Review Press, 2000.
2. Cuny, J. Finding 10,000 Teachers. CSTA Voice 5, 6
(Jan. 2010), 1–2.
3. Elliott Tew, A. and Guzdial, M. The FCS1: A language
independent assessment of CS1 knowledge. In
Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium
on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ‘ 11). ACM,
2011, 111–116.
4. Hoegh, A. and Moskal, B. Examining science and
engineering students’ attitudes toward computer
science. In Proceeding of the Frontiers in Education
Conference, San Antonio, TX, 2009.
5. Morrison, B., Ni, L. and Guzdial, M. Adapting the
Continue the conversation. Most
CS10K efforts involve CS education researchers and faculty from partnering
universities. This community of educators in higher education has been instrumental in getting the many efforts
off the ground in high schools around
the country, and is a key constituency
helping high school teachers. Ongoing conversations and collaborations
are needed. Workshops like the one at
Stanford generate energy, ideas, and a
sense of community that goes beyond
the “mandala of good intentions.”c
The CS10K vCoP will be successful
only with the active involvement of
K– 12 CS teachers themselves. A “
partner vCoP” of researchers and CSEd
faculty might be necessary for growth
of the CS10K community.
disciplinary commons model for high school teachers:
Improving recruitment, creating community. In
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual International
Conference on International Computing Education
◆◆◆◆◆
Research (ICER ‘ 12) 2012, 47–54.
6. Ni, L., Guzdial, M., Elliott Tew, A., Morrison, B. and
Galanos, R. Building a community to support HS CS
teachers: The disciplinary commons for computing
educators. In Proceedings of the 42nd ACM Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE
‘ 11), 2011, 553–558.
7. Tenenberg, J. and Fincher, S. Opening the door of
the computer science classroom: The disciplinary
commons. In Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE
Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
(SIGCSE ‘07), 2007, 514–518.
8. Wenger, E., McDermott, R., and Snyder, W. Cultivating
Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing
Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, Boston,
MA, 2002.
9. Wiebe, E. N., Williams, L., Yang, K., and Miller, C.
Computer Science Attitude Survey. Report No.: NCSU
CSC TR-2003-1. Dept. of Computer Science, NC State
University, Raleigh, NC, 2003.
This quarterly publication is a
quarterly journal that publishes
refereed articles addressing issues
of computing as it impacts the
lives of people with disabilities.
The journal will be of particular
interest to SIGACCESS members
and delegates to its affiliated
conference (i.e., ASSETS), as well
as other international accessibility
conferences.
Steve Cooper ( coopers@cs.stanford.edu) is an associate
professor in the computer science department at Stanford
University, Stanford, CA.
Shuchi Grover ( shuchig@stanford.edu) is a Ph. D.
candidate in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
www.acm.org/taccess
www.acm.org/subscribe
To change computer science education in K– 12 in a fundamental way
requires creating a community of practice that brings people together around
focused interests and with the need for
Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Education,
Stanford, CA.
Beth Simon ( bsimon@eng.ucsd.edu) is the senior
associate director of Learning Sciences and Technology
the Center for Teaching Development and tenured faculty
in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at
the University of California, San Diego.
c Thanks to Roy Pea for that expression.
Copyright held by Author.