Contexts in Computer Science Education

Learner-Centered Design of Computing Education for EveryoneMark GuzdialSchool of Interactive Computing

1I argue that our audience is not just CS specialists or majors. The demand and need is greater elsewhere.

The Two Cultures

2Why is this a problem? We may not be talking to them right. There is more than one audience for what we have to offer.Most of them dont look like us. Some people reject science: Denialists. Global warming? Vaccines? There are no learning styles. Psychological Science in the Public Interest

A software engineer who builds applications for end-users.

A mathematician who works in Mathematica her whole life.

A graphic designer who programs in JavaScript to automate Photoshop processes.

The data scientist who scrubs data with Perl and analyzes in R.A chemical engineer who writes 20 new lines of MATLAB code each day, then throws them away.

The office worker who builds Excel macros weekly for co-workers.

The homeowner who writes home automation scripts.

The musician who codes live in front of an audience.

Do all of these use the same CS practices and knowledge?

StoryI. Our Job: The first computer scientists set a goal to achieve a Computing-Literate Society.

II. Challenges to Achieving a Computing-Literate Society

Access and the Inverse Lake Wobegon Effect

Learner-Centered Design

III. Inventing New Kinds of Computing Education for Different Communities of Practice

Story #1: Providing Computing Education for Graphics Designers Community of Practice.

Story #2: Understanding the Needs of High School CS Teachers.

4The challenge of computer science isnt enrollment,its in meeting the demand.

Papert, Logo, DiSessa, Boxer

1961 MIT Sloan School Symposium

6Why might they want to join us?In Dream Machines, biography of J.C.R. Licklider.Other speakers include Vannevar Bush, Herbert A. Simon, Marvin L. Minsky, J. C. R. Licklider, Jay W. Forrester, Grace M. Hopper, Claude E. Shannon, John G. Kemeny, Gene M. Amdahl.

Learn Programming to Re-Think Process EverywhereAlan Perlis argued that computer science should be part of a liberal education.Explicitly, he argued that all students should learn to program.Why?Because Computer Science is the study of process.Automated execution of process changes everythingIncluding how we think about things we already know

7Talked about the economics department at Carnegie Tech (at that time). Talk about rethinking Calculus.

Elias: Does it have to be programming?Licklider: Peter, I think the first apes who tried to talk with one another decided that learning language was a dreadful boreBut some people write poetry in the language we speak.

Perlis: The purpose of a course in programming is to teach people how to construct and analyze processesA course in programming is concerned with abstraction: the abstraction of constructing, analyzing, and describing processesThe point is to make the students construct complex processes out of simpler ones.A properly designed programming course will develop these abilities better than any other course.8

If the computers, together with sufficiently ingenious languages and programming systems, are capable of doing everything that Professor Perlis describesand I believe they are (and more)then they should be ingenious enough to do it without the human symbiote being obliged to perform the mechanical chores which are a huge part of current programming effort, and which are a large part of what must now be taught in the introductory course that he proposes.

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A handful of people, having no relation to the will of society, having no communication with the rest of society, will be taking decisions in secret which are going to affect our lives in the deepest sense.The Power and Fear of AlgorithmsThe Economist (Sept., 2007) spoke to the algorithms that control us, yet we dont understand.Credit Ratings, Adjustable Rate Mortgages, Search Rankings

C.P. Snow foresaw this in 1961.Those who dont understand algorithms, cant understand how the decisions are made.

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II. ChallengesAccess and Diversity: We arent reaching everyone.

Inverse Lake Wobegon Effect: We see little of the problem.

Learner-Centered Design: A strategy for creating computing for everyone

Thanks to Brian Danielak

About 38K students took AP CS last year. Versus 281K for AP CalculusAnd women are better represented in CS as their proportion of the population than minority groups, like AA or Hispanic11

Lake Wobegon Effect

Inverse Lake Wobegon EffectWe only know the top half.

People who take CS in undergraduate are above average.People who get access to CS education are among the most privileged in society.

If your tool or approach works for the top 80% of an undergraduate class, it may not work for 60% of the total population.13

Learner-Centered DesignLearners are different than experts (Soloway, Guzdial, & Hay 1994)

Designing for learners starts with understanding learners, their learning needs, and how they want to learn.

III. Inventing New Kinds of Computing EducationDifferent Communities of Practice =>Different Learning Objectives

Story #1: Providing Computing Education for Graphics Designers Community of Practice

Story #2: Understanding the Needs of Secondary School Computing Teachers

CS for Everyone/AllEfforts in many countries to make computing education available to all students.

Do all students need or want the same CS education?

Do they all need or want the same expertise? To be the same kind of practitioner?

Sociocognitive Theories of LearningSituated Learning (Lave & Wenger) says that students seek to join a community of practice.Students Goal: To adopt the practices and learn the values of those at the center of the community of practice.

Beyond a Software Development CoPMost people who program are not part of a software developer community of practice (CoP).

http://changetheequation.org/blog/hidden-half

Student values based on perceived CoPStudents who value media development want different kinds of programming languages than those who want to be programmers. (DiSalvo, 2015)

Authenticity matters. (Shaffer & Resnick, 1999)

Story #1: Computing Education for Graphics Designers Community of PracticeSignificant amount of programming from designers who reject the identity of programmer.

Fitting into existing practice:Graphics designers who programBrian Dorn conducted a series of interviews and assessment activities.Found that these subjects want more computer science, but dont find courses (and most other resources) adequate (Dorn & Guzdial, ICER 2010)P10: So, that was a really long way of saying yes, I think that an academic study would make me a better programmer, but not by a whole lot.

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Where are they getting their CS knowledge?Mostly on-line:FAQs and other documentationBooks (when applicable)Lots of examples and networking.Not so much classes22

Dorn & Guzdial, CHI 2010

They mostly dont use classes (see the big drop-off in what gets reported being used). They mostly google for stuff.22

Rejection of programming CoPThey reject, and feel rejected in return, by programmers:P9: I met a guy who programs ATM machines, and he busted me for calling myself a coder. He says, well no, youre a scripter. And the coders you know, theyre down there in the dirty behind the scenes playing with the rendering buffers and you know, moving bits of memory back and forth.

P2: I went to a meeting for some kind of programmers, something or other. And they were old, and they were nerdy, and they were boring! And Im like, this is not my personality. Like I cant work with people like that.

What do software engineers do?Answer: The Boring Stuff.P2: I was able to take different samples from different places and instead of just being let's say an MIS major, or computer science major, you know it'syou're not going to be front-end anything with computer science. You're going to be back-end everything.

P4: I think as a front-end developer, you focus more on the design and the usability, and you're focusing more on the audience. And then on the back-end I think you're focused on more, these are like the software developers. And they're programming something, and they don't really see what it's gonna look like; they're just making it work.

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They are not afraid of codingWhat interests you about web design?P12: The coding! I don't like to code. But the things that the code can do is amazing, like you can come up with this and voila, you know, it's there. Javascript for one. The plugins and stuff. I think that's very interesting, intriguing and stuff. Because I mean like the code is just, there's so much you can do with code and stuff. It's just like wow.

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Theyre Inefficient without Initial KnowledgeLearning less than they might because of a lack of deep knowledge.For example: Exploring code by searching Google for function and variable names.Learning about Java when programming in JavaScript

Brians experiment: Given a case library with conceptual information vs. a code repository alone, what gets learned, used, and liked? (ICER 2011)

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Bottomline: Cases workThey like the cases.They coded the problems the same.Case-users learn the concepts, while repository users do not.

Graphic designers wont take classes for programmers.So, we provide learning opportunities where they are looking for them.

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Story #2: Understanding CS Teachers NeedsTo be successful, CS teachers need:

A sense of identityWhere does that sense of identity come from?Confidence in their ability to teachFor US CS teachers, from community and role models. (Lijun Ni, 2011)

More professional learning: CK and PCK

Teachers need their CommunitiesIm a better Math teacher, just because Ive had so much support. Whenever I have problems, I can talk with the people that I work with, most of who have taught for many years in Math.Every day, Im eating lunch with Math teachers.

With Computer Science, Ive got nobody to talk to.From Lijun Nis 2011 thesis on CS teacher identity

Disciplinary CommonsGroup of educators from diverse institutions who teach within the same subject area meeting monthly over an academic year. In monthly increments, the participants prepare a course portfolio.

GoalsTo document and share knowledge about student learning in Computer Science classrooms.To establish practices for the scholarship of teaching by making it public, peer-reviewed, and amenable for future use and development by other educators. [1][1] Tenenberg, J. and Fincher, S. Opening the door of the computer science classroom: the Disciplinary Commons. SIGCSE Bull., 39, 1 2007, 514-518.

Explain original instantiations in UK and WADefine course portfolioFirst goal was achieved, but not the second [1]. Two additional outcomes discovered:Development of strong and vibrant community The change of practice as a result of participation 31

DCCE in GeorgiaDisciplinary Commons for Computing EducatorsAdaptation High School teachers AND University

GoalsCreating community Sharing resources and knowledge of how things are taught in other contexts ANDSupporting student recruitment within the high school environmentWork by Briana Morrison, Lijun Ni, Ria Galanos, & Allison Elliott Tew

Explain funding and original concept32

Building CommunityPartnerships Before (PRE) DCCEPartnerships After (POST) DCCE

Morrison, Ni, & Guzdial, ICER 2012

In Year 3 avg participant did not know 67% of their DCCE peers prior to participation. As a result of their participation, the average participant reported that they had interacted with 100% of their DCCE peers. They had shared materials and ideas with 53% of their DCCE peers and formally worked on at least one project with 18% of their peers. The amount of collaboration increased as well. Participants reported that they collaborated with less than 3% of the organizations represented by their DCCE peers before their participation in the program. After DCCE, the average participant reported that they had received advice, materials, or other help from faculty at 50% of the organizations and worked on at least one project with 21% of the organizations represented.

The SNA for Year 3 suggests a hierarchical network structure whereby one individual served as the primary communication hub. After DCCE, the network of participants expanded and became more integrated.

The number of connections in the network expanded 132% from before the DCCE to after the DCCE. This difference in the number of partnerships established before DCCE and after DCCE is statistically significant (p