LIKES: Educating the Next
Generation of Knowledge
Society Builders
Authors: Wingyan Chung, Edward A. Fox,
Steven D. Sheetz, Seungwon Yang
Presenter: Wingyan Chung
August 7, 2009
Work supported by the NSF under Grant Nos. CCF 0722259, 0722276, 0722289 and 0752865. Findings, conclusions,
or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect NSF’s views.
Computing and IT education
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Facing tremendous challenges despite
intensive use of computing
and IT in human lives
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Student enrollment
Lack of representation from women and minorities
Bias in perception (study, career prospect, etc.)
Lack of interdisciplinary collaboration
Strengthening the connection between
computing and other fields could help
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Living in the KnowlEdge Society (LIKES) project
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Computing Curricula
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Computing: CS, CE, IS, IT (by ACM)
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ACM and the IEEE-CS published “Computing
Curricula 2001”
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Address various problems and issues
From pure theoretical development to application
deployment
Information management part not enough
“Model Curriculum and Guidelines for
Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information
Systems” (2002, 2006)
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The focus lies solely on filling industry requirements
Need to equip college graduates with the knowledge and
skills to build the Knowledge Society
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Use of Computing Concepts in
Other Fields
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Core curricula in typical colleges
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Most are not up-to-date to provide adequate
exposure and training
The notion of “IT as a tool” is not capable of
leveraging the intellectual capabilities of today’s
students
Providing them with the knowledge of
computing and IT concepts has the potential
to transform their thinking about what they
are capable of doing
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Examples
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Using quantitative analysis (enabled by software packages)
to support qualitative judgment in the study of history
Computer-aided design in the study of architecture
Analysis and visualization of spatial data in the field of
geographic information systems
Roles of program design and programming language in
digital music composition (music technology curriculum at
the University of Northern Colorado,
http://www.arts.unco.edu/musictech/)
Understanding of data structures and information
visualization in biology
Analyzing demographic and poll data in political science
These examples illustrate the potential for
integrating computing concepts in different fields
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Meeting the needs of the
Knowledge Society of
today and the future are at
the center of our needs as
a nation and global society
The LIKES Project
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Led by 4 sites: VT, Villanova, NC
A&T, SCU
Goals
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To collaborate with a broad range of
disciplines to identify key problem
areas and applicable computing
concepts
To define the problem-centered
pedagogy most appropriate for
teaching the computing concepts
To transforming computing
education by developing and testing
course modules and tools
Economics
Political
Science
Architecture
Marketing
Biology
Algorithms
HCI
Sociology
Visualization
Geography
Database
Social &
Ethical
Chemistry
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Knowledge
Society
Intelligent
Systems
Physics
Art
Simulation
Programming
Music
Knowledge
Management
Architecture
History
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Finance
Systems
Analysis
& Design
Psychology
Net-Centricity
Healthcare
Modeling
Communications
Engineering
Library &
Information
Science
English
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Project Outcomes
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Four workshops held (as of today)
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SCU – Defining problems and applications (Dec.
2007), 34 participants
NC A&T – Identifying concepts and paradigms
(Apr. 2008)
VT – Learning in Knowledge Society (Nov. 2008)
Villanova – Building the Knowledge Society (Mar.
2009)
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Perceptions of Computing
Concepts in UG Studies
Curriculum Step 1 Curriculum Step 2 Curriculum Step 3 Curriculum Step 4
Social Theme (required)
Networking
IP,Privacy,Civil Lib Social Context
Problem Solving Theme
Basic logic
Programming
Algorithms/Prob.
Computer Literacy
Data/Knowledge Theme
HCI
Database
Knowledge Rep
Modeling/Sim.
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LIKES Presences
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Home page:
http://www.livingknowledgesociety.org/
Facebook
LinkedIn
Second Life
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Facebook Group: LIKES,
LIKESVT
LIKES Main Homepage
http://www.livingknowledgesociety.org/
Sakai: LIKES Team, Students
LinkedIn: LIKES Educators
Second Life: LIKES (Living In
KnowlEdge Society)
Integrating Computing and IT
into Other Curricula
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GIS
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Physics, Statistics, Biology
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Algorithm development skills
Computational models, animation and visualization, error analysis and correction
Music
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System development methodology
Process modeling
Social Computing, Privacy, IP, Ethics
Using a tool (such as a programming language or a software) to produce and
record music
Creating electronic music devices
Machine learning in advanced signal processing
History
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Assessing information obtained from the Internet
Incorporating computational thinking into historical analysis
Increasing collaboration
Teach students to develop customized tools for data analysis
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New Courses and Programs
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VT
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NC A&T
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New program: “Web Engineering”
SCU
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“Intro to LIKES”
LIKES themed core courses in VT’s Curriculum for
Liberal Education (CLE)
“Science, IT, Business, and Society”
Villanova
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“The Laptop Instrument”
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Additional Work
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Joint work with Rebooting Summit, Jan. 2009
VT Workshop, to be held in Nov. 2009
NSF Proposal on Curricular Guideline
development (Pending)
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Summary
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The LIKES Community Building Project aims
to build a community to define the way to
make systemic changes in how computing
and IT concepts are taught and applied in
both computing and other fields
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New communities are built
New courses and programs are introduced or
being developed at participating sites
Paving the way toward a revitalized
undergraduate computing education
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Acknowledgments
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NSF
AMCIS
VT, NC A&T, Villanova, SCU
All collaborators and contributors
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