ACM Computing Education Workshop
in Doha, Qatar, May 3, 2010
Heikki Topi, Bentley University

A selection of communities in computing
education research
◦ SIGCSE community
 International Computing Education Research (ICER)
workshop
 SIGCSE and ITiCSE
◦ Koli Calling International Conference on Computing
Education Research
◦ Australasian Computing Education Conference

A selection of communities in computing
education research
◦ SIGCSE community
 International Computing Education Research (ICER) workshop
 SIGCSE and ITiCSE
◦ Koli Calling International Conference on Computing
Education Research
◦ Australasian Computing Education Conference
◦ ACM SIGITE
◦ AIS SIGED: IAIM – International Conference on
Informatics Education Research
◦ AIS regional conferences: AMCIS, ECIS, PACIS
◦ ISECON

Journals
◦ Computer Science Education
◦ ACM Transactions on Computing Education
◦ SIGCSE Bulletin

Journals
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Computer Science Education
ACM Transactions on Computing Education
SIGCSE Bulletin
Journal of Informatics Education Research
Information Systems Education Journal
The Journal of Information Technology Education


Little interaction between computing
education researchers within different
computing disciplines
Low level of cross-utilization of research
results
◦ Lister & Box (2009) – A Citation Analysis of ICER
2005-07 Proceedings
◦ Casual review of recent conference proceedings

Strong believe in the uniqueness of each
discipline’s research problems

Strengthening communities that are relatively
small
◦ Particularly important for the very small
communities of IS and IT education researchers

Gaining access to a broader experience and
expertise base
◦ Building opportunities for ongoing collaboration
◦ Requires the recognition of specialized areas of
expertise

Sharing research methodology expertise and
innovations
The real challenge in computer education is
to avoid the temptation to re-invent the
wheel. Computers are a revolutionary human
invention, so we might think that teaching
and learning about computers requires a new
of human learning has not changed in the last
50 years. Too much of the research in
computing education ignores the hundreds of
years of education, cognitive science, and
learning sciences research that have gone
before us. (Guzdial, 2005)