Teaching Computing to Everyone
Mark Guzdial & Barbara Ericson
Story
• Computer science has been tasked for over 50 years with teaching
computing to everyone.
• We’re not even close.
• How do we create interest in Computing, and sustain that interest through
High School?
•
•
•
•
Sustainable and Effective Summer Camps
Competitions
Professional Development
Sustaining Teachers through Communities
• How do we teach Computer Science to adults who do not want to become
software engineers or computer scientists?
• Media Computation
• Assessing CS1
• Graphics Designers who Program
The Two Cultures
Learn Programming
to Re-Think Process Everywhere (1961)
• Alan 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 everything
• Including how we think about
things we already know
Today, there’s a growing call
High School Participation in
AP STEM Disciplines
— Chris Stephenson, CSTA, 2010
Undergraduate Curriculum Has a Second-Order Effect
3. Students decide to avoid computing long before they have
any idea what the university curriculum is.
Source: Eric Roberts & Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA,
2005
Our work:
Starting out better, then supporting adults
• NSF BPC Alliance “Georgia Computes!” from 2006-2012
• How do we create interest in Computing, and sustain that
interest through High School?
•
•
•
•
Sustainable and Effective Summer Camps
Competitions in Scratch, Alice, and AP CS A
Professional Development for teachers
Developing a community of computing teachers
• How do we teach Computer Science to adults who do not
want to become software engineers or computer scientists?
• Media Computation
• Assessing CS1: Valid and language-independent
• Graphics Designers who Program
Creating Interest in Computing
• Start early
• We start with 4th graders (9 – 10 years old)
• Provide lots of opportunities for engagement
• Weekend workshops, afterschool programs,
summer camps, courses in 9th – 12th grade,
competitions, a lending library, student helpers
• Use activities that are
• creative, hands-on, and social
• Use a variety of activities
• No one thing appeals to everyone
Summer Computing Camps
• Engaging introduction to
computing for 4th-12th grade
students
• Adding elementary students
made the camps financially
self-sustaining
• Reaches students that are not
served in formal education
• Majority-minority
• Test bed for new activities
• In 2011 App Inventor
• In 2012 EarSketch
Summer Computing Camps: Effective
• The camps decrease the belief that programming is hard
• The camps increase confidence and interest
• Sorting by gender or race results:
• Girls show greater change on "Programming is hard"
• Boys end up with greater confidence than girls
• Black students show statistically significant changes
Statement
N
2. Programming is hard
169
6. I am good at computing 168
7. I like computing
168
8. I know more than my
170
friends about computing
** p<.01, * p<.05, † p <.1
Pre/Post
Mean
2.78/2.56
Paired
t-test
.007**
Effect
size
0.21
3.8/3.96
4.4/4.55
3.44/3.69
.032*
.07†
.002**
0.16
0.14
0.24
Summer Computing Camps: Learning
• Pre and post multiple choice tests on Scratch and
Alice
• Only data from one high school camp on Alice
• Error in the data mapping for middle school camp
• Statistically significant changes in 7 of 10
questions on Scratch test
• 106 paired pre and post tests
• Statistically significant changes in 4 of 10
questions on Alice test
• 16 paired pre and post tests
Seeded Computing Camps
• Georgia Computes!
provided "seed" funding
and training from 20072011 to 11 institutions
• Up to $4999.99 each year
per institution for
equipment
• In 2011 there were 39
weeks of computing
camps at 7 colleges and
universities in Georgia
Seeded Camps: Similar Results
• Seeded camps show statistically significant changes
Statement
N
307
Pre/Post
Mean
4.22/4.34
Paired t- Effect size
test
.011*
0.06
3. Girls can do
computing
6. I am good at
computing
7. I like computing
8. I know more than
my friends about
computing
312
3.69/3.99
.000**
0.20
311
311
4.25/4.41
3.45/3.66
.000**
.000**
0.05
0.20
** p<.01, * p<.05, † p <.1
Competitions
• Advanced Placement CS A Bowl since 2005
• Practice multiple choice exam
• Prizes for the top scorers and raffle off the rest
• Scratch and Alice since 2010
• Scratch competition was > 50% female
• Why offer competitions?
• Teachers like them
• Encourages the teachers to learn more
• Students spend lots of time on entries
Competition Examples
Alice
Competition
1st High School
Group Movie
Scratch
Competition
Most Creative
Middle School
Influencing State Ed Policy
• “Georgia Computes!” (specifically, Barbara) has
been involved in each of the major state
computing education public policy decisions
since 2006:
• Establishing a high school CS curriculum based on
the ACM/CSTA Model K-12 Curriculum.
• Creating a CS Teacher Endorsement, based on
ISTE/NCATE standards.
• Making AP CS Level A count towards high school
graduation and university admissions.
• Georgia was one of the two highlighted states in
the ACM/CSTA Running on Empty report.
Teacher Workshops
Why Offer Teacher Workshops?
• Huge need
• Few teachers have formal training in CS/IT
• Multiplier effect
• One teacher has many students each year
• One teacher will teach for multiple years
• Teachers believe the stereotypes
• Programming is hard and for geeks
• Teachers have influence on students
• Can recruit students and encourage them
Outcomes:
Professional Development for High School Teachers
• “Georgia Computes!” training has
touched 36% of high schools in
Georgia
• GC schools sent 58% of all CS1
students in our GA-wide study
• GC schools sent significantly more
women and minorities to CS (than
non-GC schools)
• Do they use what they learned?
• 35% of teacher-participants taught
programming before vs 62% after
• Many taught computer applications
and/or web development before taking
the workshop
Successes, and not, in Georgia
1000
900
800
Total in Georgia
Women
Black
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Hispanic
• In 2011 the largest number of
students ever took the AP CS
A exam in Georgia
• From 422 in 2007 to 884
• The # of women increased
• from 68 in 2007 to 154
• The # of Hispanics increased
• From 13 in 2007 to 54
• The # of Blacks increased
• From 40 in 2007 to 79
• But, still not a representative
percentage
Teaching
Computing to All Undergraduates
• Fall 1999:
All students at Georgia Tech must take a course in
computer science.
• Considered part of General Education, like mathematics,
social science, humanities…
• 1999-2003: Only one course met the requirement.
• Shackelford’s pseudocode approach in 1999
• Later Scheme: How to Design Programs (MIT Press)
• Result: 78% success rate overall,
but less than 50% in Liberal Arts, Architecture, &
Management
Contextualized Computing Education
• What’s going on?
• Research results: Computing is “tedious,
boring, irrelevant”
• Since Spring 2003, Georgia Tech
teaches three introductory CS
courses.
• Based on Margolis and Fisher’s
“alternative paths”
• Each course introduces computing
using a context (examples, homework
assignments, lecture discussion)
relevant to majors.
• Make computing relevant by teaching it in
terms of what computers are good for
(from the students’ perspective)
Media Computation:
Teaching in a Relevant Context
•Presenting CS topics with
media projects and
examples
• Iteration as creating negative
and grayscale images
• Indexing in a range as removing
redeye
• Algorithms for blending both
images and sounds
• Linked lists as song fragments
woven to make music
• Information encodings as sound
visualizations
24
Results:CS1“Media Computation”
Change in Success rates in CS1 “Media
12.540% 10.270% 14.650% 9.370% 7.580% 11.410% 19.650% 17.100%
Computation” from Spring 2003 to Fall22.540%
2005
(Overall 85%)
Architecture
46.7%
86.470% 88.360% 84.710% 89.870% 91.940% 87.500%
Biology
64.4%
Economics
54.5%
History
Total Females
Fall03
Fall03
Males
Fall03
Management
Public Policy
46.5%
Total Females Males
Sp04
Sp04
Sp04
48.5%
47.9%
85.7%
80.330% 82.900% 77.460%
90.4%
92.0%
67.6%
Total Females Males
Fall04 Fall04 Fall04
87.8%
85.4%
WDF
Pass
Recent Results at
University of California, San Diego
• Using Java Media
Computation as normal CS1
for CS majors at a research
university.
• Did extensive data collection
last semester before
switching to Media
Computation.
• Been following two cohorts
of CS1 students for
comparison.
Simon, Kinnunen, Porter, Zaskis,
ACM ITICSE 2010
Findings:
• MediaComp has
more focus on
problem-solving,
less on language.
• MediaComp
students have
higher pass rates
and retention rates
one year later
Are they learning the same?
• We don’t know,
but now we can know.
• Allison Elliott Tew
(2010) created the
first languageindependent validated
test of CS1
knowledge.
27
Graphics Designers
who Program
• Brian Dorn studied graphics
designers who program.
• Conducted a series of
interviews and assessment
activities.
• Found that these subjects
want more computer
science, but don’t 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.
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's—you're not going to be front-end
anything with computer science. You're going to be back-end
everything.
• But they’re not afraid of coding: “What interests you about
web design?”
• P12: The coding! I don't like to code. But the things that the
code can do is amazing…Because I mean like the code is
just, there's so much you can do with code and stuff. It's just
like wow.
They’re Lost without Initial Knowledge
• Learning 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
• Brian’s experiment: Given a case library with
conceptual information vs. a code repository alone,
what gets learned, used, and liked? (ICER 2011)
• Bottomline: Users of both liked them,
users of both solved programming problems,
uses of a case library learned some CS.
Conclusions
• Computing is important for everyone.
• It has been our challenge for 50 years to teach
computing to everyone.
• Creating and sustaining interest in computing
requires a significant outreach effort and research on
what works.
• We need techniques like contextualized computing
education to teach everyone on campus.
• We need techniques like case libraries to teach adults about computer
science in terms that make sense for them.
With thanks to our supporters
• US National Science Foundation
• Statewide BPC Alliance: Project “Georgia Computes!” http://www.gacomputes.org
• CCLI, CPATH, and CE21 Grants
• Microsoft Research
• Georgia Tech's College of Computing
• Georgia’s Department of Education
• GVU Center
• GT President's Undergraduate Research Award
• Toyota Foundation
Thank you!
• http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mark.guzdial
http://home.cc.gatech.edu/csl
http://www.georgiacomputes.org
For more on MediaComp
approach:
• http://www.mediacomputation.org
Extra slides
Upticks in AP CS, but not everywhere
1000
900
800
700
Alabama (4.7M)
600
Colorado (4.9M)
Georgia (9.7M)
500
Massachusetts (6.5M)
North Carolina (9.2M)
400
Ohio (11.5M)
South Carolina (4.9M)
300
200
100
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
One-class CS1: Pass (A, B, or C) vs.
WDF (Withdrawal, D or F)
Success Rates in CS1 from Fall 1999 to
Spring 2002 (Overall: 78%)
Architecture
46.7%
Biology
64.4%
Economics
53.5%
History
46.5%
Management
48.5%
Public Policy
47.9%
As percent of schools, best in Southeast
Summer Camps Influence on Pathways
• University faculty attend “How to run a summer
camp” workshops.
• University faculty apply for seed funding, and set
up Lending Library and/or Teacher Workshops.
• Local teachers are hired to lead the summer
camps, try out curricula in an informal setting, and
bring it into their classrooms.
• Use Lending Libraries for materials.
• Students attend computing Summer Camps.
• Some students become assistants at the camps.
How do we keep the CS teachers we get?
• We lose 47% of STEM teachers in first five years.
– If we get CS10K by 2016, how do we prevent CS5K by 2021?
• We need a sense of teacher identity (Ni, 2011; Ni & Guzdial,
2012).
• Without certification: Use community.
– No longer alone: “You teach what I teach!”
– Sense of value: “Ooh, I could use that!”
– Sense of goal: The power of master teacher-leaders.
• Disciplinary Commons for Computing Educators
(DCCE) Results:
– More confidence => More recruiting =>
302% increase in students
Putting California in mix
Number of Schools
250
200
150
100
50
0
Number of Test-takers
3500
3000
2500
Alabama
2000
Georgia
1500
California
1000
Massachusetts
500
South Carolina
0
Simon et al. Key Findings Summarized