What Do CS1 Syllabi Reveal About Our Expectations of Introductory Programming Students?

March 1, 2019

Today I am presenting my third and final paper at the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. It is titled “What Do CS1 Syllabi Reveal About Our Expectations of Introductory Programming Students?” My coauthor is Thomas Fitzpatrick who was at the time an undergraduate student at UCD and is now pursuing a PhD … More What Do CS1 Syllabi Reveal About Our Expectations of Introductory Programming Students?

SIGCSE 2019 Best Computer Science Education Research Paper

February 27, 2019

I was thrilled to learn that a paper I co-authored, First Things First: Providing Metacognitive Scaffolding for Interpreting Problem Prompts, was selected for the best Computer Science Education Research paper award at the 2019 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. I had a great time working on this project with my co-authors: James … More SIGCSE 2019 Best Computer Science Education Research Paper

50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research

February 27, 2019

I’m really excited to be presenting a paper titled “50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research” with Keith Quille at this year’s ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. The paper is part of the SIGCSE Technical Symposium’s 50th anniversary celebration. After the presentation, there … More 50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research

Join ITiCSE 2019 Working Group 10: Compiler Error Messages

February 11, 2019

Brett, Ray and Paul would like to invite you to consider joining our ITiCSE 2019 working group on “Compiler Error Messages: Difficulties, Design Guidelines and Effectiveness”. A detailed description of the goals for this working group are here: https://iticse.acm.org/working-group-details/#WG10. You can also find our contact information there. Compiler error messages have been researched for over … More Join ITiCSE 2019 Working Group 10: Compiler Error Messages

Open access to all past SIGCSE Technical Symposium proceedings!

January 28, 2019

The SIGCSE 50th celebration committee (Adrienne, Kurt and Carl) have secured permission from the ACM to make all papers from all SIGCSE Technical Symposium proceedings freely available from the ACM Digital Library. That’s 49 years worth of papers free and available for download until one week after SIGCSE 2019 which ends on March 2. That … More Open access to all past SIGCSE Technical Symposium proceedings!

Irish Computer Science graduates (still) have highest earning potential

December 22, 2018

The Irish Times has reported that Computer Science graduates earn more than other graduates. Technically, the HEA report that this article is based on identifies that Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) graduates, of which Computer Science graduates are a subset, are the top earners. Specifically, ICT graduates (class of 2016) earned between €25,000 and €45,000 nine months after … More Irish Computer Science graduates (still) have highest earning potential

What questions do people who teach computing most want computing education researchers to investigate?

December 7, 2018

What questions do people who teach computing most want computing education researchers to investigate? A few months ago, we (below) decided to find out. Brett Becker (brettbecker.com) Michelle Craig (michellecraig.github.io) Paul Denny (www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~paul) and Greg Wilson (third-bit.com) Inspired by Begel and Zimmermann’s “Analyze This! 145 Questions for Data Scientists in Software Engineering” https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/analyze-this-145-questions-for-data-scientists-in-software-engineering/), we contacted several hundred … More What questions do people who teach computing most want computing education researchers to investigate?

CS4Philly

October 3, 2018

There are lots of cool things happening in Computing Education in Ireland recently. Most notably, the Computer Science Leaving Certificate (second-level or ‘high school’) curriculum has arrived and is now being taught in forty phase 1 schools. But today, we travel to a (not so) different world, approximately 3,000 miles away. I grew up in … More CS4Philly

ACM Global Computing Education Conference (CompEd 2019) – Reviewers Needed

September 22, 2018

CompEd 2019 – Call for Reviewers ————————————– ACM Global Computing Education Conference 17-19 May 2019, Chengdu, China, www.acmcomped.org We invite expressions of interest in serving as a reviewer or an associate program chair (APC) for full papers, or a reviewer for posters.  If you are interested, please let us know by completing the form at http://www.acmcomped.org/reviewers/. For … More ACM Global Computing Education Conference (CompEd 2019) – Reviewers Needed

What should Computing Education researchers study? Have your say!

September 6, 2018

Some colleagues and I are conducting a study to find out what questions people who teach computing would most like researchers to answer. If you teach programming, web design, or anything else that involves writing code of any kind, in classrooms or otherwise, at any level, we would like to invite you to take part. Our study will be … More What should Computing Education researchers study? Have your say!