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!

Parallel and distributed computing concepts in the CS curriculum

July 19, 2018

This week I attended a workshop at UMass Amherst on Incorporating Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) concepts into courses for students in the early years of their undergraduate study. The workshop was organised by the NSF-supported Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum Development and Educational Resources (CDER). Over the week, we had lectures, hands-on sessions, … More Parallel and distributed computing concepts in the CS curriculum

Computer Science Education: Ireland Engaged Early!

June 11, 2018

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), SIGCSE Board Member-at-Large Briana Morrison is compiling a history blog and circulating it on the SIGCSE members list. It makes a fascinating read and must be a lot of work, but it is appreciated! She started circulating it in … More Computer Science Education: Ireland Engaged Early!

Applications Open: UCD Professional Diploma in Educational Studies – Computational Thinking

May 29, 2018

The University College Dublin Schools of Education and Computer Science are pleased to announce that the Professional Diploma in Educational Studies (Computational Thinking) is now open for applications for the 2018/19 academic year. The PDES (Computational Thinking) is a 30 credit, part-time, Level 9 NQF programme taught jointly by the School of Education and the School of Computer Science … More Applications Open: UCD Professional Diploma in Educational Studies – Computational Thinking

Paper deadline extended for the 7th Computer Science Education Research Conference (CSERC ’18)

May 25, 2018

The 7th Computer Science Education Research Conference (CSERC ’18) has announced an extended deadline for papers (20 June). Conference Dates: 10-12 October 2018 Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia URL:  https://www.ou.nl/web/cserc Important dates: Paper Submission deadline: Wednesday 20 June 2018 Review deadline: Friday 3 Aug 2018 Notification of paper acceptance: Thursday 9 Aug 2018 Conference: 10-12 October 2018 Submission of … More Paper deadline extended for the 7th Computer Science Education Research Conference (CSERC ’18)

Computing history in the classroom: The cereal box toy that was an early hacking device, and nuclear weapons systems that depend on floppy disks

May 22, 2018

I’m a big fan of using history in the computing classroom. Computing and computing education have rich histories, and as computing is a relatively young discipline, only recently has much of that history started to signifiantly pre-date the lives of the students we teach. I often forget (until I hear myself talking) that most of … More Computing history in the classroom: The cereal box toy that was an early hacking device, and nuclear weapons systems that depend on floppy disks

Computational thinking compulsory at two top-50 universities

April 20, 2018

As I was sitting on a draft of this post about plans at Asia’s top ranked university to make computational thinking compulsory for all students, I got a notification from Mark Guzdial’s blog about a top European university with a very similar initiative. The Times Higher Education has reported that the president of the National … More Computational thinking compulsory at two top-50 universities