SIGCS Chair Ramblings
Joe Kmoch
Washington High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
At the 2003 Annual SIGCS meeting in Seattle at the NECC conference, I
was installed
as your chairperson for this sig. I hope we have a profitable two
years during
which we can increase both the membership and the scope of our
sig.
Let me take a moment of your time to tell you a little about my
background
and then present a challenge.
I have been teaching computer science for 32 of my 33 years in high
schools
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over those many years I have also taught
computer science
in the local technical college and taken many courses and workshops to
develop
my skills in computer science. Since 1983, I have been teaching AP
Computer
Science. My involvement with the AP program has included being a
beta-site for
the first case study, being a reader and question leader for 19 of the
20 years
this test has been offered. I have recently completed a four-year
appointment
to the AP Development Committee. I have also led many sessions,
workshops and
courses in a variety of venues dealing with teaching computer science.
I have
also been involved for the past 15 years in the development of new
teachers
of computer science by leading a computer science methods course.
Most recently I have been involved with the Academy of Information
Technology
(AOIT) program of the National Academy Foundation. Our school was
selected as
one of the 12 pilot sites in early 2000 to work with a professional
curriculum
writing organization (CORD) in developing and implementing a national
curriculum
in Information Technology. Computer Science is a part of this
curriculum along
with a whole gamut of other areas defined as Information Technology.
In particular
the Career Cluster project of the US Department of Education is a key
document
in shaping this curriculum.
Through all my years teaching CS and now in the AOIT we have always
understood
the difference between "learning about technology" and
"learning
with technology". Most of what ISTE does is the latter. This
merely reflects
what is going on in schools today. Only courses such as those
involving CS orient
themselves toward learning about technology.
SIGCS is the only sig that touches on learning about technology. At
the high
school level, at least, there are other courses being taught which are
oriented
this way: Networking, Digital Media, and System Support are some of
these areas.
To be sure, none of these are or should be considered computer
science, though
some of the concepts we talk about in CS are often applied in an IT
curriculum.
I am a strong proponent of computer science at the high school level.
I am
also a realist and understand that many high schools are getting
(back) into
teaching about technology through various certificate programs
supported by
Cisco, A+, MicroSoft, Oracle, and Sun. This is happening for a variety
of reasons
both political and educational. On the educational side, these
industry-supported
programs include training and curriculum which most teachers need if
they are
to feel and be successful in this more highly complex technological
arena. Teachers
become more comfortable teaching about the technology through these
programs
and, thus, we have the proliferation of courses which most of us
consider part
of the IT side of the house.
So, here is the controversial paragraph. As was clearly indicated at
our Annual
SIGCS meeting, I support the notion that we should not turn SIGCS into
an IT-oriented
sig. However, I think we should make strong efforts to encourage our
pre-college
IT brethren to join us, share their concerns and in general partake in
our community.
In this way, I believe we can reach more teachers and their schools
and promote
the inclusion of computer science into their schools alongside the
well-intentioned
certification curriculum.
Steps are already being taken in this direction At our annual meeting
we agreed
to support the ACM K-12 Computer Science curriculum which in fact does
include
(at least mention) these types of programs. Also, there have been a
number of
workshops hosted by the College Board, ACM, and computer science
departments
of a number of universities to provide the training needed for
teachers to move
ahead with courses in computer science at the high school level.
I would suggest that we use the SIGCS listserv (sigcs@discussion.iste.org)
and talk about the issue. I believe that only by continued discussion
which
hopefully will lead to action on our part can we improve the scope and
influence
of our sig and ultimately increase the number of students who are
exposed to
Computer Science throughout our schools.
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