Editor's Comments
J. Philip East
University of Northern Iowa
Good day to you. Welcome to the 2004-2005 volume of JCSE Online.
We are leading off this issue with a proposal to revise the mission statement and bylaws for our organization. You probably have heard that this might be coming. Well here it is. The reasoning behind the proposal is multi-dimensional. It would be useful for us to increase our membership and to do so requires broadening our focus beyond the traditional high school programming-related courses typically identified as computer science. However, increasing membership is not the only, or even the primary, motivation. The academic computer science community is moving in this direction as indicated by The Fluency Report and the recent ACM curriculum recommendations for K-12 computer science. Quality teaching of the use of computers and software in both everyday life and in solving more novel or specialized problems is now often considered part of teaching computing. Providing students with an understanding of technology so they can make informed decisions involving computing is an essential component of good citizenship. These skills and understanding need to be taught or at least supervised by teachers who are knowledgeable of the technology–computer science teachers. And, we can't wait until the students get to high school. The in-depth learning about technology needs to occur in context as the skills are addressed. So, we invite you to carefully examine the proposed mission statement and bylaws. Eventually this proposal or a revised one will be submitted to you for approval. If you have comments, please send them to our Chair, Joe Kmoch (kmoch@whs.edu). If you have questions, you may address them to Joe or to me (east@cs.uni.edu). One last word. Initially, the proposal included the possibility of changing our name from SIGCS to SIGCT (Computing Teacher). It was thought that this name would be somewhat more inviting to the non-programming and elementary and middle school teachers who might consider joining. If you have a view on that issue, we would be interested in hearing it. Below are links to both the proposed and current bylaws so you can easily compare them.
Proposed SIGCS Bylaws
Current SIGCS Bylaws
Our SIGCS Chair, Joe Kmoch, has been thinking about the tech bust and outsourcing of IT jobs. He suggests K-12 teachers can provide experiences and develop skills that make students better prepared for citizenship and work and, thus, less susceptible to the vagaries of outsourcing. As you read Joe's words I encourage you to note the suggestions he provides, consider other possibilities, and consider sharing similar things you do with your students. I'm sure Joe and the rest of our readers would be interested in additional ideas (and they would make excellent content for a letter-to-the-editor response to Joe's piece).
Will Your CS Courses Get the Axe?
Last April, a report on ACM's PK-12 curriculum recommendations was published in Learning and Leading With Technology. Though most of you probably saw it there, some might not have, since ISTE members can choose to receive L&L or the Journal of Research on Technology in Education (JRTE). Those who read JRTE might have missed the report. Additionally, I am very interested in having the report appear in the next JCSE Annual so we can all access it in our "computer science" library. If you missed it, here it is. You might also compare it with the new SIGCS mission statement offered above. There was no special effort to make them similar but I expect they might both be conveying a similar message about the future of computer science in pre-college education. Allen Tucker headed up ACM's committee that worked on the report and produced the article about it. Allen has been involved in computer science education and curriculum recommendations for many years. Those who have not seen the article will, I believe, be quite impressed with the committee's result. Those who have seen it and read it again will likely benefit from the refresher. Enjoy.
 A New K-12 Computer Science Curriculum
SIGCS members have now been leading the effort to provide the CS&IT Symposium (Computer Science and Information Technology Symposium) for five years. Traditionally (five years makes a tradition, right), the first issue of JCSE Online each fall, has provided information about the Symposium. We continue the practice of sharing those presentations with SIGCS members who were not able to attend the Symposium. (Note that presentations for prior Symposia are also available.) The first link below provides access to more information about the Symposium sessions. At the end of each description there is a link to the presentation material supplied by the presenter. We have also included links to the two sites where you can examine prior CS&IT programs.
2004 CS&IT Symposium Notes
ISTE CS&IT Symposium
ACM CS&IT Symposium (http://www.acm.org/education/k12/csits/)
As usual we are presenting the minutes of our previous annual meeting in this first issue. Those attending the meeting should communicate to Richard any discrepancies they note. Those who were not at the meeting, can get some idea of what was discussed and the decisions made at the meeting.
SIGCS Annual Meeting Minutes draft
I hope you enjoy this issue of JCSE Online. As always let us know what you think. Also, consider supporting JCSE Online by:
- reviewing articles relevant to your level and expertise
- recommending authors, reprint articles, etc.
- submitting
- an article
- a description of favorite lesson or Web site
- a review of a book, software, workshop
- an editorial
- a letter to the editor
- etc.
We are interested in anything helpful to those who teach computing. You can contact me via east@cs.uni.edu.
Have a good day. Have a good year.
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