Computational Thinking or Computational Teamwork?
Computational thinking can sound like "CS-minus." Is there a "CS-plus" that makes CS more attractive and approachable by all?
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Contingency Plans for CS Students in Large Classes
Some of our students will get sick before the end of the term. We need a plan.
Teaching Teachers to Offer STEM to Undergrads
Mark Guzdial considers how teaching computing to undergraduates requires better education of the teachers as well.
The combination of AI and cloud infrastructure is changing the roles of certain engineers and creating a new requirement that demands an entirely new engineering specialty.
Powerful Online Learning is a Distributed System
In the midst of a pandemic, universities are now rapidly shifting to online and remote learning. Here, I will suggest a core metaphor for what powerful online learning can look like. The Distributed Systems Metaphor for Online Learning suggests that an instructor should fully engage and connect the students (the processing nodes) to maximize their active effort to elaborate, coordinate and give each other constructive feedback, with a collective goal in mind (i.e., learning more deeply by harnessing cognitive diversity).
The Internet of Things and the Future of Virus Detection and Prevention
Leveraging the Internet of Things in indoor environments could help prevent highly infectious diseases from spreading rapidly in today’s global world.
Clean Code Isn’t Enough; It Must Be Crystal Clear, Too
Writing clean code is a great start, but for programmers who really want to master their craft, you have to go further. You need to write clear code that other programmers can quickly understand and work with. Here's why.
Beware of Hurting Our Weakest Students when Moving Classes Online
Our weakest students should not be the ones bearing the greatest costs of moving classes online.
Voting requires common acknowledgement. Can that be achieved in automation?
Pantographs have been widely used for centuries; for example, in surveying and embroidery. With these devices, drawings can be enlarged and reduced.
Robin K. Hill explains the ethical responsibility of the computing professional with respect to voting systems.
How Do We Make AI More Ethical?
Scientists consider the limits of ethics in the realm of artificial intelligence, and how to mitigate its biases.
Developing Computational Solutions With Humility: Recommending Morgan Ames’ ‘The Charisma Machine’
Morgan Ames' book highlights the missing HCI design process for the XO Laptop
There is More Than One Way to Become a Good Programmer
A recent Communications of the ACM article casts aspersions on the innovative concept of code academy, a fast-developing approach to teaching programming. The analysis in this article, based on my own experience developing a code academy in the past three years, shows that there is no justification for such contempt. Code academies are a different approach, complementing the traditional university model; they do not offer everything that universities do (and do not pretend to), but also provide a number of benefits not available from university education. They can also serve to provide university graduates with new expertise. They fill industry's crying need for good software developers. They are a complement to universities (and MOOCs), not a competitor, and have earned their place in the battery of educational models.
Shape the Future of Computing
ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.
Get InvolvedCommunications of the ACM (CACM) is now a fully Open Access publication.
By opening CACM to the world, we hope to increase engagement among the broader computer science community and encourage non-members to discover the rich resources ACM has to offer.
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