Rethinking How to Teach Programming to Newcomers
Judy Robertson reviews what happened when she decided to introduce Android development into the curriculum for first-year computer science students.
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Those Who Say Code Does Not Matter
Often, you will be told programming languages do not matter much. It is a pretty general rule that people arguing language does not matter are simply trying to justify their own choice of language.
The Danger of Requiring Computer Science in K-12 Schools
We are not ready to make CS a requirement for all children in the U.S., even if that's where we want to be one day.
Students As Computer Science Ambassadors
Our final year course where students get course credit for teaching computer science in high schools has benefits for kids, teachers and students alike.
The Benefits of Working on Research As An Undergraduate Student
This article presents three practical benefits of working on research as an undergraduate student.
Exciting Follow-up With an ACM-W Scholarship Recipient
It's exciting to see how these scholarships can shape careers.
Mark Guzdial considers why computing education lags behind other sciences, while Daniel Reed weighs balancing immediate research needs against future uncertainty.
Programming Languages Are the Most Powerful, and Least Usable and Learnable User Interfaces
Programming languages are amazing, but too hard to use and learn.
Through A Google Glass, Darkly
I have been wearing Google Glass as both a technical assessment of utility and as a social study in human dynamics and expectations.
Grant Proposal Time and the Unexpected Benefits of CSTA Chapters
This piece explores the growing relationship between unversity computer science faculty and CSTA's regional chapters and highlights some unexpected mutual benefits.
Capturing and Structuring Data Mined from the Web
Kate Matsudaira considers not only how to mine data from the Web, but what to do with it once you have it.
Reflections on Using AppInventor to Teach First-Year Programming
This post reflects on my experiences of using AppInventor to teach Android development to first-year university computer science students.
Media Coverage of Analysis of AP CS 2013 Exam Results
Barbara Ericson does an annual analysis of AP CS exam results. Her 2013 analysis attracted significant media attention.
We May Be 100 Years Behind in Making Computing Education Accessible to All
So when should we be able to provide computing education to everyone in the US? Using physics and mathematics as examples, we may be 100 years behind.
Deferred Maintenance on the Future
Over-worked and sleep-deprived drivers are steering many of our vehicles of discovery on balding tires across potholed roads. Stripping away the metaphor, we are struggling to sustain appropriate investments in basic research infrastructure and facilities operations, and our dispirited researchers face ever-diminishing odds of research funding as they work to keep laboratories operational and students and post-doctoral research associates funded.
MOOCs Need More Work; So Do CS Graduates
Mark Guzdial assesses the first full year of massive open online courses, while Joel C. Adams considers the employment outlook for CS grads.
The "Hour of Code" was a hit, with over 15 million people trying out programming.
Hour of Code: Observations from a Middle School Classroom
I volunteered at a middle school for the Hour of Code and helped students learn basic programming. Here are some observations that are relevant to CS education.
The Lure of Live Coding; The Attraction of Small Data
Mark Guzdial ponders a new set of research questions, while Valerie Barr considers the utility of one person's data.
Spanning the Chasm of the K–12 and Post-Secondary Relationship
This article describes the sometimes fraught relationship between K–12 computer science teachers and university computer science faculty. It decribes how CSTA has navigated this divide and attempted to bring hamony to this often troubled union.
From humble beginnings 26 years ago to today, the annual SC conference has shaped our community and our technologies.
Big Data Analyzed By Big Compute, Big Compute Creates Big Data
The science and engineering communities have worked together through several 1,000x leaps in computing capability, each time managing to push the boundaries of the application of these technologies to the problems faced by our society. Last night I had a clear view that the transition from pan-petaFLOPS to exascale computing is interesting because it is both accelerating a move into the big data era, and being shaped by the arrival of big data from other disciplines well outside the traditional supercomputing community. If we are thoughtful as we proceed into this new era, we have a unique opportunity to create something much more effective, relevant, and useful than we ever have before.
A Summit on Computing Education in South Carolina
A summit of legislators, business leaders, officials from the Department of Education, and teachers convenes in South Carolina to advance computing education in the state.
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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