Education

Here’s another article about the drop in computer science program enrollment at the undergrad level, attributing the drop to offshoring of programming jobs. On the one hand, a 23 percent decrease in new majors over the past year is stunning, and clearly too large to be a fluke. But I think the recent focus on offshoring as the core of the problem is too limited. When I graduated from college about a decade ago, computer science programs were still relatively new and the boom was just starting. You could leave college (and a liberal arts college at that!) with a … Continue reading Why Fewer CS Students?

An ACM committee has constructed a Model Curriculum for K-12 computer science education – not a programming curriculm and not just at the high school level (the report is a pdf available off that page). The “Grade-Level Breakdowns” section summarizing the skills to learn at each level is the most interesting to me – there’s a strong and early focus on using technology, with education about computer science as a problem-solving field being secondary to my eye. The only items listed for K-2 that seem like computer science, instead of computer proficiency, are the last two out of twelve – … Continue reading CS, K-12

It’s moved on from overdone to a yearly academic tradition: the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2007 is out. There are always a couple of items on the list which surprise me and illuminate small changes that I never noticed happening. This year, those items include: 8. An automatic is a weapon, not a transmission. 12. Gas has always been unleaded. 32. They have always had a pin number. 33. Banana Republic has always been a store, not a puppet government in Latin America.

In a topic close to my own heart, and getting front-page coverage around here, the NY Regents board comes face-to-face with the ambiguity inherent in trying to express mathematics through English. There’s a reason we have mathematical symbols, on top of which people very rarely intersperse computation symbols and language in practice, making it an even more falsely constructed problem.

This is a really nice story from a elementary school teacher reminding people of how off the notion of “age-suitable” material can be, through an anecdote of teaching second graders vocabulary words “beyond their ability”. Says she: The names of four great classical artists rolled off the tongue of a boy who couldn’t keep his shoes tied. When you grow up, as I did, with kids who learn from cartoons to discuss the possibilities of cellular mutation before they can read … well, you just don’t accept that certain words are too hard for children to understand. Classrooms obviously need … Continue reading I always loved Donatello….

Here’s an example of where students today have some great resources that just weren’t available when I was in school. Darthmouth College has put together a site on the hows and whys of citations. It’s not the Chicago Manual of Style, but it’s easy to use and covers the most common cases, including citation rules for electronic formats. I particularly like that they give examples of correct citations following different style guides across the humanities and science. A must-bookmark for the high school or junior-high kid in your life!

Schools certainly have to choose books with an awareness of not offending or traumatizing students, particularly when dealing with young children. Banning Shakespeare, or requiring permission slips from parents, particularly when talking about high school seniors is absurd. Almost as absurd as calling TwelfthvNight “alternative lifestyle instruction”. MACBETH We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon. LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept … Continue reading Banning Shakespeare

More Cornell grad student unionization news: Cornell has signed an agreement recognizing the rights of grad students to unionize, and that they will recognize any union the students vote into place. I’m not surprised – too many other peer institutions have been forced to ultimately capitulate. Of course, the announcement of the agreement, despite admiting that Cornell was the first school to act so openly towards a unionization effort, makes sure to shade Cornell as the hostile oppressor against which a union is the only solution for meeting grad student needs. On the plus side, the agreement makes it very … Continue reading Heading Towards Unionization?

When sensitivity goes overboard: this is an extreme degree of sanitizing of literary passages in the NY Regents exams [NYTimes registration required]. There is a line between choosing not to use offensive texts and butchering texts, without the authors permission, and without indication that the passages were edited. In many of the cases described, the meaning of the passage is lost. The types of changes being made go beyond abridgement, which may be a necessary evil on a timed exam. Mentions of race, religion, sex, and alcohol are cut, and in one case the word “fat” was replaced with “heavy”, … Continue reading Regent Censorship