HomeBirds-of-a-Feather Session
Thursday 5:10 PM - 6:00 PM (room: As Assigned)
| Parallelism and Concurrency in the Curriculum | room: Dallas A1 | |
|
Daniel
Ernst,
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Jens Mache, Lewis and Clark College David Bunde, Knox College Matthew Wolf, Georgia Institute of Technology Libby Shoop, Macalester College Richard Brown, St. Olaf College Michael Wrinn, Intel Corporation |
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| Multicore, multiprocessor, and clustered platforms have become the standard computing platforms available for executing programs. Thus, Computer Science education increasingly entails teaching programming in parallel environments. This BOF is designed to gather colleagues to exchange ideas and discuss questions such as the following: 1) What fundamental ideas of concurrency and parallelism should every CS graduate know? 2) How should concurrency and parallelism be integrated in the curriculum? At what levels and depths? If broad integration is appropriate, what resources and initiatives are needed to educate the educators? 3) What are some good/proven practices and platforms for teaching this material to undergraduates in these various contexts? | ||
| Web Programming | room: Dallas A2 | |
|
Marty
Stepp,
University of Washington
Jessica Miller, University of Washington |
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| For the last three years we have held BoF sessions about teaching web programming at the college level. Our feedback indicates that the most valuable aspect of the past sessions was to get everyone together for an exchange of ideas and information. We'd like to bring together two groups of instructors: Newcomers who have not yet taught this material before (or are just starting), and veterans who may have insights to share with the group. Newcomers can ask questions about materials, languages and technologies to use, what works, and so on. Veterans can share tips from the classroom and helpful resources. We can also discuss the latest web technologies such as HTML 5, ECMAScript 5, Flash, iPhone, Android, Rails, Zend, Django, and .NET. | ||
| Using game development to teach parallelism: Where can I find resources to get started? | room: Dallas A3 | |
|
Robert
Chesebrough,
Intel Corporation
Tom Murphy, Contra Costa College Joel Adams, Calvin College |
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| What resources are available for students to learn parallel programming? Can parallel programming be taught effectively using game codes? Isn’t game programming difficult and parallel programming more so? What advantage is there in teaching parallelism through games development? This BOF will discuss opportunities for computer science students and their instructors to access pre-coded games codes, such as Ticker Tape, Destroy the Castle , or Smoke and use them as base to which they add significant performance through parallelism. Audience members will be able to interact with others that have used game development as a vehicle for teaching concepts in parallelism. | ||
| Attention and Learning in the Computer Science Classroom | room: Dallas D1 | |
|
Durga
Suresh,
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Karina Assiter, Wentworth Institute of Technology |
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| In the modern connected classroom, where each student has a laptop (or iPad/ iTouch/iPhone), faculty in the Computer Science programs must consider how much attention students are able to pay to instructor directed activities; how are students able to learn in such a distracting environment? For this reason, faculty are increasingly searching for (and collaborating on) techniques and tools for holding students’ attention and enhancing learning in the CS classroom. The discussion that we hope will ensue should provide a scaffold to this cohort of students who classify themselves as the net generation. We recognize that there is not one set of strategies that work for all educators, so our intention is to provide a forum for computer science instructors to share their own best practices. | ||
| Technology that Educators of Computing Hail (TECH) site in the Ensemble Computing Portal | room: Dallas D2 | |
|
Daniel
Garcia,
UC Berkeley
Sally Fincher, University of Kent Don Bailes, East Tennessee State University |
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| The judicious use of technology in computing education (in and out of the classroom) can be empowering and transformative. However, it is very difficult to discover what tools are available and how effective they have been. The ACM Education Council Technology and Tools task force has been developing a website, “Technology that Educators of Computing Hail (TECH)”, that hopes to provide a central, organized collection of links to teaching technology resources. It will feature search, rating, tagging and commentary. We’re delighted to announce that we have moved our site into the Ensemble Computing Portal. The goal of this BOF is to demonstrate the site, gather feedback, and collect “experience reports” from educators who have used technology for teaching computing – with success or not! | ||
| Program by Design: TeachScheme/ReachJava | room: Dallas D3 | |
| Viera Proulx, Northeastern University | ||
| Program by Design is a new name for the comprehensive introduction to programming at all levels that began with TeachScheme/ReachJava. This unconventional introductory computing curriculum covers both functional and the object-oriented program design in a systematic design-based style, enforcing test-first design from the beginning. The Bootstrap curriculum makes programming and algebra exciting for children ages 11-15. Special libraries support the design of interactive graphics-based games, musical explorations, client-server and mobile computing. We invite you to come and meet those who have used the curriculum, learn about new additions, libraries, bring in your experiences with the curriculum, show your projects, or ask questions about how it works and how you can use it. | ||
| Teaching Open Source (Software) | room: State Room 1 | |
|
Sebastian
Dziallas,
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Heidi Ellis, Western New England College Mel Chua, Red Hat |
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| Many instructors are turning to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to provide students with experience in real-world projects at no cost. FOSS projects offer opportunities for students with a wide range of backgrounds to participate in the creation of a real-world project. Student contributions can range from the simple (e.g., writing user instructions), to the complex (e.g., coding an enhancement or new feature). Would you like to involve students in FOSS? This BoF, run by members of the Teaching Open Source http://teachingopensource.org) community, will host discussion on the process of turning students into FOSS contributors. | ||
| Undergraduate Information Security Curriculum Development | room: State Room 2 | |
|
Michael
Locasto,
University of Calgary
Richard Weiss, Evergreen State College |
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| Incorporating information security into the undergraduate curriculum has been a topic of ongoing interest to SIGCSE attendees for quite some time. The purpose of this BOF is to help sustain the existing community of educators and researchers interested in bringing ethical hacking skills and an understanding of security into the classroom and relating these topics to the foundations of Computer Science. We plan to facilitate communication with BOF attendees to ask questions, suggest curriculum approaches, and share their own experiences. We also plan to briefly discuss our ongoing efforts and programs (e.g., infosec curriculum modules, the expansion of the SISMAT (Secure Information Systems Mentoring and Training) course, dissemination of infosec laboratory exercises). | ||
| Assessing Interdisciplinary CS Initiatives | room: State Room 3 | |
|
Leen-Kiat
Soh,
University of Nebraska
Jesse Heines, University of Massachusetts Lowell |
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| With the revitalization of computational thinking and increasing recognition of the potential impact of interdisciplinary CS curricula in attracting students of both genders to CS and broadening participation in computing in other disciplines, we have seen a number of initiatives anchored with interdisciplinary CS curricula, accompanied with program evaluation and student assessment mechanisms. However, due to the often-convoluted multiple purposes of such initiatives, it is not entirely clear how best to assess such initiatives. This BOF aims at exploring this issue as a platform for a more comprehensive, future treatment of the subject. | ||
| Teaming up to Change K-12 CS Education, One State-at-a-Time | room: State Room 4 | |
|
Mark
Guzdial,
Georgia Tech
Susan Rodger, Duke University Barbara Boucher Owens, Southwestern University Chris Stephenson, CSTA |
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| The CSTA has established a Leadership Cohort: Two K-12 teachers in each state who are supported and charged with improving CS education in their state. The SIGCSE Board recognizes that the cohort is even stronger if it approaches state-level education leaders with post-secondary faculty as part of the team. The goal of this BOF is to identify and connect SIGCSE members with CSTA Leadership Cohort members. | ||
| An iOS BOF | room: City View 1 | |
| Michael Rogers, Northwest Missouri State University | ||
| More and more instructors are teaching iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) Development in the classroom. The primary purpose of this Birds of Feather session is to enable practitioners to share their experiences — what works and what does not — and discuss techniques, textbooks, and strategies. For those contemplating offering either a course or module on the subject, this will serve as an opportunity to learn from the experiences of their colleagues on the vanguard. | ||
| Mathematical (and Other) Reasoning in Computer Science Education | room: City View 2 | |
| Doug Baldwin, SUNY Geneseo | ||
| This birds-of-a-feather session explores the relationships between mathematical and other kinds of reasoning typical of computer science, and the implications of those relationships for computing education. For example, is mathematical thinking a foundation for learning other forms of thinking? Or are other forms of thinking a necessary context for computing students to appreciate mathematics? All points of view are welcome. | ||
| AP CS A – Sharing teaching strategies and curricular ideas | room: City View 3 | |
|
Paul
Tymann,
Rochester Institute of Technology
Karen Donathan, George Washington High School |
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| This BOF will provide an opportunity for high school and college faculty to discuss the AP CS A curriculum and to explore possibilities for collaborations and outreach activities between high schools and colleges. | ||
| Report of Findings: ACM Summit on Computing Education at Community Colleges | room: City View 4 | |
|
Elizabeth
Hawthorne,
Union County College
Robert Campbell, CUNY Graduate Center Karl Klee, Alfred State College Anita Wright, Camden County College |
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| At the request of and funded by the National Science Foundation, the ACM Two-Year College Education Committee (TYCEC) conducted a Strategic Summit on the Computing Education Challenges at Community Colleges. A distinguished group of academicians and employers, accomplished in their various fields, were assembled not to identify solutions to challenges, but to ferret out and articulate the nature and scope of the challenges confronting computing programs in community colleges. At this session, the TYCEC will facilitate a dialogue about these challenges and associated opportunities. Attendees should come away from the session with ideas for crafting funding proposals and other initiatives. Many of the findings are applicable at and beyond the scope of the community college environment. | ||
| Connecting Biomedical and Health Informatics with Computer Science | room: City View 5 | |
| Bonnie MacKellar, St John's University | ||
| There is currently a lot of interest among students in applications of computer science to the biological and medical fields. This session is aimed at faculty who are teaching, developing, or interested in developing courses that tie together computer science and biology, medicine, or healthcare. We will share our expertise and experience on such questions as choosing software and textbooks, developing case studies and projects, and developing links with biologists and clinicians. We will also discuss how best to continue the conversation, perhaps via electronic mailing list or blog. | ||
| Teaching and Learning with Scratch | room: City View 6 | |
|
Karen
Brennan,
MIT Media Lab
John Maloney, MIT Media Lab Ricarose Roque, MIT Media Lab |
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| Do you use Scratch as part of your teaching practice? Would you like to? Join members of the MIT Scratch Team for a discussion about how Scratch is being used in a variety of educational settings and learning environments. You will have an opportunity to share your experiences and resources and to find out about what others are doing. For those who are new to Scratch, we will provide a brief introduction to the Scratch authoring environment and to ScratchEd, an online community for Scratch educators, where more than 2300 educators have joined – sharing stories, contributing resources, participating in discussions, and connecting to other educators. | ||
| SIGCSE and the International Community | room: City View 7 | |
| Alison Young, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology | ||
| ACM are very clear about their focus, they include the word "world" in their introductory ststement. "ACM is an Educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges.” SIGCSE has over 2600 members from 63 countries. There are many opprotunities for international members however it has become apparent that not many of the international members are aware of these opportunities. This session is to help the international community to become more involved in SIGCSE activities, to promote the current opportunities and to feedback to the Board ideas for the international community to become more involved. | ||
| Capstone Projects in CS and SE – How do you reach out ? | room: City View 8 | |
|
Carsten
Kleiner,
University of Applied Sciences & Arts Hannover
Dean Knudson, North Dakota State University, Fargo |
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| The goal of this birds-of-a-feather session is to bring together instructors in computer science and software engineering that teach capstone courses and who have interest in doing outreach within these courses. Most importantly it is meant as a forum to gather ideas and experiences on how to do outreach in such classes. There will also be the opportunity to discuss possibilities on how to set up an electronic platform for the exchange of future experiences with reaching out in capstone projects. This platform might also be used as a marketplace for instructors interested in offering inter-organizational and/or international experiences. | ||