Geeky Mom

Digital Literacy vs. Computer Science

Laura — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:38:08 +0000

I’ve had this post open in my browser for days. I read it, and then let it sit, and I just now went and read it again, and the comments. I’ve written many, many times about how frustrating I find it that people think Computer Science = Teaching Excel or how to use the Internet. Computer Science is a very, very broad field, and in fact, I would argue that it can encompass Digital Literacy. The writer of the post I linked to is frustrated by the lack of distinction, too, which she argues takes away from the importance of Digital Literacy by focusing more on Computer Science. So she’s on the other side of this issue from me:

It’s dismaying then, to see in a week where we are seeing a huge move forward in the promotion of technology and a fresh look at how ICT as a subject area is designed and implemented in schools, to see digital literacy being used as an interchangeable term for computer science skills.

Her focus is on the British Government’s announcement earlier in January to revamp the ICT curriculum so that its focus is more on computing and computer science, including coding. That announcement left CS teachers here salivating as they’ve been fighting to get any kind of computing into the curriculum. ICT or Educational Technology as it’s often called here in the states in “integrated” into the curriculum, sometimes fabulously, sometimes not. In some schools, it’s specifically taught as a separate class, sometimes not so well.

Here’s my beef with her post and mostly the comments on the post. Once again, the commenters imagine the lonely coder in a cubicle. We don’t want that! We want to teach collaboration via digital tools. GitHub anyone? Have they been to a startup? Do they know about people using chat, skype, etc. to work together to roll out software? Seriously? And, it’s not all about coding. There’s HCI–interface design. Have you had to use poorly designed software lately? Do you know that medical software needs to have certain interfaces to make it easier and faster for doctors and nurses? The HCI person doesn’t usually do the coding, but instead knows how humans actually prefer to interact with computers. Almost every field and profession could benefit from having its practitioners know how hardware and software works, to have had some experience uploading files to a server or tweaking some javascript or understanding the logic of an “if” statement.

Yes, I think being able to blog and tweet and build documents together online and skype is all good. And if, as Josie says, it’s about critical thinking and lifelong learning, why is Computer Science not about those things, but Digital Literacy is? There are people who think that things are done on computers because it would be too hard to do them some other way. Facebook and Google are the way they are because someone programmed them to be that way, and if we don’t understand that, then we have a big problem.

Program or be Programmed, Rushkoff’s book, is an apt mantra for today’s world. We don’t have enough Computer Scientists not just serving as programmers, but working in other fields. And while I don’t believe that there’s such a thing as a Digital Native, and that we can just let the kids take care of their own digital literacy, I don’t think we can say that teaching DL is more or less important than teaching CS. I’m watching us all latch onto devices that can’t be easily hacked. Can you write a script for your iPad on your iPad? We’re dependent on software developers to create tools just to allow us to view Flash on them. We’re letting huge companies dictate what we can do with our tools. We need more people who are, yes, digitally literate, but who can participate in the development of tools that allow us the freedom to work in the world in whatever way we need to. That’s what attracted everyone to the Internet in the first place. The Internet would not exist if we didn’t have coders.

/rant

Sorry, but I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by this focus on “21st Century Learning” and “Digital Literacy” without anyone recognizing that without Computer Scientists, we would not have those terms. I’m watching fellow CS teachers being asked to teach digital literacy classes when they could be teaching Python or Java or helping a kid develop an app. Many of us feel that we’re being shoved out by the call for “21st Century Learning”. What’s more 21st Century than knowing how to code, or having a deep understanding of how computers work? Or having people able to harness the power of computing to solve our biggest problems: cancer, global warming, famine, transportation. That’s where we’re headed. Those problems will be solved by people plus computing.

Girls and Computing

Laura — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:41:07 +0000

Teaching 8th grade has to be one of the hardest things ever. I dare anyone who thinks they know what they’re doing in life to put themselves in front of a group of 8th graders (girls, even) and see if they can hold their own. I’m betting most people won’t last 5 minutes. I don’t claim to be good at it. I struggle every day, but I’m determined to reach them.

I teach a required “technology” class in each grade level that meets once a week for 10 weeks. In 6th and 7th grade, things are going swimmingly. In 8th grade, things were not. I teach Scratch in 8th grade. My plan was to have the girls create 3 Scratch projects of increasing difficulty. I usually end with having them create a video game. That worked okay the first trimester, but this one, I got a lot more grumbling after we finished our first project. I decided not to fight it. I asked them what they wanted to do. Tell me, I said, what technology/computing projects would you like to do? Many wanted to do video projects. I suggested social media of some kind. And they jumped all over that. So, now, I have two groups doing projects on Tumblr and two doing video projects. I was a little unnerved about this. What if they suck? What if they goof off?

Today, though, the two groups working on their Tumblr projects were doing awesome things. One group was customizing their theme, creating tabs, even digging into some CSS. At one point, one girl said, “This being techie thing is really hard.” A girl responded, “Yeah, but it’s really fun.” Girl one said, “You’re right it is.” Later, someone in that group said something about how many details were involved in technology. I just smiled.

The other group, which is really just one person, took a bunch of photos and opened them up in a photo editor and started manipulating them to make them more interesting and different. She was playing with levels and saturation. And that was pretty awesome.

Maybe they weren’t doing exactly what I’d had in mind at the beginning of the class, but I actually think they’re learning stuff, and for the most part, they’re doing it on their own. They were Googling the answer to how to manipulate the html to make their tabs work. They figured it out before I could even help them. I think that’s pretty empowering.

I also got some feedback from my CS students this week, who are a great bunch of students, really fun to work with. I wanted to know how they liked the class so far, what I could differently next year for the things already covered, and what they’d like to be sure to cover this year. I also wanted to know how likely it would be for them to take another CS course in the future, whether with me or later in college.

Here are their thoughts, summarized:

1. They generally like the class and find it fun. The projects we’re doing are varied and interesting to them.

2. They all hate it when the technology doesn’t work. I would second that, and I’m working on fixing those issues.

3. They want to go on field trips.

4. They want the class to count for something toward graduation other than a basic elective. Some suggested language. I laughed because Mr. Geeky tried that same strategy in grad school in order to avoid taking another language.

5. On a scale of 10, with 10 being very likely, the likelihood of their taking another CS course ranges from 4-9. I thought that was pretty good. I can handle a moderate likelihood of taking a CS course. Heck, after my own first course in college, I never wanted to see CS again. You can stop laughing now.

6. Lack of interest is certainly an issue, but lack of time to fit the course in is a bigger one.

7. They all liked that the class was small (7 students). I did too! They emphasized that the small class size meant a lot of personal help, which is important to them. If the class gets larger, and frankly, I hope it does, I’ll have to figure out a way to deal with that. Pair programming or peer instruction. Something.

It’s been fun to teach, for sure, and I hope to improve upon what I’m doing next year.

I need new resolutions

Laura — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:24:54 +0000

I guess change is hard. Some things have worked out well. The budget, for example, has worked out pretty well. I missed the mark in one category by $20. Not so bad. Meal planning was working well until this week when I went to a conference over the weekend and didn’t have time to shop. So this week started with ordering pizza. Easy enough to get back on track, but kind of a pain. I’m staring down three weekends in a row filled with activity. Two robotics competitions, an open house and a college visit. That’s got the potential for disrupting a lot of routines.

Pretty much everything that was on my earlier problem list is on my problem list now: laundry, decluttering, yoga, walking, programming. It’s too much.

So I think I need to revisit. I need to figure out what’s important. Rest is extremely important to me, which is what usually happens instead of these other things. The fact is that by the time dinner is done, it’s often 7:30. It’s hard to jump into doing laundry or decluttering, much less walking or doing yoga. I have been doing some programming, and because it’s part of my job, I try to squeeze it into work. Mostly, that’s happening.

The yoga class I had originally planned to take meets on Wednesday evenings. I’ve had other obligations for the last two Wednesdays, but I’m going to try to make it tomorrow.

The walking. Well. I think that’s just going to have to go. If I establish the yoga routine, maybe I’ll add in the walking.

I’ve already modified the decluttering a bit. Partly, this has been practical. I started with the front porch, which is a room that used to be a porch and was enclosed but never insulated or heated. Since the weather has been cold, it’s not been practical to go out there at night to sort through things. So, I’ve decided doing anything for 15 minutes per day that contributes to getting rid of stuff or putting stuff in its proper place counts. So, setting up a pick up for something counts as much as sorting through a stack of papers.

And laundry. Well, it’s just never-ending. I’m doing my best. It piled up a bit over the weekend but I have mostly caught up–by doing a load a day.

It’s been extremely busy at school, which takes a lot out of me mentally and physically, and I’ve been finding it hard, especially over the last week, to muster the energy to do much of anything except put my pj’s on. But I’m going to keep trying.

Educon 2.4: Connecting and Reconnecting

Laura — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:01:50 +0000

I am, at this moment, the epitome of the blogger. I’m in my pj’s. I’m in Educon recovery mode. Apparently, some of my Twitter friends are as well. I’ve seen a number of people talking about being in pj’s or being exhausted, etc. This was my 3rd Educon. It’s my second as a K-12 educator. I’m really starting to feel like I’m a part of this group of people. Last year, I wrote about how a few people felt excluded or left out. I didn’t see or feel any of that this year even though many of the same people were there. Interestingly, I started off my conference yesterday with a discussion about being mainstream vs. being on the margins.

Educon always makes you think. From the opening panel, which this year had the fabulous photographer Zoe Strauss on it, to the very last session, which for me was about implementing Chromebooks, the whole conference is all about forcing your brain to run on all cylinders. Instead of saying what I learned, I’m going to pose some questions that have come up for me.

The theme of the conference was about sustaining innovation. In the panel and in many sessions, we kept talking about how to define innovation. I still don’t know what the answer is for our schools or for education, so that’s a looming question.

What does it mean to be mainstream? Is it a bad thing? What about being on the margins? Do we need to bring those people into the mainstream or can they exist on the margins and we can just accept that?

What components of “traditional” education are worth keeping and what can go? Do we have to get rid of some of those things in order to make room for innovation work?

How can K-12 institutions and Higher Ed work together? Can we/should we make more transparent our practices? Where can we build partnerships that are authentic and useful and mutually beneficial?

When are we going to teach computing/computer science in a way that isn’t so “nerdy”? And when are we going to see more women stepping up to be involved in CS education?

We are all agonizing over what the “next device” is, and so what we should invest our money in. Are we selling out to Apple and Google by using their devices and apps? And should we be worried about that? Should we have just one device in our schools? Or can we have multiple?

And just to point you to some resources and interesting things:

ds106–a course and a community, one way of bridging the gap between K-12 and Higher Ed

modkit–an online programming tool for microcontrollers like arduino

A keynote about Chromebooks

For more, search for Educon.

No related posts.

Blogs vs. Term papers

Laura — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:05:21 +0000

A lot of people have been pointing me to this article on using blogs in writing classes instead of term papers. For an extensive answer, see my dissertation from 2007. Just sayin’. But yeah, communication forms change. That doesn’t mean we do away with argument and evidence and critical thinking. I mean, we used to give speeches (without teleprompters) all the time. We spoke poems. Now we have radio, tv, print articles, books, web sites, youtube, all kinds of ways of conveying an argument. We should teach all those.

Who are my students

Laura — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:04:56 +0000

For my How to Teach Webcraft and Programming class, we are supposed to describe our students. So, below are some of my descriptions of students present and past as well as myself as a student. I’ve had a wide range of students, but interestingly, they do sort of fit into categories.

The Artist

I’ve had/have a lot of students who have tremendous artistic talent. They often know their way around Photoshop or Illustrator and are looking to take their talents to the web or into graphics through programming. Many of these, maybe most, are quite independent, perhaps because they have worked independently on their art. They are often the kind of student I can give some key Google terms to or hand them a book and they’ll come back having figured out something cool. Past students have created fabulous flash videos or beautiful-looking web sites. Not all, but some, get confused by the logic of scripting and get frustrated when scripting “messes up” their work.

The Over-Achiever

To me, this is the classic CS student in many ways. These are the kids who enter the science fair without being told to, who read a lot, who take an overload of courses, and, of course, who hack their own computers at the age of 5. Interestingly, my students often do everything but that last one. So, I get students with the smarts and drive to accomplish anything, but who avoid the innards of computers. These students usually pick up things fast, but not always. Sometimes they get frustrated when they don’t because usually everything comes pretty easy to them. But I do find them to be persistent, though sometimes not as independent as the artist-types above.

The Reluctant Learner

I get these when I teach required classes or required training sessions. These students have run the gamut from adults tasked with maintaining a web site to young adults and kids required to take a “computer” class. In the case of required training, the students often really need to understand what I’m teaching. Maybe they need to keep their jobs or they want to get a new one. Whatever it is, the stakes are often high. And yet, they’re not necessarily motivated to learn. Or they don’t have the prerequisite knowledge to learn what I’m now teaching them. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ll have students who are required to take a class, but it’s not graded or doesn’t “count” or some such. In other words, the stakes are really low. Sometimes these actually turn out well, if I can find something that will tap into their interests. However, if I can’t find a way to connect what I’m teaching with what these students want or need, then it’s often a lost cause.

I’ve liked computers since I was about 12 when I got Pong. I learned a little bit of BASIC in 7th grade, but mostly I play Haunted House (on a Tandy) and Lemonade Stand (on an Apple). I took a CS class in college (BASIC again). After years of pursuing an English degree, I landed in a tech job, having to learn most of what I needed to know on my own. I’ve continued to move deeper into teaching computing and now teach CS. I’ve run into people like myself teaching in K-12 schools. We are what one might call tech gurus, but we were never formally trained programmers. Some of us have worked as programmers or developers, but most of us have just learned from books or courses here and there. I learn primarily through practice, trying to program nearly every day, often setting myself increasingly difficult tasks. What I’m learning is that while those with full CS degrees can often tap into much of their past material, the field changes so quickly that everyone is almost always learning.

Falling off the (resolution) wagon

Laura — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:52:40 +0000

Yes, already. Things are still happening. I’m still doing stuff, but just not in quite the way I wanted. It’s amazing how much life gets in the way. Here are the things I’ve done consistently and/or that I’m target for this month:

1. Meal planning. The last two weeks, I’ve planned 3-4 meals. Last week, two of the meals were enough to feed us for at least two days. So far, so good. I’ve mostly been using AllRecipes to help with this process.

2. Reduce groceries and eating out spending by $100 each per month. I’m on target to do this in both categories. Item 1 helps with that, of course.

3. Reduce shopping spending by $100 per month. Shopping is everything that’s not essential–clothing, books, random fun things. I’m doing well here, even with some extra purchases. I’m going to come in well under my average.

4. I’ve put $500 into savings so far this month. So that’s good too.

Okay, now for the stuff I’m not doing so well on.

1. Decluttering. I could almost put this above, but my consistency sucks. We did the big declutter and I haven’t decluttered since. We have a guest staying with us, so . . . blah, there’s always an excuse. This weekend, I’m going to take the books I’ve culled to the bookstore to sell. That’s my goal.

2. Laundry. I was doing a load every day. This week fell apart. Between the decluttering, the robotics competition, parent evening, it just hasn’t happened. This is easy to pick back up again.

3. Yoga once a week. Sigh. The class I take is on Wednesday nights. Yesterday, I had a parent evening, and last week I got stuck at school until 6:30. I’ve signed up for a Saturday class.

4. Walk every day. So not happening.

5. Write a program every day. Sort of happening. But mostly because I teach programming. I need to be doing more.

What does this tell me? Some things are easier than others. When I’m busy, quite frankly, I’m less likely to spend money, so it’s easy to keep that up. Plus, I can check in with my spending and set a goal for each shopping trip. If I know I only have $200 left for the month to meet my goal, I can try to keep the total grocery bill below $100 or put off a clothing purchase until next month, both good things.

What seems to be the hardest are the things that essentially create a new routine for me. I think walking every day might be too large of a goal. Perhaps I could walk twice a week and work my way up to more. The decluttering every day shouldn’t be too bad, but like walking I can often find excuses for not doing it. Unlike walking, the thought of trying to reestablish that routine doesn’t seem too bad.

There’s another week and a half left this month. We’ll see where we are in 12 days.

Things people ask the tech person

Laura — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:31:10 +0000

What kind of computer should I get for my (parent/kid/aunt/me)?
Should my kid learn to type? Do you teach typing in tech class?
Do you teach (name your basic office application)?

That’s about it. Here’s what I wish people would ask:

What should I be doing to educate myself about the Internet?
What skills do you think kids should know to be prepare for jobs and college?
How young is too young to learn to program?
Is learning to program important?
Should my kid go online and if they do, what should they be doing (or not doing)?
My kid is interested in x technology field. How should they prepare? What things can they do?

Just another parent night. Not that the first few questions aren’t legitimate, but I wish that people would up the level of questions. And it may be that a) they were all tired (it was late after all) or b) I covered the answers. I do get some of those questions from parents of older kids, so maybe it’s just going to take them some time to realize they’re important.

The big declutter

Laura — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:23:48 +0000

Mr. Geeky putting in new floor

So the last few days, I didn’t get to my daily decluttering. At first, it was because I was recovering from the robotics tournament, but on Sunday, Mr. Geeky started a process we’d been talking about for months: moving the office to the attic. This was a multi-step process, involving first cleaning out the remainder of the kids’ stuff from their old rooms (which were in the finished attic) and then changing out the carpeting. So Mr. Geeky bought and put down some laminate flooring. Once that was done, he moved the office furniture in, and then we cleaned out the old office to make way for a small guest room and down the road, a bigger bathroom for our bedroom (which shares a wall with the old office).

One desk in the new office

Another desk in the new office

Still to be cleaned and decluttered

It was a big lesson in decluttering regularly. Years of stuff had accumulated. We found labels for 3 1/4″ floppies and for videotapes. There was fancy resume paper, old magazines, computer and gadget manuals. We’d just piled them up. So we threw out a lot. What we didn’t have time to make decisions about we put into bins and we’re determined to get them out this summer and go through them. It’s amazing how much crap we keep–because we think we might need it. But honestly, we couldn’t have found it if we needed it anyway. I had no idea we had disk labels! It’s still a work in progress, but we’re getting somewhere. I think I got all my decluttering in for at least a month.

We won (sort of)!

Laura — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:56:48 +0000

I’ve spent the whole day at our first official robotics competition. One of our teams ended up as part of the winning alliance of teams that won the tournament. In a way, they got lucky. Their robot was good, but was only capable of scoring so much and mostly could do defense. The teams they were grouped with had excellent robots. Serendipitously, the other two teams in their group were both all-girls’ teams, which I think was partly why they chose to work with our team. So yay, girls!

All our teams did fairly well, and I think they’re inspired to continue on and do better next time. I was really proud of all of them. When it comes down to the wire, the girls really do put forth a great effort. We’re all learning a lot!