0 SIGCSE - AM Sessions - Curriculum & Media Computation

Expanding the Frontiers of Computer Science: Designing a Curriculum to Reflect a Diverse Field
Mehran Sahami, Alex Aiken, Julie Zelenski - Stanford University

• 2008-09 redesigned curriculum
• First year, 40% increase
• This year, additional 20% increase
• Students should be explicitly made aware of the options in CS, by providing context for computing
• A lot of different areas over the past 3 years that have developed the "footprint" of CS. Including databases, HCI, security, Machine Learning, Networking and Comp. Bio
  
• Students take a track - gives them more depth. Makes the "footprint" larger.
• The core material must be streamlined.
  
• What - revised curricular structure (core) - theory, systems (each has 3 classes)
  
• Tracks explicitly show available options in CS, helps eliminate image of CS as "just programming."
• Still provides significant programming
• Initial set of track areas (ai, theory, systems, hci, graphics, information, bio computation ...)
• A track is usually 4-5 classes; includes 2-4 electives.

This was an interesting talk, packed to capacity. Tracks are not anything new, but i think this this paper discusses the success and broader impacts of their program. I think that in order to attract a more diverse group of students in CS, we should move towards the track model.

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Variations on a Theme: Role of Media in Motivating Computing Education

• How can we use media as a tool to teach computation?
• In the context of media, the same concepts transfer over.
• Processing - a java based language (http://processing.org/
• Teach computing using art
• Students feel that they understand how programs like Photoshop work, after learning how to manipulate pixels using programming.
• Obamicon.me - how does this program work? Excellent example of a computer program manipulating images.
• Downsides: teachers have to spend more time to analyze assignments (no auto grading); ugly code, projects will "blow" their quota!, challenging to come up with exams or assignments
• Javabat (http://codingbat.com/) - online code practice website.
• Students can become "addicted" or stuck to the media computation.
• How is this content transferable to an Object oriented language?