Social discussion of CS in K-12

["Reese, George Clifford" <reese AT illinois.edu>]

Hi Minsoo,

 

Sorry, this reply is rather long. But I got to pondering.

 

You ask if we’re still leading the computational thinking effort?

My opinions is sort of no and sort of yes.

 

The sort of no part:

The initial push at Kenwood has lost energy. It is not the Computational Thinking school that we might have hoped for a couple years ago. Momentum has waned. Our business partners have fallen away. Only a small group of teachers and parents around Champaign are really aware of Kenwood’s CS/CT identity. A key advocate, Kerris Lee, was not elected to the school board. My own feeling is that the many other priorities of school have somewhat crowded out the CT energy. Reading the news stories, it appears that other states and other school districts are moving faster.

 

The sort of yes part.

On the other hand, we have NSF funding and Kenwood teachers are the leading innovators in this effort and the locus of research and development in a truly cutting/bleeding edge effort. You and Todd and Maya and I are on a national leadership team for Practices on the Code.org Framework. Through the Code.org and NSF, we are positioned as leaders in the effort. Major movers are aware of us as individuals. I would say most especially Todd and Maya. But you and me, too. We have the support of the computer scientists, Lenny and Cinda, who have been working and hoping for CS for all for decades. And the CTRL-Shift group discussion remains active if not always mobilized in a single direction. J

 

Money is starting to appear on the national front. But, as Alan Kay warned the Code.org group, in may not be our friend. The frenzy to get a piece of that pie should not distract us from the big picture of CT for a forum school innovation and engaged education for ALL students. I remember that there was lots of energy in Math for All in the 90s. Some good things happened and some terrific artifacts remain. But it did not scale, and math remains “the worst curricular villain in driving students to failure in school.” That quote is from the 1989 report, Everybody Counts. 1989! And we still have no ready answers in math for all. So, the CS/CT push will happen and is happening, whether we lead it and are funded by it or not.(So far, we are. Yay!) But if past history is any guide, the mountainous efforts will bring forth a mouse, and the small group of committed individuals will still be there plugging away and making a difference on the small spaces where, in the end, high-quality education (whatever that may mean) actually happens.

 

I think your general question from this post and reading the article is perhaps a worry that we’re falling behind. I think we are indeed falling behind on some things. But I know of nothing else to do but keep plugging away.  And my hope is that we take the long view of our own fame in this, but at the same time note and celebrate the great things that are happening for kids right now.

 

When I watched the 4^th graders presenting last week, I was moved by how much they enjoyed their work. How they were proud of their presentations, were able to accommodate their peers and take to heart the collaborative framework you and Todd  and your colleagues have invented. It was inspiring and I saw it. So did Maya and the two CEMSE visitors. So, that’s something. And it’s not the only time I have left Kenwood feeling inspired, it’s just the most recent.

 

So, all this is to say, I think we’re doing ok. Bumpy, but still going. It certainly has been the most rewarding collaboration in my 22 years at MSTE.

 

George

 

 

 

 

From: Minsoo Park [mailto:parkmin AT u4sd.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2016 10:29 AM
To: Reese, George Clifford
Cc: Israel, Maya; ctrl-shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu
Subject: How one school district works computational thinking into every grade and class

 

 

http://hechingerreport.org/how-one-school-district-works-computational-thinking-into-every-grade-and-class/

 

How do we move forward?

Are we, our school, district, and community, still leading this?

 

Food for thought. 

 

Sincerely,

Minsoo Park

 

Enrichment teacher

Kenwood Elementary School

Email: parkmin@u4sd.org 

Phone: 217.351-3815

 

No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.

- Einstein

 

On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Reese, George Clifford <reese AT illinois.edu> wrote:

Thanks Maya,

The best part of that interview for me is where he acknowledges that, “In higher ed we have a brutally standardized system.” I believe that is completely true and often ignored.

 

Anyway, I’ve got the audio book and will listen to it over the coming week.

 

George

 

From: Israel, Maya
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:35 AM
To: Reese, George Clifford; Wherfel, Quentin M; Shehab, Saadeddine Salim; Pokimica, Jelena; Metzger, Adam Reid; Bila, Amanda A
Cc: ctrl-shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu
Subject: NPR article about the book I'm reading....it's worth reading

 

Dear all,

 

I can’t remember which of you I spoke with about this book, but I am currently reading a book called “The End of Average” by Todd Rose. He’s one of the UDL proponents at Harvard and writes both from his academic research as well as experiencing failure when he was in school (he dropped out of school with failing grades in high school and somehow made a remarkable recovery and is now a Harvard professor of neuroscience). NPR just did an interview with him, so I thought I would share the link with you.

 

In any case, I’m only 4 chapters into the book, but I find that it is written in a conversational style, which I appreciate and it articulates why Universal Design for Learning is so critical for academically diverse learners. I would love to chat with folks once they have either read the article and/or the book. All of you who know me well know that UDL is at the heart of my research and although it is not a perfect instructional framework and simplifies what we know about the brain greatly, it does provide a powerful framework that teachers as well as technology and curriculum developers can use to meet the needs of a much wider range of learners than are typically met in traditional classrooms, even those who use differentiation. 

 

 

Here’s the link to the NPR interview: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/02/16/465753501/standards-grades-and-tests-are-wildly-outdated-argues-end-of-average?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160216

I hope you have a wonderful day. Take care,

Maya

 

Maya Israel, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

276B Education Building
1310 South 6th Street
Champaign, IL 61820
misrael AT illinois.edu 
http://education.illinois.edu/sped/people/misrael

 

_______________________________________________
Ctrl-Shift mailing list
Ctrl-Shift AT lists.mste.illinois.edu
https://lists.mste.illinois.edu/listinfo/ctrl-shift