I was pleased to be a part of a Computer Science teachers workshop sponsored by the UAB CIS department. We met Monday, July 31st. The keynote speaker was Chris Stephenson, the Executive Director of The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). CSTA is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines. CSTA provides opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and learn. You can read more about CSTA here: http://csta.acm.org/index.html . The number of students entering the Computer Science field is dropping though the job opportunities are growing in this field. We need to make sure students and parents understand the critical need for computer science education. Computer Science is more than just learning office applications, it involves problem solving skills and logic where students can actually be producers of solutions rather than just consumers of information. CSTA has excellent publications available online here: http://csta.acm.org/Publications/Publications.html#dbottom . The results of the UAB workshop will be posted soon on the UAB CIS site: http://www.cis.uab.edu/ . I especially enjoyed seeing the student presentations of the the Alice programming language and the lego robots. My former high school math teacher attended. One of her current students (and my former student) was one of the presenters. It was exciting to see a legacy of lifelong learning continuing. I am also pleased that the students wanted to form a partnership in helping to work with younger students and their teachers over the coming year. It is always rewarding to see students who want to give back and teach others.
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