Crazy Travel Begins: NASA Goddard, MIT CSAIL, Stanford, and Tufts

It’s nearing the end of the semester here, and classes are wrapping up, so the pent-up travel bursts into my calendar.  Here’s what I’ve got the next three weeks:

• I told my youngest daughter, “I’ve got a cool talk coming up.  What’s the coolest, geekiest, most amazing techie thing you’ve heard of recently?”  She immediately replied, “The Mars Rover!” And I got to say, “I’m going to NASA!”  (which is even cooler in our house than saying, “I’m going to DisneyWorld!”)  I’m flying tonight to Baltimore to visit NASA Goddard Space Flight Center tomorrow and give a talk about computing education for everyone.  My eldest daughter wishes she could come with me — “That’s my dream job!”
• Friday, I’m going to MIT Computer Science and AI Laboratory (CSAIL) to talk about “What we know about teaching computer science (Answer: Not all that much)”.  It’s going to be an exciting day. Hal Abelson and Mitchel Resnick are both on my schedule.  I’ve already received a note from Richard Stallman saying that he can’t make my talk, but am I going to release any free/libre software to address problems in CS education?  (Seriously!)
• Next Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec 4-5), Barbara and I are visiting Stanford again.  We were just there in March and are pleased to be invited back so soon.  I’m giving two talks on Tuesday (and the nervousness factor rises geometrically, not linearly).  The first is a demonstration lecture, which I’m excited about and wish I got invited to do more often when I visit places — I don’t get to teach introductory CS much here, and I love doing it, so it’s a treat for me.  The second is a research talk on “On-Line CS Education.”
• Then the following Monday (Dec 10), I’m at Tufts University visiting the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. There’s a bunch of great work going on there, but I have a more personal interest in going there, too.  I lived at Tufts when I was an intern for GTE Laboratories in Waltham in the Summer of 1983, and have fond memories of the campus.

If I’m slow in responding here (or via email) over the next three weeks, I hope you’ll understand.  If you’re around one of these places and can come to my talk, please do and stop by to say hello!

Learning Science and Engineering Professional Masters Program at CMU

I admit jealousy. This sounds like a great program that I wish we could offer at Georgia Tech. A CS Ed track would be natural in a program like this.

The Learning Science and Engineering Professional Masters Program (LSE)

The Master of Science in Learning Science and Engineering program offers students who have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in such areas as psychology, education, computer science, information technology, business, or design the opportunity to improve their training with advanced study in Learning Science and Engineering. Our students will gain the knowledge, skills, and techniques to develop and evaluate programs in learning settings that range from schools to workplaces, museums to computer-based environments—as well as other formal, informal and non-traditional educational settings. Graduates of the program will take key positions in corporations and private and public universities and schools; they will become designers, developers, and evaluators of educational technologies and learning environments as well as domain experts, learning technology policy-makers, or Chief Learning Officers.

via Learning Science and Engineering Professional Masters Program – Overview | Human-Computer Interaction Institute.