A crowdsourced blog post about my SIGCSE Keynote: Computing Education as a Foundation for 21st Century Literacy

I had an unusual (and lazy) idea for my SIGCSE Keynote. I didn’t have the time or energy to write a blog post. How about if I asked everyone to tweet my talk, and I’ll just copy-paste them together? I got a response — too large of a response. There were well over 1000 tweets!

I couldn’t review all of them.  I selected a set that covered the key points in the talk, grouped around topics/order in the talk. All the slides are available on Slideshare.net here. A complete “live blogging” account is here.

Starting out

Mark @Guzdial receiving his @SIGCSE_TS award from Judy Sheard #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/ITwcNcOM7O

— Shuchi Grover (@shuchig) March 1, 2019

History of Computer Science and Teaching CS to Everyone

Love that @guzdial uses the Perlis, Newell, and Simon def of CS: "The study of computers and all the phenomena that arise around them" – I use that in #SCRIPT workshops for #CSforALL #sigcse2019 @SCSatCMU

— Leigh Ann DeLyser (@lsudol) March 1, 2019

"CS was invented to be a tool to be used to learn everything a STEM (or any other) student needs to know." @guzdial going through the history of CS ed #SIGCSE2019

— Meg Ray (@teach_python) March 1, 2019

So many new things to read thanks to @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/AYBQZEDIvn

— Anne Leftwich (@anneleftwich) March 1, 2019

George E Forsythe was cited by Mark @guzdial as the person that coined the term #ComputerScience Here is an article by Donald Knuth outlining Forsythe's contributions: https://t.co/B02bhNHoLT #SIGCSE2019 #SIGCSE19

— Phill Conrad (@pconrad) March 1, 2019

Alan Perlis.. the father of the idea of computer science for all! #CSForAll #sigcse2019 #guzdialkeynote @guzdial pic.twitter.com/D1QD6BS8Jv

— Shuchi Grover (@shuchig) March 1, 2019

Kay & Goldberg (1977) — a mindblowing article with powerful idea of computing in learning that @rdp_life gave to me to read .. the paper was cited in Grover & Pea (2013) #guzdialkeynote @guzdial @SIGCSE_TS #sigcse2019

— Shuchi Grover (@shuchig) March 1, 2019

"Computing is the master simulator. " @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Lisa Kaczmarczyk (@lisakaczmarczyk) March 1, 2019

Computing can be and effect the way the student sees everything else – @guzdial at #sigcse2019 pic.twitter.com/uSJFn6TNSu

— Miles Berry FCCT (@mberry) March 1, 2019

This student was modeling the fall of a rock off a building with a mental for loop after learning physics though programming! #sigcse2019 pic.twitter.com/oZabhwXBNK

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

"If we teach CS in other courses, can we teach enough?" asks @guzdial – I like his analogy to visiting a foreign country: how much of the country's language do you need to know to get by? better to know more, but you don't need to be fully fluent to enjoy your time #SIGCSE2019

— Mine CetinkayaRundel (@minebocek) March 1, 2019

Mention of @swcarpentry and @gvwilson by @guzdial in his #SIGCSE2019 keynote, pointing out that there are many more end-user programmers than professional programmers

— Neil Brown (@neilccbrown) March 1, 2019

It was! Ha!

— Neil Brown (@neilccbrown) March 1, 2019

Love how @guzdial summarized #CSforIN @ECEP_CS helped us develop and find out how many Indiana students were taking CS #SIGCSE2019 get the full landscape report here: https://t.co/rkM2ytmrII pic.twitter.com/SyTRPa1JcX

— Anne Leftwich (@anneleftwich) March 1, 2019

We are really really gender imbalanced. Oh yeah. My classroom is 99% males sadly. @guzdial @SIGCSE_TS #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/9NRiVYLUDW

— R G (@rgrasser22) March 1, 2019

CS AP is one the most male dominated AP exams….by a lot. @guzdial @ericson_barbara #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/xlJDfozYUb

— Josh Weese (@weeserj13) March 1, 2019

Just a little context courtesy of @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 #CSforALL pic.twitter.com/yRQ16sRNHS

— Meg Ray (@teach_python) March 1, 2019

From Computational Thinking to Scientific, Engineering, and Historical Thinking

Shout out from @guzdial during the keynote to programs successfully using #computing to help students learn other subjects better – @Bootstrapworld and more. Adding that in South Africa using @OracleAcademy found students’ maths scores improved as a result. #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/cynKRyLAkT

— Alison Derbenwick (@aderbenwick) March 1, 2019

Overlaps between Computational thinking and engineering thinking.—@guzdial #guzdialkeynote #sigcse2019 @sigcse2019 pic.twitter.com/sgjYGEnJCI

— Shuchi Grover (@shuchig) March 1, 2019

Computing is a way for computational, engineering, scientific, historical, and other forms of thinking. @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/kEOh3sSUkk

— Josh Weese (@weeserj13) March 1, 2019

"There is incredible learning power in even a small subset of programming." –@guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

@guzdial details learning programming. This isn’t just K8 for programming (@KatietheCurious et al). This is learning in all CS. Most Scratch projects are stories (@katyaskit & Fields). #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/dRIorNWPkt

— Anne Leftwich (@anneleftwich) March 1, 2019

How can programming help people learn other topics better? –@guzdial #sigcse2019 @Bootstrapworld cited as one great example

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

Examples: Sound Demonstration and Subgoal Labeling

Love @guzdial demos digitizing sound with harmonicas and ukulele #ofcourse #SIGCSE2019 #myfavoritecsprofessor pic.twitter.com/OmxwgtVl5I

— Anne Leftwich (@anneleftwich) March 1, 2019

Now @guzdial is using @gpblocks in his #SIGCSE2019 keynote (cc @moenig) to display real-time visualisation of sound waves and fourier transform as an example of aiding learning via programming. He has a harmonica, and his ukulele is presumably hidden behind the podium…

— Neil Brown (@neilccbrown) March 1, 2019

Musical etch-a-sketch at @guzdial keynote (not to mention live music performance!) #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/4CVJWNlbBy

— Miranda Parker (@parkermiranda) March 1, 2019

the money shot — @guzdial demoing computational transformations of audio with his uke! #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/FSKmGuEx2r

— andrea forte (@andicat) March 1, 2019

Visualized ukelele and harmonica solo by @guzdial pic.twitter.com/kiReRmny0d

— Josh Weese (@weeserj13) March 1, 2019

"Make a prediction".
Then, "look at your thumb!"#SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/Rgb6oQe6Ap

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

"Computing is the 21st century literacy, because we can use it to learn everything else" @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/5pNH8dUCbD

— Engaging Learning Lab – University of Florida (@EngLearnLab_UF) March 1, 2019

Make students make a prediction first, they'll remember it more @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Miranda Parker (@parkermiranda) March 1, 2019

You don't have to write code and program to learn from code. @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Miranda Parker (@parkermiranda) March 1, 2019

If we want to get computing education to everyone, we need to increase our efficiency in teaching it – @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

The secret sauce: research-proven ways to improving #computing education *and learning* according to @guzdial. #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/5v1u6NxLM5

— Alison Derbenwick (@aderbenwick) March 1, 2019

I had several requests for the code I ran in the demo in JES (which is available here):

def increaseVolume(sound):
  for sample in getSamples(sound):
    value = getSampleValue(sample)
    setSampleValue(sample, value * 4)

def maximize(sound):
 for sample in getSamples(sound):
   value = getSampleValue(sample)
   if value >= 0:
     setSampleValue(sample,32600)
   if value < 0:
     setSampleValue(sample, -32600)

The sound visualization GP project is here.

You can get GP at http://gpblocks.org.

Call to Action

"We need to find what makes the great ideas of computing accessible" @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 pic.twitter.com/9Noa4Qbr2x

— Engaging Learning Lab – University of Florida (@EngLearnLab_UF) March 1, 2019

There's a lot of programming paradigms we haven't tried yet in K-12. What about theorem solvers, logic programming, etc? We need to grow and mutate, and not just use technologies that work for software engineers. – @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

We aren’t going to have sustainable CS education anywhere in the world without having preservice teachers learning to teach computer science. @guzdial #SIGCSE2019 #CSforALL

— Diane Levitt (@diane_levitt) March 1, 2019

@misrael09 called out by @guzdial for her research on including students with disabilities in #CSforALL at #SIGCSE2019 keynote pic.twitter.com/Bda2aNTqPf

— Meg Ray (@teach_python) March 1, 2019

Q & A

Mark @guzdial during Q&A:
Q: Should every college student take CS0?
A: No. I agree with Perlis: every student should take some programming.
Not the same course the future software developers are going to take.
A course that makes sense to them.#SIGCSE2019 #SIGCSE19

— Phill Conrad (@pconrad) March 1, 2019

If all university graduates knew something about programming, we create a literate culture, and that will make future young people want to learn programming. And, all pre-service teachers would know something about programming! –@guzdial #SIGCSE2019

— Katie Cunningham (@katieirenec) March 1, 2019

Ok this is food for thought: @guzdial believes every UG student needs to know programming, but not CS. “This is how we create a computational culture. If you want CS in elementary schools, start with the university.” #SIGCSE2019 #CSforALL pic.twitter.com/tjqJunzSnc

— Diane Levitt (@diane_levitt) March 1, 2019

We go to teachers and say ‘here’s the tool’, it’s very rare for us to go to then and ask ‘what do you want in a tool?’ – @guzdial at #SIGCSE2019

— Miles Berry FCCT (@mberry) March 1, 2019

CS "in their own language, in their own terms"– @guzdial #SIGCSE2019

A statement that goes beyond the immediate context of integration into school disciplines. What would CSed look like on people's own terms and in their own languages? #translanguaging

— Sara Vogel (@saraevogel) March 1, 2019

Awesome quote from @guzdial : “I would like to use computing to help you with your problems- what problems have you got?” #SIGCSE2019

— Jennifer Kay (@jenniferskay) March 1, 2019

"Math concepts do not have to be abstract, we can use computing to make them more concrete." @guzdial @SIGCSE_TS #sigcse2019

— John Dougherty (@jdcshaverford) March 1, 2019

Composite

Mark @guzdial gesticulating during his #SIGCSE2019 keynote #manygestures #guzdialkeynote @SIGCSE_TS (with his ukulele that’s never very far away) pic.twitter.com/0dQNKdpnya

— Shuchi Grover (@shuchig) March 1, 2019

Draw on research in science education and maths education to move cs education forward + we need more people in schools of education @guzdial at #SIGCSE2019 – agree 100% on both points!!

— Sue Sentance (@suesentance) March 1, 2019