In 2007 the National Science Foundation, Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), launched a major initiative to transform undergraduate computing education in the US. They called the program CPATH, for CISE Pathways to Revitalized Computing Education.
CPATH was founded in response to the decline of enrollments in undergraduate computing, down by 50% since 2001. The decline has been a paradox to many because the demand for computing people in the labor market exceeds the computing degree pipeline output by 50%. CPATH sponsors four kinds of grants: (1) community building, (2) evaluation, adoption, and extension, (3) transformation, and (4) CISE distinguished education fellow (CDEF).
In June 2007, NSF CISE announced two distinguished education fellow awards: to Owen Astrachan of Duke University and Peter Denning of Naval Postgraduate School. Each recipient received an NSF grant to pursue a project that would stimulate new thinking about computing education.
This is my project web site.
My hypothesis is that the "operating model" for computing education, which was formed and adopted in the 1960s, has become obsolete. It was once a major education innovation; now it stifles innovation. My project is exploring alternatives that would produce a new model. For details, see
Project Summary (2007)
Project Proposal (2007)
SIGCSE'08 Proposal, Self-Image (2008)
Project Mindmap (Sep 2007)
Through two or three workshops, we will explore alternatives and flesh them out into action plans for computing educators to consider and adopt. The ACM Education Board will be actively involved in providing support structures for those who adopt. We will examine:
Great Principles of Computing. Complete the development of a GP framework that represents the computing body of knowledge as fundamental scientific principles. This alternative view exposes considerable scientific depth in computing and demonstrates that computing is a natural science. Supporting materials:
GP Project Web Site
Great Principles of Computing, CACM, Nov 2003
Computing is a Natural Science, CACM, July 2007
Recognizing Innovators. Recognize and support young innovators in computing departments of university and pre-college schools. Establish a portal to help them find each other, and help others learn about their work. Provide them with coaching on the foundational practices of innovation. Supporting materials:
Innovation as Language Action, CACM, May 2006
Technology and Transformation course web site
Project Based Learning. Many educators have been interested in project-based learning, where students learn mostly from involvement in projects rather than from classroom lecturers. Early examples have been popular with students at the Danish universities Roskilde and Aalborg, and in the US universities Olin and Neumont. Bring interested parties together to discuss how this might be done on a wider scale.