Post on 19-Jan-2016
ACM Europe Update on Educational Activities
Education Council Meeting, Denver, Colorado
24th August 2015
Andrew McGettrick
Outline
• Background to Educational Efforts
• The Committee on European Computing Education
• The Report
• Conference Developments
• Concluding Remarks
Background to Educational Efforts
• Context
– Around 15% of ACM membership is European (approx 16,000)
– 60% of ACM student members are from outside the US
– ACM Europe is now a legal entity within Europe and its aim is to serve the needs of ACM membership in Europe
– In the educational sphere it aims to advance the status, standing, and role of informatics education across Europe
– In its educational activities it works with Informatics Europe (IE)
• Informatics Europe (IE)
– This is a coming together of (some) Heads of Computing in Europe; some 74 institutions are involved
– Originally set up to be a ‘CRA for Europe’
– Membership costs 2500 euros (zone 1), 1000 euros (zone 2)
– 5 universities from the UK are members
;
Schools report - published
• Joint Report produced by ACM Europe and Informatics Europe:
Informatics Education: Europe Cannot Afford to Miss the Boat– Draws a clear distinction between education in digital
literacy and informatics– Argues informatics is a major enabler of technology
innovation, the principal resource for Europe's drive to become an information society, and the key to the future of Europe's economy.
– Calls for all students within Europe to have access to a high-quality education in informatics at the secondary (schools) level
Committee on European Computing Education (formerly the Joint Advisory Committee)
ACM
Michael CaspersenDenmark, SIGCSE, co-chair
Michael Kolling UK, SIGCSE
Serdar Tasiran Turkey, ACM Europe
Andrew McGettrick UK
Informatics Europe
Barbara Demo Italy
Cristina Pereira Switzerland
Antoine Petit France
Jan Vahrenhold Germany, co-chair
Immediate projects
• Refine and further develop the schools report
• Undertake a two-year study to conduct a deep assessment of the state of informatics education within each European country; note the parallel with the ACM study
Running On Empty: The failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age
See runningonempty.acm.org
• Give consideration, with Informatics Europe, to creating a new high profile computing education conference within Europe
Some Observations
• ACM Europe and Informatics Europe now jointly fund Mirko Westermeier who is based at the University of Munster (home of Jan Vahrenhold), to assist with these plans, e.g. the survey.
• Engaging the membership of Informatics Europe has been seen to be of particular importance
• With respect to the conference,
– Within ACM conferences have traditionally been seen to be the responsibility of the SIGs; hence SIGCSE involvement has been important in the CECE
– the intention is to have a conference that is European in character, run by Europeans, primarily for Europeans
– ITICSE has tended to take place in Europe, but in 2016 it is going to Peru; this was seen by SIGCSE as an opportunity for the European conference to ‘take off’
CaMIES Project
• CaMIES = Creating a Map of Informatics Education in Schools
• Project duration: runs from 1st April 2014 until 31st March 2016 (24 months)
• The emphasis has changed slightly from the original concept so that coverage across Europe is seen as important; this stems from consideration about how the final report will be used by ACM Europe and informatics Europe
Report form CECE –July, 2015
• Primary source of contacts was authors of an issue of ToCE
• 35 responses had been received from 28 countries
• Israel being included
• The survey addressed topics such as:
– Digital literacy: is it addressed and if so when, is there a standard curriculum, is it separate topic or integrated
– Informatics: is it addressed and if so when, is there a standard curriculum, is it compulsory
– Range of influence: government inspired? How easy would change be? How specific is curriculum?
– Teacher training: requirements for teaching?
Specific Topics to be Ranked (by Contacts)
• Policies: Research and funding policies; Education policies;
Quality management
• Teacher qualifications: Teacher training; Continuing professional development
• Intentions: Learning Objectives; Competencies; Standards
• Examination/Certification: Formal examination; Post-Graduate Certification
• Extracurricular Activities / Contests
Darmstadt Model for Ranking
• The scale is as follows:
– 0: None / Not applicable
– 1: Student (e.g., “learning objectives are defined individually”)
– 2: Classroom
– 3: School
– 4: Region (e.g., “certification done by third-level administrative units”)
– 5: State
– 6: Country (e.g., “curriculum has to be approved by the ministry”)
– 7: International
Accessing Information
• There is a digital map of Europe
– It has to be refined; a number of countries have still to be labeled
– Israel is to be included as an inset
– mirko.westermeier.de/cece/
(user: cece, password: map)
• By clicking on a country access can be gained to information about that country
– At the moment the information that can be accessed is limited to the topics - policies, teacher qualifications, etc. - and an associated score within the Darmstadt model
Some Observations
• A presentation of the results (including an updated map) has to be made at the European Computer Science Summit on 12th (?) October
• This is annual meeting of Informatics Europe
• Much work has to be done prior to this
Conference Developments
• Michael (C.) has overall responsibility for conference developments
• As far as the conference is concerned, the following statement was made in an earlier CECE report:
The roadmap envisions enhancing the WiPSCE and ITiCSE conferences. Preliminary discussions have been initiated with Susan Rodgers, Chair of the ACM SIGCSE Board
• Note that WiPSCE refers to the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education; next such conference due to take place in London in November 2015
First conference
• The first federated conference will take place in the first half of September 2016 in Münster
• WiPSCE, ISSEP and CSERC are supposed to join
• The Steering Committees of the individual conferences are due to report back as soon as possible and indicate if they want to join (same for 2017)
• Federated conference committee due to be formed at start of September; nominations are / have been submitted
• Committee concerns will include: naming of conference, ensuring visibility, addressing prestige, etc.
Subsequent conferences
• Second federated conference in 2017
• The second federated conference will most likely take place in late June/early July 2017 in Bologna.
• WiPSCE, ISSEP, CSERC, and ITiCSE are expected to join.
• There has been contact with Renzo Davoli in Bologna; Renzo is thrilled about hosting a larger computing education event in Bologna in 2017
• Potential future locations (2018-): Paris, Barcelona, ..
Final Slide
• Quote from recent (July 2015) report
We have been unable to obtain data from Bosnia & Hertzegovina, Macedonia, and Albania. We still do not have contacts in Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, and Montenegro
• Any help would be appreciated, to: andrew@cis.strath.ac.uk