At a Computer Science Symposium presentation last spring, I elaborated on the thoughts that I started in the May newsletter. You'll recall that I was talking about great word processors that I've known over the years.
The presentation dealt with the current reality of being a teacher of Computer Science. Many of us started to develop our own computer programming skills at high school or at university. For many people, the first language that you cut your teeth on would have been some flavour of Fortran. In its day, it would likely have been a version of Fortran IV, probably WATFOR or WATFIV if you learned it in Ontario.
From there, a next logical step would be to work with COBOL and then perhaps some sort of assembler language.
Next, it would have been on to the numerous versions of BASIC that were available. Microsoft had QuickBasic, Borland had Turbo Basic, and then there was an Alice BASIC developed for the Icon computer.
A move to procedural languages saw Alice Pascal and Borland's Turbo Pascal make life interesting for computer science teachers. For many, the jump to C or C++ was a natural progression. While these are, and remain, incredibly powerful development tools, they did require a certain level of sophistication that made them difficult for students to learn as a first language.
Enter Turing, and later Object Oriented Turing which ended up being Ministry of Education licensed. In the United States, the Computer Science Advanced Placement exam has long been recognized as a beacon for where the discipline is heading. Shortly, you'll see that the AP exam uses Java as the programming language.
What does this chronology have to do with the presentation?
The message dealt with the plight of computer using teachers. While teaching in general is undergoing huge changes in both philosophy and content, consider the plight of the computer science teacher. While logic may be similar, it's the syntax and rules of the language that puts enormous demands on professional learning. Imagine moving from Spanish one year, to French in another, to Russian in another, to Japanese and well, you get the message.
Computer Science teachers don't have a monopoly on this either. Anyone who uses computer technology and software in their classroom has constant change to deal with. Is anyone using version 1.0 of any software package?
How do you stay on top? There was a time when you'd take an entire course or mini-course to learn a new topic or technique. In this day and age, learning these skills just might become obsolete by the end of the course.
Instead, it makes more sense to take a look at how industry handles these changes. Just In Time learning and support makes a great deal of sense. Small chunks of enhancement to a base skill set lets you stay on top of things without a big overhaul of knowledge. It only makes sense to acquire these skills and still have time to have a life.
In Greater Essex, a continuing program of professional development supports this need. Above that, there are also high quality conferences to support learning.
As an example, one of the very best is hosted by the Western Regional Computer Advisory Committee. http://www.westernrcac.org. Attendance at PD events such as these does help the cause of staying on top of things.
Wishing everyone a successful new year.