The Crisis in Computing Education:

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The Crisis in Computing Education

• What are the Real Issues?

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Presenters

• Andrew McGettrick
• introduction and origin
• Boots Cassel
• importance, myths, negative images
• Mark Guzdial
• curricular concerns
• Eric Roberts
• the rest, including more on initiatives

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Why is it a crisis?

• Enrollments falling to around 50 of 2001 levels
  in US
• Staff reductions are happening or are threatened
• The number of jobs needing high quality graduates
  is increasing
• The gap between what is needed by industry and
  what is being produced is widening

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Extent of the crisis

• The crisis is not confined to the US
• It exists in many countries in Europe, for
  example there are some exceptions
• In the UK, for instance, the numbers have fallen
  by a similar amount and the problem over jobs
  also exists
• Reaction in UK Grand Challenges in Computing
  Education 2004 and 2006

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Understanding the issues

• The problem is very complex - there are many
  factors that need to be addressed and aired
• We need to try to understand the issues
• We need to be open to the possibility there are
  good reasons for the crisis
• There are important economic considerations
  related to the competitiveness of a country

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Deep down

• Do we believe computing is really important, is
  really fundamental?
• What do we believe about education for the 21st
  century and the pervasiveness of the computing
  metaphor?
• Can we articulate this clearly to a wide
  audience?
• What does this say about computing education?

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Additional Quote (about UK)

• there are today more computer science students
  in the UK than in all of the more traditional
  sciences - physics, chemistry and biology - put
  together. Even so, few would argue that basic
  physical science is dying, or losing out to
  industrial research, just because it is sometimes
  hard to recruit undergraduates from our school
  system.
• Yorick Wilkes et al,
• UK Times Higher Education Supplement,
• 23rd February, 2007

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Aims of this session

• To assess the reasons behind the decline in
  popularity of computing and to come to a better
  understanding of the many dimensions of this
  problem
• To look at what steps we can take to address the
  underlying causes, so leading to a healthier and
  more positive view of the discipline