Computer Science for All in 2023: What does it mean today?
By Jason Klein, Senior Director of Learning Partnerships, P20 Network
Less than ten years ago, computer science education became a hot topic in school districts throughout the United States. While many of the world’s leading information technology companies are based in the United States, there continues to be concern about the global shortage of electrical engineers, software developers, networking professionals, cybersecurity experts, and this concern is even more significant within the United States as immigration is necessary to fill these high-tech careers.
The reaction to the gaps in workforce needs and the careers that students are being prepared for through their school experiences are reminiscent of similar historical concerns about math and science education in the United States early in the Cold War during the mid-to-late 1950s and again in the 1990s with the birth of the world wide web and in the aftermath of the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).
Over the past decade, school districts have addressed concerns about computer science education with solutions like The Hour of Code from CODE.org, working with online solutions that support block coding such as MIT’s Scratch, exploratory and elective classes, and formalizing computer science coursework in high schools through either Career and Technical Education or in the context of a Mathematics department. These high school offerings today often even include culminating coursework that offers dual credit with a postsecondary institution or The College Board’s Advanced Placement Computer Science.
Despite the growth of computer science in a variety of ways at elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools across Illinois, there remain huge gaps in access, notably for schools that are smaller in size and for school districts with lower levels of financial resources. While we definitely need to close these gaps, we also need to remember that computer science is a quickly moving target for all students and all schools, and this certainly complicates our efforts as educators.
Today, the future or Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) remains unclear. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and Large Language Models are the newest flavors of technology. In each case, we need true experts who are the innovators and developers of these technologies. Additionally, to be literate moving forward, everyone needs to have a foundational understanding of how these technologies work. Not only will this be critical for career success in tertiary sector information economy jobs, but understanding how these systems work is also critical to be fully participating members of our communities and individuals who can engage in voting and policy discussions at the local, state, national, and international levels.
What does all of this mean for computer science for our students? Ultimately, we need to support all teachers with embedding computer science-thinking throughout the school day and throughout the scholastic experiences of all students. This modern approach to computer science is taking shape in schools across Illinois already, and today, ECEP Illinois (Expanding Computer Education Pathways), the Illinois Effort that is part of the national ECEP Alliance, is laying the foundation for an expanded schoolwide approach that integrates computer science education across traditional academic disciplines and across grade levels. There are a range of K-12 and postsecondary organizations that comprise this group, and in July 2024, ECEP Illinois plans to release its report on our next step to make this reality about infusing computer science thinking for all students throughout their schooling experiences. Professional learning for teachers across Illinois will be critical to this. In the meantime, we can all begin thinking about how we can be more sophisticated users of technology ourselves, thinking about how it works and why its been constructed that way, engaging our students in these same lines of thinking, and considering how we may be able to incorporate computer science thinking into the units and lessons we already teach as we move forward, ranging from thinking about if/then structures to the incorporation of large datasets in work to writing well-structured prompts from modern LLMs such as ChatGPT and Bard.
