I’ve had experience with the design school and HMW questions through my experiences with developing an Innovation Lab (Makerspace) with Lisa Bettencourt and Ashbury College. The challenge for me is always the same though: I like to cast a wide net and do it all in one go! So, my iteration process is more about trimming the fat than pruning the different paths. As always, having my “client” in mind helps though I find this hard since my clients change each year and I’m trying to predict who my client will be five years from now.
So let’s start with who is my client: The unconverted. The student who on the first day of Computer Science has a deer in the headlights look with a course change form already filled out because they heard that Computer Science is hard. They are sitting near the door at the back of the class. They feel like they are not part of this crowd. Loops are something that happen in movie plots with time travel. Variables smell of math. They need to know what’s in it for them and they heard there are some possibilities (e.g. “Coding is the future!”). This kid just so happens to be sitting next to Johnny “Neo” Turing who has been coding since he was four and hacked a library’s mainframe in junior high. I ask a question. Johnny blurts out some technologically-advanced answer that would make a first-year undergrad blush and the panic sets in. For example, Me: What did you do over the summer? Johnny: I built a 4-bit computer using nothing but IC chips and breadboards! Are we programming in assembly this year?
To say I want my class to be inclusive doesn’t really seem to really get at the problem. Throw in the Ontario government pushing a new math curriculum during a pandemic that forces everyone (including their teachers) from K-8 to learn to code all of a sudden and things just got really mirky.
The problem is I have a bunch of brave students with the odds against them. They like science or video games or they want to be the next zero-to-hero business start-up or they are creative and quirky. However, no one at home to help them when they can’t decrypt an error (3 hours to hunt for a semi-colon in 500 lines of code takes determination!) and no relatable skills to fall back on. Their gender (or gender identity) is in the minority. Their colour or ethnicity is in the minority.
Separate but important problem: I’m a native! Coding is easy for me and has always been. I’m a white male who shunned off art class for the cool comforts of the pure, beautiful and absolute logic of math. I’m coming full circle with doing design technology and loving the creative messiness of it. However, my training is not complete. Yeah, Cohort 21!
So back to my process…
Question 1:
My first HMW question was “How might we encourage a wide range of students to find success in Computer Science so that I can continue to grow the program”.
I liked the follow-up question to my HMW question: “So. What does success look like for you, for this problem?” Having more students in the program is not the thing I am really driving for. It is what will happen if I’m successful for sure. Maybe it won’t be and let’s be honest, more for me is less for someone else’s course. So what is it? More diversity? yes! More determination with homework? yes! Is it that my students go out and do something extra (relative to their skill level) on a project? That’s it. That’s when I know they are hooked and I got them.
My revised HMW: How might we inspire students to use computer science in a way that is meaningful to them so that they feel that they are bringing something to the class and their community?
Question 2:
The people I need to talk to are the people who are doing things differently. I need people who will challenge what should happen in a Computer Science class, what the culture should be and what kind of projects are meaningful, worthwhile. It’s hard to get perspectives from students because they don’t know what they don’t know and they aren’t in a position to say what they are really thinking.
I have found some great materials that look at Computer Science with Art and that has helped push my boundaries. Art is a naturally inclusive subject that allows for exploration in a safe way. However, I still need to look at areas like Data Science because it is a great way to do something meaningful without having to develop an entire app ecosystem. In terms of classroom culture, I have been reading materials on what studies have found in terms of developing an inclusive classroom.
However, I still need to talk with more people about how to develop an engaging program that meets the needs of everyone with a vast range of abilities.
Question 3:
Unmet needs are stories. Being a teacher is being a storyteller where the student is the character on a quest. Finding ways to be an effective coach when they are in the learning valley is another skill I feel like I could always develop.
Another important part that needs to be considered to answer my question is how to put it all together over a three-year program that meets both IB and Ontario expectations. That’s a tall order.
Hey @adrenth – loved reading through your post as you seem to be inquiring into many questions to develop a meaningful course and inclusive class culture! I agree that it is important determine and clearly communicate the ‘WHY’ behind taking computer science as a way to make the class relevant to your students….so many of our students want link a sense of purpose and real-world applications are to the skills and knowledge they are studying at school. Can you call on community partners like start up developers in your community to zoom into class to share their real-world experiences? Regarding inclusion, I think you are on the right track by trying meet the needs of your students and to find ways to amplify their ideas and perspectives. @ljensen @acaplan @jsmith might want to join this conversation.
Thanks, Tina! Bringing in those stories is really important, aren’t they? In addition, the ‘why’ is more visible when students see how Computer Science is used.
Looking forward to any further insights!
Hi @adrenth
Great post! I especially liked how you drilled down on what ‘success looked like’ to modify your HMW question. This allowed you to be more specific and also allows the goal to be measurable. As I was reading your post I was thinking about your goal of creating a more inclusive classroom. The fact that older students choose their courses I imagine has an impact on the diversity within your course. Therein lies another broader challenge… what is the brand? what have other users experienced? what are they sharing? all of this has an impact on their choices. It’s not something I had given a lot of thought to as a Grade 2 teacher but is certainly something worth considering. You might be interested in the CISReads book club as it is a group of educators discussing JEDI books that was born out of Cohort Action plan last year. If you are interested let me know or reach out to @tjagdeoaja @gnichols or @jmedved they are all involved currently!
Thanks for sharing, I’ll see you Saturday.
Lisa M.
Thanks for your sharing, Lisa. Coming from a Math-background, branding is a weak skill for me and I am thankful that you helped bring it back to the foreground. I do try to get feedback from the students to help me develop the course, but branding is about having a presence and my students are a key part of that. My students enjoying the class is one thing, however, new students encouraging other new students means so much more. Someone is more likely to listen to a peer than a guidance counsellor or teacher.
I’m interested in JEDI books. I would love to learn more about it.
@adrenth. I LOVE this part – “Unmet needs are stories”, it’s so important.
I really liked reading this, I wish I had more input. For now one resource may be in regards to the Data Science – I’ve been exploring Jo Boaler’s YouCubed work on Data science and seeing how it may integrate with Digital Wisdom – https://www.youcubed.org/resource/data-literacy/#
Thanks for sharing.
The YouCubed resource is a fantastic place to start for my students to look at Data Science. It’s a unit I’ve been developing in the back of my mind for a while now. Thank you for sharing
@adrenth I invite you to follow my awesome colleague https://twitter.com/tcoops and connect with him (tell him I sent you) tcooper @ yorkschool .com . He teaches computer science as the York School and would be an AWESOME resource to not only grow your professional network but also move forward with this great action plan.
Thank you for sharing your contact!
@adrenth There is so much in your post that resonated with me! Your HMW question is so important to interrogate. I absolutely cannot call myself a programmer – even though I took computer science in high school (MANY years ago), taught MYP Design and taught coding to PYP students. Every single time I have tried to update my own coding skills and struggled it was because I didn’t have a personally meaningful project to apply them to, I found that being able to combine coding with physical objects helped me to be more engaged (eg. this might be my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1-pdgGn0SI&t=148s) or a need to organize a lot of data. I wonder if those are things you could consider? Or does that only work for design in the IB world?
I really enjoyed how you talked about how “being a teacher is being a storyteller where the student is the character on a quest”. It made me think about all the different types of story archetypes. Determining the journey for each student is the art of teaching! https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-story-archetypes#the-7-classic-story-archetypes
Hey Lara,
I thank you for sharing your story and the pieces you collected along the way. Physical things do make something real, don’t they? I have a student who is totally hooked on programming because of a robot project in Grade 9. Thank you for reminding me of that.
Your intuition about what engages students, like lots of data, makes a lot of sense. The answer isn’t obvious anymore and it would pull them in. It’s a great link to Data Science too! That’s something I have always been exploring for a link and now I have something.
Great post, @adrenth – really gets at the heart of what I think we as educators need to focus on in all our classes, but especially in the computer science field. I’ll second @tjagdeo ‘s comment and I hope you are able to connect with some of the suggestions provided!
I find that in math and computer science courses, asking students to troubleshoot and/or show a method for solving a coding challenge before (and I usually like to select a student I know will think differently then both me and the dominant voices in the class first so that their possibly unusual or different way of thinking is presented with lots of time for discussion and tweaking), and then when (because it’s a when not an if situation I find) that method seems to work, I name it for that student (i.e. Tyger’s Method of Factoring –> yes in a math class, that was the name of a method for two years running thanks to Tyger). Then I usually ask for a dominant voice to share an idea or method so that we have contrast. Not sure if this would work for you, but might be worth trying if you haven’t already. I found it challenging to not insert my own thoughts into it the first time with Tyger and trinomial factoring, but it just took some practice. 🙂
I love it! I recently used your idea to have a student develop the Leopold Tree Traversal.
Hi @adrenth – Great post, and you’re getting a lot of great resources in the comments too – Whoot! I want to explore a little more with your HMW and get you thinking about student agency in your course. Why are they taking it, and what will they do with it? And once they have reflected on these answers, then they can more authentically bring something to the class. You are indeed up against a tall order; however, by actively engaging the students as agents in their learning may help.
Thanks, Garth!
The agency of the students is a good way of putting it and I think something I need to be very mindful of as I work through developing my HMW and my next steps. I like how that brings them into it and makes them a part of it. It’s a subtle and powerful way to give them some ownership for being there and gives them a sense they are forging their own path.