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