LIKES: Educating the Next Generation of Knowledge Society Builders Authors: Wingyan Chung, Edward A. Fox, Steven D. Sheetz, Seungwon Yang Presenter: Wingyan Chung August 7, 2009 Work supported by the NSF under Grant Nos. CCF , , and Findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect NSF’s views.

2 Computing and IT education Facing tremendous challenges despite intensive use of computing and IT in human lives Student enrollment Lack of representation from women and minorities Bias in perception (study, career prospect, etc.) Lack of interdisciplinary collaboration Strengthening the connection between computing and other fields could help Living in the KnowlEdge Society (LIKES) project

Computing Curricula Computing: CS, CE, IS, IT (by ACM) Address various problems and issues From pure theoretical development to application deployment ACM and the IEEE-CS published “Computing Curricula 2001” Information management part not enough “Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems” (2002, 2006) The focus lies solely on filling industry requirements Need to equip college graduates with the knowledge and skills to build the Knowledge Society 3

Use of Computing Concepts in Other Fields Core curricula in typical colleges Most are not up-to-date to provide adequate exposure and training The notion of “IT as a tool” is not capable of leveraging the intellectual capabilities of today’s students Providing them with the knowledge of computing and IT concepts has the potential to transform their thinking about what they are capable of doing 4

Examples Using quantitative analysis (enabled by software packages) to support qualitative judgment in the study of history Computer-aided design in the study of architecture Analysis and visualization of spatial data in the field of geographic information systems Roles of program design and programming language in digital music composition (music technology curriculum at the University of Northern Colorado, Understanding of data structures and information visualization in biology Analyzing demographic and poll data in political science 5 These examples illustrate the potential for integrating computing concepts in different fields

The LIKES Project Led by 4 sites: VT, Villanova, NC A&T, SCU Goals To collaborate with a broad range of disciplines to identify key problem areas and applicable computing concepts To define the problem-centered pedagogy most appropriate for teaching the computing concepts To transforming computing education by developing and testing course modules and tools 6 Meeting the needs of the Knowledge Society of today and the future are at the center of our needs as a nation and global society

Project Outcomes Four workshops held (as of today) SCU – Defining problems and applications (Dec. 2007), 34 participants NC A&T – Identifying concepts and paradigms (Apr. 2008) VT – Learning in Knowledge Society (Nov. 2008) Villanova – Building the Knowledge Society (Mar. 2009) 7

Perceptions of Computing Concepts in UG Studies Curriculum Step 1Curriculum Step 2Curriculum Step 3Curriculum Step 4 Social Theme (required) NetworkingIP,Privacy,Civil LibSocial Context Problem Solving Theme Basic logicProgrammingAlgorithms/Prob.Computer Literacy Data/Knowledge Theme HCIDatabaseKnowledge RepModeling/Sim. 8

LIKES Presences Home page: Facebook LinkedIn Second Life 9

Facebook Group: LIKES, LIKESVT

LIKES Main Homepage

Sakai: LIKES Team, Students

LinkedIn: LIKES Educators

Second Life: LIKES (Living In KnowlEdge Society)

Integrating Computing and IT into Other Curricula GIS System development methodology Process modeling Social Computing, Privacy, IP, Ethics Physics, Statistics, Biology Algorithm development skills Computational models, animation and visualization, error analysis and correction Music Using a tool (such as a programming language or a software) to produce and record music Creating electronic music devices Machine learning in advanced signal processing History Assessing information obtained from the Internet Incorporating computational thinking into historical analysis Increasing collaboration Teach students to develop customized tools for data analysis 15

New Courses and Programs VT “Intro to LIKES” LIKES themed core courses in VT’s Curriculum for Liberal Education (CLE) NC A&T New program: “Web Engineering” SCU “Science, IT, Business, and Society” Villanova “The Laptop Instrument” 16

Additional Work Joint work with Rebooting Summit, Jan VT Workshop, to be held in Nov NSF Proposal on Curricular Guideline development (Pending) 17

Summary The LIKES Community Building Project aims to build a community to define the way to make systemic changes in how computing and IT concepts are taught and applied in both computing and other fields New communities are built New courses and programs are introduced or being developed at participating sites Paving the way toward a revitalized undergraduate computing education 18

Acknowledgments NSF AMCIS VT, NC A&T, Villanova, SCU All collaborators and contributors 19