Mentoring

The Future of Technology Education

Jennifer Wadella | @likeOMGitsFEDAY

So, why is mentoring the future of technology education?

http://blog.newrelic.com/2014/06/03/10-secrets-learned-software-engineering-degree-probably-didnt/

Jennifer Wadella

@likeOMGitsFEDAY

Front-end developer
Girls in STEM panelist/Technology Education Advocate
Founder of Kansas City Women in Technology
Organizer behind CoderDojoKC

A little background on me - my name is Jennifer Wadella, and you can tweet at me @likeOMGitsFEDAY.

I work as a Front-end developer at a local startup called MindMixer. I went to school for graphic design and business management, but I fell into web development by accident, and having been loving life every day since.
In 2013 I decided I wanted to meet more lady-devs, so I founded Kansas City Women in Technology. It's interesting being the only woman in the room, hence my founding of a more specific developer community.
CoderDojoKC is a free program that teaches kids how to code, and is another developer community.
Tech Ed Advocate - Shawnee Mission CTE Advisory board, Girls in STEM committee member, planning committee for Girls in STEM conference

The History of Computer
Science Education

An Overview

1834 First computer is "invented"

The Analytical Engine is theorized by Charles Babbage.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/lpae.html

1843 Computer Science is invented

Ada Lovelace developes a punched card program to calculate the Bernoulli numbers.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

1946 First computer science class

Columbia offers one of the first academic-credit courses in computing.

1947 First computer science degree programs are established.

Professor Howard Aiken creates degree program at Harvard
Maurice Wilkes of Cambrige University creates computer degree program in 1953

1960 Manhattan Systems Research Institute created.

IBM creates it's own program to train employees

1970s Computer Science takes off.

Programming languages are invented, more computer companies are founded, computer science enrollment rates rise.

*In the mid-1980's enrollment of women in computer science was the highest it's ever been.

2000/2001 Dot com bust

Computer science enrollment plummets.

2007 Economy begins to recover.

Computer Science enrollment slowly begins climbing again.

In 2013 computer science undergraduate degrees rose by 2.92%

... and Doctorate degrees rose by 5.2%

http://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/2013/03/taulbeereport/

2014 Halt & Catch Fire airs on AMC.

If you're interested in the 1980's time chunk I skipped over, watch this show.

Where We Are Today

http://www.bls.gov/

Current Curriculum

Source: Code.org database of local computer programming schools, sourced by a combination of data from the College Board, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and individual teacher submissions.

9 out of 10 schools don't teach computer science. Many of them are still attempting to integrate teach keystrokes and the Microsoft Suite into the curriculum. Those that do have attempted to use free in-browser programs like Scratch and Alice to demonstrate programming. A few even teach java. One thing I haven't seen in any stats are how many of those schools teaching computer science have a computer science teacher.

When I was in high school, and I'm not THAT old, mind you, I taught my computer class. Our wrestling coach couldn't be bothered to read the text book to understand how the program worked, and besides, computers were hard. I would read the lesson plan during one of my free hours, play on the computer to be sure I could execute, and then instruct the class. Finally I would circulate the room, having my patience tried by those who didn't find the program as intutive as I did. For frame of reference, this 'program' was photoshop.

Code.org has created a fantastic movement pushing to get computer science taught in schools, and both schools and goverments seemed to understand the importance. However things get muddled in the execution ...

It Takes a Village ...

"Because there were so few university courses in computing in the early days, IBM set up the Manhattan Systems Research Institute in 1960 to train its own employees. It was the first program of its kind in the computer industry. The three-month program included courses in computer engineering, software programming and designing systems to solve particular customer problems."
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/compsci/

I mentioned the Manhattan Systems Research Institute in that little history lesson, but I want to spend more time discussing that concept.

IBM was fundamental in the creation of computer science programming, because they had the need for these employees. If we want to create a sustainable workforce, this is a model to adapt.

It's funny, this title is called "the future of technology education", but a more appropriate title would probably be 'returning to technology education'.

It wasn't always that technical education was in the hands of a government-regulated education system. Sure, we've been learning reading, writing, and 'rithmatic since the dawn of a 1 room schoolhouse(I'm just referring to US history, by the way), but trades were learned from parents and employers. Children and teenagers learned from adults in their community how to do more than add 2 + 2, but how to run a shop, how to stable horses, or sow seeds for crops.

In his essay, Why Nerd Are Unpopular, Paul Graham actually visits this concept of when teenagers being useful memebers of society, vs. today, where high school is toned down demonstration of Lord of the Flies. But let's look at teenagers today, or maybe even the teenager you were. No responsibility, no bills to pay, and plenty of time. And with those who engineerishly-inclined, much of that time may be spent on a computer.

Why are we abandoning this workforce that just needs a little guidance?

Enter the Mentor.

10 Secrets You Should Have Learned with Your Software Engineering Degree – But Probably Didn’t

Version control systems
How to write code (well)
Using libraries
Terminology
Tool usage: IDEs, editors, CLI tools
Debugging
Teamwork
Working on existing code

So what now?

Current Programming

Code.org
Computer Science Education Week - December 8th-14th
Hour of Code
CoderDojo
Girls who Code

How to Implement Programming

Location.

Mentors.

Attendees.

How to Find a location (for free)

Your work.
A school.
A coworking space.
Industry advocates.

How to Get Mentors On Board

"It's like reliving your first 'hello, world' moment over and over again."

How to Get Companies On Board

Offer them employees.

How to Get Attendees

Know your networks

Jennifer's Tips & Tricks

curriculum

mentor onboarding

promotion

thick skin