[CS4HS] Feedback from Google on some of our CS4HS Melbourne discussion topics

[Andrew Shortell]

Thanks Paul

Where would you announce new data sets, and such like ­ the cs4hs.com  site?
Or ..

The guerillabus:
I did a little ³stirring² on the IT Apps list that so many vce IT teachers
are on and had some  umm... interesting responses.
Basically the current stuff suits lots of people (not all though). I believe
we really need a subject that is CS. Whether that is a vce 5,6 or a uni
enhancement is open but it is not going to happen for a little while in vce
at ordinary yr 12 level.
In time we could talk it up but for now a fast track 5,6 (i.e. Yr 12
³extension² ) or a fast track common agreement amongst universities about
what they would accept is the most sensible way to go.

Paula Christophersen (at the workshop) is at VCAA in charge of I.T. (and so
CS too). 

I am certainly happy to be on a working group to fast track either or both
options preferably with some ³industry² input as to what is wanted and uni
input is paramount.

Melb uni has not made it on to the google site about cs4hs yet  and is it
there that you announce any upcoming workshops (if not, why not?) or where?
I would think if Google announces it then it would spread better?

Andrew Shortell 

-- 
Andrew Shortell
Teacher




On 14/12/11 4:25 PM, "Paul Cowan" <cow at google.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I've debriefed with Sally-Ann Williams from Google (CCed) on the CS4HS seminar
> we had last month, and have gathered some feedback/information on some of the
> fields where Google's possible involvement is discussed. Rather than starting
> a thread for each, I thought I'd just summarise some things that were talked
> about during the seminar here, and Sally can chip in if she has more
> information or more to add.
> 
> Getting 'face time' with Google Engineers: this was discussed in a couple of
> contexts over the two days. One was as a general way of getting kids
> interested in theoretical Comp Sci / 'computational thinking', and letting
> them see what's valuable to Google (much as I spoke about); the other was from
> the 'Women in CS' subgroup as a way of getting female role models in front of
> girls considering CS education. In short: yes, this is something Google really
> supports and is happy to help with. Just let us know! We're (generally) happy
> to send engineers to events if they can reach a large group of people (i.e.
> individual classrooms can be a pain, because of the burden of travel time etc;
> open days etc work a lot better for us). For smaller groups, we'd certainly
> love to consider videoconferencing/hangouts so, again, if anyone would like a
> Google engineer to speak to their kids please let us know!
> 
> Getting Android hardware for mobile software development: we don't have a
> program or a way to do this, sorry! We used to but it was targeted at
> Universities (not High Schools) and is now discontinued.
> 
> Getting Google schwag (pens, pads, etc) for competitions/events: Sally's the
> person to talk to. Hassle Sally, she loves it!
> 
> Lesson Plans, Fact Sheets, etc: the issue of whether Google can help with
> these kinds of materials ("Hey kids! Here's a cool problem to solve! Can you
> do it? Now can you do it faster? With a million records?", along with
> information about WHY this stuff is actually useful) - Sally pointed out that
> we have some of this on the CS4HS website
> at http://www.cs4hs.com/curriculum.html and I think
> at http://code.google.com/edu/. If there's more you'd need, or if you end up
> producing some of these kinds of plans and want us to share them with others
> on the CS4HS site, let us (Sally again!) know.
> 
> Google Data Sets: similarly to the above, the idea of having a central
> resource of these kinds of things (like the N-Gram dataset one group of us
> discussed, which has many amazing uses for education) was brought up. People
> are already working on concentrating this stuff, but Sally has offered to take
> the lead and follow this up to make sure we have a central repository for
> these and it's communicated to this list.
> 
> The Guerillabus: the big one! Short answer is: yes, this is something Google
> might be interested in. No guarantees, of course, and it would be contingent
> on the results but the fundamental premise: that, if a syllabus which was
> attractive to us in terms of improving the level of computer science education
> was produced, Google would be willing and/or able to support it publicly, is
> fairly sound. The extent to which we were willing to get involved is obviously
> contingent on a number of factors, and I hate to be vague, but in general:
> yes, we are happy to speak out in public on issues that affect us, and this is
> certainly one!
> 
> Finally, given there are more CS4HS events coming up, Sally also raised the
> possibility of a mailing list for participants in our inaugural event and
> those to follow. Given we have this list at edulists now, maybe this is the
> best place? Sally mentioned that she'd be happy to point future CS4HS workshop
> participants to the list so we can grow + foster this community.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Paul Cowan | Site Reliability Engineer | cow at google.com | +61 2 9336 4837
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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