Skip to main navigation Skip to Content
Mark Guzdial Meeting Everyone's Need for Computing
While interest in computer science degrees has declined, interest in computer science continues to grow across campus. Some estimates suggest that by 2012 there will be some 13 million end-user programmers in the United States, compared to an estimated 3 million professional software developers. In this talk, I argue for more attention to that much greater number, for having an impact by making more successful the non-professional who uses computer science. I will present historical evidence that our field has had a goal of teaching the non-professionals about computer science for over 40 years, and recent evidence that end-user programmers want what we have to offer, and that we need to develop new kinds of classes and new kinds of approaches to teaching CS to meet their needs. I will present methods for teaching computing that have improved success rates for non-computing majors (while still including programming), such as contextualized computing education.
Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Guzdial received his Ph.D. in Education and Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1993. His research focuses on learning sciences and technology, specifically, computing education research. He has published several books on the use of media as a context for learning computing. He was the original developer of the "Swiki" – the first wiki designed for educational use. He serves on the Education Board of ACM and on the Board of the Special Interest Group on CS Education (SIGCSE). He is on editorial boards of the Journal of the Learning Sciences, ACM Transactions on Computing Education, and Communications of the ACM.
* There is no registration for this event. Seating is limited, so arriving early is recommended.