Guest Speaker

Constructing Media as a Context for Teaching Computing and Motivating Women and Non-Majors

Mark Guzdial
Georgia Tech

Thurs., Dec. 2nd
3:30pm; 480 Dreese Labs
All interested parties are invited.
Refreshments will be served immediately preceding the talk.

Abstract:
To address the high rates of failure among women and
non-majors in introductory computer science classes, we developed an
introductory CS course centered around media and communication.
Introduction to Media Computation introduces programming and computing
ideas through students programming image filters, splicing and
reversing sounds, implementing digital video special effects, building
Web searching tools, and writing programs that generate text. We
support the course with a textbook, a programming environment designed
for this context, and a collaborative website on which students can
share their media creations. The course has been offered for over a
year now, well over a thousand students, with an average success rate
of around 90% -- with the majority of students being female. Students
report that they find the course relevant and creative, with a rich
social context. The course and components of it are currently being
tested in two and four year schools outside of Georgia Tech, with
similar results now being reported at other schools. This talk
describes the course, our assessment, and our future directions,
including a curricular path into Computer Science through media
computation and help for high school teachers to teach in a similar
way.

Bio: Dr. Mark Guzdial is an Associate Professor in Learning Sciences &
Technologies at the College of Computing/GVU at Georgia Institute of
Technology and Director of the Collaborative Software Laboratory. His
research focuses on the collaborative learning in the context of
creating and exploring multimedia artifacts. He has just completed a
book on introducing programming in a media context with collaborative
infrastructure, and has written and co-edited books on the programming
language Squeak. He is on the editorial boards of "Interactive
Learning Environments" and "Journal of the Learning Sciences."

Host: Bettina Bair