DRAFT White Paper on
Introducing Programming to ASD Elementary School Students
Background
During the winter of 2013-14 a group of interested Anchorage parents started to discuss the potential to work with AEDC and local businesses and non-profits to provide Anchorage School District (ASD) students with access to programming classes to be offered by the local technology community.
Through many meetings and discussions, we have developed a high level plan that involves a number of strong local stakeholders in a public-private partnership to improve access to technology education and support resources, starting with students in Title I elementary schools in Anchorage.
A critical feature of our project is support of ASD’s efforts to integrate technology education into the curriculum at a pace and in a manner that is appropriate to their community, and especially ASD teachers.
At the same time, our project will proceed along a parallel track to directly provide access to opportunities within the schools through the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) after school program and in-school Computer Clubs. We will also offer resources to support students in the program beyond school, at home.
The Need
The ability to use using technology effectively is critical to both academic success at the high school and college levels, as well as professional success as measured by employability and opportunities for career growth.
Communities have invested heavily in computer labs at all levels of the public school system. Similarly, blue or white collar, technology pervades the workplace. Until recently, basic office computer skills were sufficient to be a user or consumer of technology at school or work. Today and in the future the ability to use technology creatively, using skills such as programming, will be critical for success.
As a practical matter, both nationally and locally we cannot meet the existing and projected needs of businesses for employees with creative technology skill sets. Despite very good salaries and career paths open to technologists, we continue to experience a shortage of people who can write software, integrate critical business systems, perform complex data analytics, and design technology based products and systems to meet current and future needs.
A key contributor to the shortage is the very different opportunities available to students with different socio-economic backgrounds. More affluent students with better resources and a stronger support structure at home have the opportunity to build on these advantages over time. Many students progressing through a Title I school environment have fewer resources and support outside of school, and have much more difficulty sustaining the level of engagement necessary to prepare for and successfully take advantage of higher level opportunities.
While we desire to encourage all students to pursue careers in programming and other creative uses of technology, we believe we can make a critical difference in growing the pool of future programmers by first providing Title 1 students with access to resources and support over a sustained period of time, starting in elementary school and potentially proceeding through middle and high school.
Once we have validated our approach to executing this program we intend to work with ASD to expand beyond the initial Title 1 schools.
Solution – Stakeholders
- ASD (Anchorage School District)
o Working to integrate technology into the Science/Math curriculum
o Through the 21st CCLC and in-school Computer Clubs
o Working through existing and new School Business Partnerships - AEDC (Anchorage Economic Development Corp.)
o Representing the resources of the Anchorage business community
o Supports economic development and local technology community - Alaska Communications Systems (ACS)
o Provide Internet access to Title I students in their homes
o Partner with ASD and Anchorage Public Libraries at InnoLab, etc. - Anchorage Public Libraries
o Support the program through resources and events in the InnoLab
o Offering check-out of robots for students - MOA (Municipality of Anchorage)
o MOA currently surpluses hundreds of PCs and laptops annually
o Active in a number of School Business Partnerships - UAA Computer Science Department
o Pool of CS students have a Service requirement for their degree
o Potential partner for teacher training, certification and support
o The department’s Advisory Board represents local tech businesses - Parents of students, from Pre-K through high school
- Local Non-Profits (Code for Anchorage, Anchorage MakerSpace, …)
Solution – Concept of Operations for the After School Program
1. Preparation
ASD has committed to offer a quarterly after school computer programming class in four Title I elementary schools during the 2014-15 ASD school year, starting with Muldoon Elementary School.
Mark Johannes will lead the after school program, including preparing curriculum and delivering all course material.
We are working with AEDC to host an event with ASD teachers and administrative leadership to discuss and further develop the program early in the school year.
The team will develop a limited marketing effort targeting interested parties from the key stakeholder groups including ASD teachers and students in the targeted schools, and UAA student and non-profit support resources.
Prior to the start of the 2014-15 ASD school year, members of the team will meet with principals and interested staff in the targeted schools to identify how we can help create and strengthen computer clubs in the schools.
Members of the project team will meet with ASD IT Department leadership to develop potential technical solutions to allow external/remote community resources to help support teachers and students in the after school program and computer clubs.
MOA will provide a supply of computers for students participating in the after school program and computer clubs. We are currently working with ASD and the community to identify an appropriate configuration of these computers so they are highly useable while requiring minimal support.
We are establishing a partnership with ACS to provide Internet access for the computers that students will be taking home.
We are working to develop and staff a local online resource for students; we expect scheduling will provide excellent coverage when most needed by students and teachers. In addition to technical skills, we need people with diverse language skills.
We will work to leverage ASD teacher training programs and schedules to provide an ongoing program of staff development in areas that are aligned with project goals.
2. Delivery
At the start of the school year we will make a concerted push to sign up students for the Muldoon after school program programming class and Computer Club.
Once students have become established in the program, the project team will then use a variety of methods to provide a standard configured PC and Internet access to any program students lacking either of these resources at home.
A significant effort will be made when computers are delivered to ensure the students are able to get online, communicate effectively, and access all program resources.
For students involved in the after school program, the team will primarily focus on providing support based around the scheduled curriculum, and work closely with Mark as needed (at his direction).
For students primarily involved in the computer clubs, support will focus around helping participants identify and develop projects in areas that are of the most interest to them.
In addition, we are looking to utilize both the InnoLab at Loussac Library as well as the branch libraries with regular events to bring students from different schools together and to provide support outside of the school and home environments.
Students will keep their computers and their Internet access in an effort to keep them engaged as they continue into their next school year and on into middle school.
There is a huge amount of work going on in the area of online technology education, and online resources are evolving quickly. It will be important for our team, and especially ASD, to track, evaluate and recommend new tools and online resources on an ongoing basis.
Evaluation
We expect to evaluate the project in three ways.
First, there is a need for an ongoing oversight of this new program to ensure we are troubleshooting new and recurring issues and removing any obstacles the teachers and students may be facing, both in the after school program and the computer clubs, in school and at student homes.
Second, we expect to perform end of quarter reviews with Mark and ASD staff in the Title I schools to better understand how we may be able to evolve the program to improve the experiences of teachers and students.
Finally, an end of year evaluation will help all stakeholders better understand how to grow the program into additional schools for the next school year; how to support students and teachers during the summer, and how to best support the students who will be returning for a second year in the program.
Costs
TBD – To date we are operating entirely at no cost.
Participants
Andrew Chlup
ASD, Director of IT Applications
chlup_andrew@asdk12.org
Mark Johannes
ASD, Education Technology K-12 Coach
Johannes_Mark@asdk12.org
Geoff Wright
Pango Media, Owner
geoff.wright@pangomedia.com
Jonathan Bittner
AEDC, VP
jbittner@aedcweb.com
Lance Ahern
Municipality of Anchorage, CIO
UAA Computer Science Advisory Board, Chair
lance@biofidelic.com – Please send all review comments here.
Lynda Van Winkle
ASD, Education Technology K-12 Coach
VanWinkle_Lynda@asdk12.org
Susan Williams
ASD, Manager, 21st Century Community Learning Center
Williams_Susan@asdk12.org
Kathryn Kurtz
ASD, Curriculum (STEM)
Kurtz_Kathryn@asdk12.org
Joe Hackenmueller
ASD, Supervisor, Educational Technology
Hackenmueller_Joe@asdk12.org
Sherri Douglas
Anchorage Public Library, Public Services Director
DouglasSS@ci.anchorage.ak.us
Dr. Kenrick Mock
UAA, Computer Science Department, Chair
kjmock@uaa.alaska.edu