TEALS set to go

TEALS (Technology Education And Literacy in Schools), TechEd has been taken a long long time ago by a worldwide MS conference.

After a couple of informationals at Microsoft attended by around 60 people, we ultimately received 10 applications for four positions to teach at Issaquah High School.

The Advanced Math class did not get enough enrollment to warrant a class, but both AP CS and Web Design had overwhelming responses from the students. So much so that I realized that we might have to go to a college lab assistant model. That's how we ended up with four open positions. Each subject will have a teacher and a lab assistant.

The resume review process was hard to select who we wanted to interview and I felt pretty terrible for having to turn people away from teaching. This will only drive me more into expanding this program down the road. The interview took place on Monday and the four candidates we felt who were best fit for the positions all accepted.

For the next few weeks, I will be getting together with both teaching teams to start on getting text books selected, course laid out etc... I am very excited to work with these four amazing and enthusiastic people who share my passion in technology education.

EduConnect All Star

So it turns out this TEALS thing is starting to take off. I'm rather giddy about it actually. Anyway, got selected as Microsoft EduConnect's All Star. I will also be in a video at MGX (internal MS sales and marketing conference) and doing an EduConnect webcast as well. Hopefully TEALS will get a lot more exposure this way and get some more momentum inside the company and surrounding schools.

I will be conducting interviews with Issaquah High School for the positions next Monday. Very excited, can't wait to see the demo lessons.

Ivory Tower vs Microsoft, the revisit and rethink

A while back, by a while back, I mean in 2006. I had a choice to make, to continue in education academia get a PhD or go work for Microsoft on an online collaboration service. 4 Years into it, I am looking at the choice once again.

(The Sign In App on the right was my feature)

At Microsoft, I have been the Program Manager for Microsoft Business Online Services since its inception. We built a group from nothing to a service that's now regularly uses by millions of customers world wide. In my spare time, I have been able to teach CS on the side, take education classes at UW, and most recently start up the TEALS pilot program.

(notice the book talk on the Computer Club House)

In my recent visit to NYC, I think I might have briefly fell in love with the idea of a PhD program and the atmosphere of graduate school again. NYC has this amazing energy and vibe that just does not exist anywhere else. Columbia itself is sort of an oasis in the city. Best of both worlds maybe. I visited Teachers College and it did remind me of what I liked about graduate school.

It's always been a struggle for me between on the ground impact I can make vs bigger picture theory. So very very torn... Then reality hit me, beer in NYC is $8.

TEALS on MSW!

My Technology education and literacy pilot at MS took a very positive step yesterday. We were on MSW, the Microsoft internal website (see pictures below). The turn out was great, and the room was packed. I think we'll get enough interest to start the pilot next year on the right foot. To be continued...

Back in teaching

I am now teaching CS part time, and the course is intended for high school students. It is actually divided into 2 parts, which I have only done as a Teaching Fellow, Scratch to get the kids understand variables, conditionals, loops, message passing, and next week, Java! We'll see how that goes.

CS education (literacy) through the school system

Getting a CS literacy curriculum through the state / district level is the most obvious, and probably the hardest way to get CS into kids' hands.

First of all, changes to the state curriculum is no easy task.  California, of all places, home to the world's 8th largest economy and silicon valley, has no CS curriculum requirement for graduation.  The amount of bureaucracy to get this done will be huge.  The state and school districts will have other priorities, and will face big challenges from teachers unions, parents, other competing programs (the arts for one) for money.  

Working CS in the state curriculum guideline is one thing, then there's the implementation of it at the district level.  Current district level technology directors (if they have one), is more of a position where the objective is to integrating technology into education, not technology education itself.  

Teachers Unions will obviously have a say in this matter as well.  A whole certification program will have to be spooled up.  Guidelines for hiring, and evaluating CS teacher, and people with enough expertise to do so.  Indeed, there will also be a problem of teacher supply.  Imagine during the dotcom bubble, how many CS teachers would have taken the scale instead of jumping ship to industry.

Parents will have many different opinions on this as well.  Perhaps money spent on CS would be better spent on another science, band, art, auto shop.  A whole host of voices saying that why computer science instead of X.  Textbook choice will yet be another matter, which one?  Do we want kids to memorize, or go with constructivism?  Parents will have an opinion on this.  Especially parents in the tech industry.

Well, why would this be a good idea?  The entire infrastructure will already be there for teaching kids CS.  Just add teacher and curriculum.  Once in the state curriculum, every student will have to go through the class for graduation.  That is a huge plus.  There will be standardization, assessment, state funding, etc...

The long range goal for CS education will have to be this.  Despite record number of H1B visas, and ever fewer number of CS grads (economy has something to do with this), the push for STEM, there just isn't a national push for this.  There's no single huge moment like when Russia launched Sputnik that spurred the country on.  

 

CS theory, application, and education

I always knew that UC Berkeley has a great CS department, and it was theory heavy.  Apparently the latest US World News rankings agree.  So what does that say about the CS students that Berkeley unleashes into the wild?  I have heard certain knocks about Berkeley EECS grads.  I think mostly it has to do with the purpose of the EECS education.

As great and challenging as the engineering education I received at Berkeley, I feel there are two classes that should have been mandatory for all EECS students (the ones on the CS track anyway).

1.  CS169: Software engineering.  This class should be expanded and perhaps made into a 2 part series.  The real world requires working in project teams that's a part of an even larger group.  We needed to learn the entire software product cycle.  From requirements gathering to complexity and risk management to support and sustained engineering.  

2.  CS160: User interfaces.  No EECS student should be able to graduate without a course in HCI, plain and simple.

I think the Berkeley EECS program should take into consideration that a majority of the graduates will be going into industry rather than aiming for a professorship down the line.    

Teaching a hard choice for CS grads

I have often wondered whether computer science teachers should be treated like any other teachers when it comes to pay.  I think the lack of interest in AP CS is not just the lack of student interest, it is also a lack of willing and qualified teachers.

The average teacher salary in the Seattle area is $41,137 according to MSN Careers, for a software developer, $73,774.  The difference more is startling in Palo Alto, $43,361 vs $92,804.  The data here doesn't differentiate between elementary and high school teachers, so I think the numbers are a little low, but not by much.  Likewise, the developer number in Palo Alto might be more senior, and therefore skewed on the high side.  

If averages aren't your thing, here's two more concrete examples from 2006.  The first is a link to the pay scale at Cupertino Unified, the hometown of Apple Computers.  The second is the general pay scale at Microsoft, Level 58/59 is where most new hires start.

As you can see, a new computer science teachers gets paid $51,071, while his college classmate who ended up at Microsoft earns $75,000.  That's not quite the whole story, add to $75,000 about $5,000 in stocks and bonuses, and you're looking at $80,000.

The real problem here isn't the starting salary, it's the raises.  To get to his friend's $75,000, the teacher will have to get a masters and teach for 10 years.  To get to the highest pay grade at $95,000, it takes the teacher 27 years, and his friend at Microsoft 4 years to get to Level 61 at around $90,000.  

If you had an average student loan of $20,000 when you left engineering school, it'd much easier to pay it back if you went into industry.  In fact, the difference in accumulated earnings is $90,000 in just 3 years.  That's a Porsche Boxster S in 3 years after taxes, or pay off your student loans and a BMW 3 series.  I like to use cars at this point since it's a little more tangible than just a number.

 

Add to that, a house in Cupertino averages 1.2 million, if you want to live where you teach, that's gonna be almost impossible.  In purely monetary terms, as a CS teacher, sooner or later, it becomes a very hard to choice to stay in education.  

It's good to know that none of us with engineering degrees went into teaching for money.

The State of Technology Education in the US

I just saw some interesting stats from the 2007 AP tests.  It is distressing how far computer science lags behind the other sciences.  In order of number of students who took the tests.  

1. Biology 145,000

2. Physics 100,000 (B, C Mech, C Ele& Mag)

3. Chemistry 97,000

4. Computer Science 20,000 (A & AB)

In comparison, US History had 311,000, and Calculus had 290,000.  

This is in a world where high schoolers are all about being on Facebook, XBox, and PodCasts.  Yet when I started teaching in 2002, the State of California, home to the high tech industry, did not offer a state certification for computer science teachers.  I would even argue that most of these AP CS test takers mostly came from private schools that have seen the need for such education for their students.

We have seen our IT industry leaders testifying before Congress asking for H1B Visas.  The long term request from the IT industry should really be making computer science a required science subject in American high schools.