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Introducing a New Computer Science Curriculum
posted by: Alana | October 17, 2016, 05:03 PM   

 

The world around us is rapidly changing.  It looks dramatically different than it did thirty years ago, twenty years ago, or even ten years ago.  Driving this change is the swiftness with which computer technology is growing and how much it is affecting our everyday life.  More and more, computers are being integrated into everyday parts of our lives.  There are now computers in our phones, our cars, and even our refrigerators!

 

As computers and programming become more integral to our lives, it has become clear that computer literacy is an essential knowledge, not only for job prospects, but just for being able to interact with the world around us.  Up to this point, skills like computer programming and hardware engineering were limited to a few who either picked it up on their own or who took advanced collegiate courses, but now this sort of knowledge is needed by everyone.

 

With this in mind, there is a growing consensus that computer science classes need to be a part of K-12 education going forward.  Attempts up to this point to integrate computer science have been relatively small in scale and relying on voluntary participation by teachers who have already shown interest in teaching their students computer science.  Most notably, the Hour of Code has seen success in its attempts to make computer science learning mainstream.


This is about to change, however.  This week the new K-12 Computer Science Framework is being unveiled.  Although completely optional at this point, the K12 CS Framework is the most comprehensive effort to date to bring computer science into the classroom.  Designed by leaders in the field like ACM, CSTA, Code.org, CIC, and NMSI along with leaders in education from states around the county, the framework outlines exactly what every student should be learning at each grade level.


If you’re interested in adopting the framework in your school or classroom, you can find it on their website at http://k12cs.org.

 

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