This semester I am teaching two sections of Web Page Design. This is the third year that I have taught the class at the high school level, but I still struggle with some of the same issues.

The two sections of the class are like night and day. The first class has some really good problem solvers and the students are able to process the coding that we are working with to create some really nice work. The second class has few students with problem solving skills and they all seem to rely on me when "something is wrong with my project." Sometimes I wonder: "How can two classes from the same student body be so different?"

The other day I assigned a due date for a simple project we have been working on in class over several weeks. Only three students within the first class didn't complete the assignment on time and needed additional help to complete the assignment. In the second class, only three students completed the assignment on time. Almost the entire class was waiting for me to help them with their projects!

I have one student who requires a predominant amount of my time during the class time to complete his work. He constantly is asking me "What do I do next?" or "Why won't this work?" I try to treat this student as I do all my students, as I tend to answer questions with a question. I try to get my students to think through the problem to find their own answer. This can be extremely frustrating for some students, as they have been trained to expect the teacher to always give them the answer.

I wish there were some way to teach students to become better problem solvers. Wouldn't it be nice if teaching students to problem solve was similar to correcting students' coding errors?

Dave Burkhart
CSTA Task Force Chair

I am currently serving on a committee where I am the only public school K-12 educator. The other members are college educators. The educators on this committee are spread throughout the U.S. During a recent teleconference, we were discussing mobile devices and one of the participants made the statement that within six months every student in school will have a mobile device. I was taken aback by that statement because I had hoped to use Poll Everywhere in my math class but not enough students have access to the Internet through a mobile device. I also mentioned to the committee participant that my school does not have wireless access. He seemed genuinely surprised. Additionally, I did not think that within six months all of my students will have a mobile device. I asked the question, "How can we deal with equal access?" My question was not addressed.

I spoke to Joanna Goode, CSTA Teacher Education Representative, about his statement and her response was that if it is question of owning a mobile device or putting food on the table, the family will choose not to purchase the mobile device. I also read an article in our local paper (the Orange County Register) which reiterates Joanna's comment.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/home-325490-ezequiel-family.html

The family that is highlighted in the article had given up nearly all of their technology because they just could not afford it.

I really thought my colleague's comment was isolation until I read the Winter 2011 issue of OnCUE, a publication for members of Computer Using Educators (CUE). In his article Mobile Devices and the Future of Learning David D. Thornburg states: "Educators are starting to realize that every child is coming to school with a powerful mobile device. If this is not true in your school, it will be in six months." Thornburg does not address Equal Access. I assume he did not feel he needed to since every student will have a mobile device.

In another article in the same publication, Tm Landeck makes the statement: "Of course this requires that all students have a cell phone, but then what happens when a student's cell phone is dead, forgotten at home, or they just don't have one?" That is a question I really needed an answer to, but his article never gave an answer.

Equal access is something I deal with in my computer class. I have students that don't have computers at home or have a computer at home and no Internet access. Is my school that unique? I supervise the computer lab at lunch and after school to accommodate these students. We don’t have a loaner problem and when I mention it to my administration I receive a negative response.

How do you deal with equal access?

What is your reaction to the statement, "All students will have a powerful mobile device within six months"?

Myra Deister
CSTA At-Large Representative

Each year, the College Board provides state-by-state statistics for each Advanced Placement (AP) exam, broken down by various demographics. The numbers of women taking the AP Computer Science exam in 2011 are illustrative of the continuing gender imbalance in computing. The table linked below organizes the 50 states and District of Columbia according to the percentage of AP CS exam takers who were women. The percentages of women across all AP exams are also listed for comparison, as well as the overall percentage of exams that AP CS constitutes for each state.

While nearly 55% of all AP exam takers are women, the percentage for AP Computer Science is much lower, only 18.9%, with a median percentage across all states of 15.4%. It is interesting to note that two states, Texas and California, account for more than 31% of all AP CS exams and both have higher than average participation by women (24% and 21%, respectively). If the numbers from these two states are omitted, the remaining percentage of AP CS participation by women for the rest of the country is 17.1%.

The numbers in this table are collected from the College Board state-by-state data files at:

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/exgrd_sum/2011.html.

The table of state-by-state results (both pdf and Excel versions) are on the CSTA website at:

http://csta.acm.org/Research/sub/CSTAResearch.html

Dave Reed
CSTA Board of Directors