SIGCSE 2010 Pre-Symposium Events

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010, 1:00pm to 5:00pm

Every few years, a revolution changes the way we use computers. Think of huge mainframes in the 1960s, minicomputers in the 1970s, personal computers in the 1980s and smartphones over the last decade. Cloud computing is poised to be the next big paradigm shift in the computing landscape by bringing together advances in technologies like Virtualization, massive scale computing, communication formats and flexible data protocols. With advances by Microsoft, Amazon and other leaders in computing, this field is slated as the fastest growing segment of the technology industry in terms of investment, development and recruitment.

Join us in the Microsoft Cloud Computing workshop to learn more about this exciting development and about Windows Azure, our internet-scale cloud services platform, which provides an operating system and a rich set of developer services that allow you to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities.

This event is available on a first-come first-served basis to 100 attendees via the SIGCSE 2010 Symposium registration form.

Contact: Marla Ellis,

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010, 8:00am to 5:30pm

Media Computation (http://www.mediacomputation.org) is an approach to teaching introductory computing where the focus is on manipulating pictures, sounds, and video. The approach motivates and engages students, by contextualizing computing in a relevant activity. The one-day pre-conference workshop is appropriate for both novices to Media Computation and those using the approach now. The day will offer an overview of the approach, touching on use with Python, Java, and Alice, for both introductory (APCS or CS1) and data structures classes. The workshop is FREE, and will include a travel stipend and one night's lodging. For more information, see http://home.cc.gatech.edu/gacomputes/53.

This event is available on a first-come first-served basis to 30 attendees via the SIGCSE 2010 Symposium registration form.

Contact: Mark Guzdial,

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010, 8:00am to 5:00pm

The Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE) is pleased to offer a pre-symposium hands-on workshop for instructors interested in using robots as a stimulating context for CS education. First run as a series of summer workshops in 2008, this updated pre-symposium will introduce you to a fresh, but proven practical approach to CS1 that uses personal robots. You are highly encouraged to bring your laptop; however, you will be provided with a personal robot kit and curricular materials. You will receive hands on training on how to teach CS1 with personal robots, as well first hand accounts from the broader IPRE community. The robots are programmed using Python. No prior knowledge of Python will be essential for attending this pre-symposium.

This event is available on a first-come first-served basis to 40 attendees via the SIGCSE 2010 Symposium registration form. Additional information can be found at http://wiki.roboteducation.org/SIGCSE_2010_Pre-Symposium.

Contact: Keith O'Hara,

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 8:00am to 9:00pm

This meeting will be the first opportunity for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community of Practice (DHHCoP), of the AccessComputing Alliance, to meet and explore ways to attract and retain more deaf and hard of hearing students in computing majors and for advanced degrees in computing fields. The outcome should be a set of action items for the DHHCoP to work on in the next few years. BY INVITATION ONLY, contact Robert Roth to inform him of your interest and background.

Contact: Robert Roth,

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 8:00am to 6:00pm

This one-day symposium ( www.hfoss.org/hfoss2010 ), held as a SIGCSE 2010 pre-conference activity, aims to bring together educators, software developers, industry representatives, and students to continue the discussion begun at SIGCSE 2009. This year's symposium focuses on how to expand the study of Humanitarian FOSS (HFOSS) so that it reaches many more students, colleges, secondary schools, and software industry representatives throughout the nation. Humanitarian FOSS is free and open source software that contributes in some way to the public good.

The symposium will be highly interactive, taking place in three plenary sessions and a break-out session. In addition to the keynote address, the symposium will include invited speakers from industry and academia, an open-ended round-table discussion, a poster session, and four break-out discussion groups.

Contact: Trishan de Lanerolle,

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 12:00pm to 5:00pm

New to teaching? Seeking advice and mentorship? Join us at the New Educators Roundtable (NER), a half-day workshop designed to mentor college and university faculty who are new to teaching. We welcome participants from across the entire teaching spectrum: tenure-track faculty at institutions where teaching is central, teaching-track faculty and lecturers, and graduate students who currently teach or are looking forward to an academic career. Come with your questions and concerns, learn from the experiences and best practices of sage elders, and build an international support group for your career. The roundtable will be held noon-5pm on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, immediately before the SIGCSE Symposium. Lunch will be provided.

Additional details for the New Educators Roundtable.

Contact: Julie Zelenski , Dave Reed

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 8:00pm to 5:00pm

The Pre-Symposium Workshop for Department Chairs is an opportunity for all department chairs (experienced and inexperienced) to improve their understanding of their duties and their ability to perform them. Participants should also include those interested in becoming department chairs. Four experienced former department chairs will serve as resources for the group as the participants review and discuss the duties of the department chair and explore ways that chairs can do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Some specific discussion topics will include leadership styles, time management, legal issues, academic program assessment, and faculty promotion and tenure.

Contact: Sandra DeLoatch , Joyce Little , Frank Friedman , Dianne Martin

Qualitative Research Methods Workshop. This is the second part of a two-part workshop designed to build skills in qualitative research methods such as grounded theory design, sequential explanatory design, and mixed methods design. In part 1, participants focused on designing qualitative research studies in computer science education. Data collection was done following workshop part 1. In part 2, participants will focus on data analysis. This workshop is funded by NSF DUE CCLI #0923592 and is only open to those who attended part 1.