Each of us at the Department of Computer Science can take a stand on the teaching of ICT, media literacy, and programming, which will be a new compulsory subject in schools. The school teachers are unsettled about it, because they have received no detailed national set of norms to plan their teaching or their grading.
The situation would be easier to handle if this was a new subject, as new, clearly delimited requirements would be developed for the education of teachers. Now we have to activate ourselves and offer teachers remedial education in several subjects. Some of the new material relates to maths, some to languages, science, social sciences, and technical crafts. Naturally, this calls for inter-disciplinary collaboration within the university (and the faculty). On the national level, our shared vision on methods and evaluation in teaching at different school stages will be discussed at the Luma seminar in June (http://luma.fi/tapahtumat/3899/valtakunnalliset-luma-paivat-2016), and the Linkki centre is also preparing presentations and workshops for the seminar.
Since I know that department staff in various areas are preparing more or less official projects to support teaching material and the education of teachers, I want to invite anyone interested in affecting how computer science is taught in our schools to attend a meeting in mid-January. The goal is to map projects already being carried out, and what else needs to be addressed. I hope anyone prepared to participate, even if someone else sets the goals, will attend. After the initial meeting, we will continue as a network operating around the Linkki resource centre: we will be meeting for discussions and networking regularly, exchanging ideas and experiences, and working on resourcing and visibility. During spring we will also negotiate about the organisation of teacher education once the Big Wheel (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/uutiset/83683) has started spinning.
If you want to join this Linkki network, please sign up for the mailing list with this form: http://goo.gl/forms/Jnq3ChQU4j. At the same time, please let us know your wishes, whether you already have a project underway, or the kind of work you are offering. There is also a Doodle link so we can weed out a suitable meeting time.
The Linkki resource centre
The Linkki resource centre (http://linkki.cs.helsinki.fi) is part of the LUMA centre (http://www.helsinki.fi/luma/) at the University of Helsinki, and a member of the LUMA-Finland development programme (http://www.luma.fi/), which operates at the department.
The basic Linkki operations include
- clubs and camps for various ages (from pre-school to upper secondary and university students)
- coaching for competitive programming for youths,
- MOOC courses,
- remedial education for teachers, especially in collaboration with the Innokas network coordinated by the Department of Teacher Education, and
- participating in events and communities where education in technology and science has a presence.
This year, over 400 children and youths have participated in Linkki camps and clubs. Since there are very few girls attending, we have also organised camps specifically aimed at girls. We have also cooperated with other Luma resource centres to organise camps and other activities.
The Pulmaario clubs organised by the libraries, which are free and require no pre-registration, have also been very popular. They last two hours and are centred around problems in maths and programming. Libraries are more of a leisure than school environment for children, so they may be more relaxed there.
The camps and clubs are headed by our 8-member team of instructors; Virpi Sumu and Jenna Tuominen coordinate the work.
The same people make sure we participate in different technology-related events and school visits. We have even arranged birthday parties, so our activities are very varied.
We are also establishing virtual club activities in the Scracth community (in Finnish), so even encouraging children you know to visit the advent calendar of Linkki (https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/1729615/) will further our cause. It has massive potential as a forum, since the teaching of programming in lower-secondary schools will be given in a graphical environment.
This year, the department news has already detailed the successes of the competitive programming team led by Antti Laaksonen several times (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/en/news/83742). The work still continues within Linkki, e.g. the BOI competition will invade our computer labs for a week in May.
Traditionally MOOC courses have been organised for programming students, and you can now gain admission to the department through the programming MOOC (mooc.fi). The selection of MOOC courses has expanded considerably lately, including teacher education and the development of a specific tool for teachers. In 2014, our MOOC course was awarded the Open Finland award, and by the end of that year, some 10,000 had completed the course.
Wishing you an innovative new year,
Lea Kutvonen
Head of Linkki