The accepted working group topics have now been announced, and the reviewer feedback should simultaneously be on its way to the proposers. We are glad to have three highly attractive and separate Working Group topics this year:
- WG 1: Motivating All Our Students?
This Working Group, led by Janet Carter from the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), will continue the work of last year's Working Group which had already gathered more than 150 references. They plan to conduct comparable interviews with academics and then compare the results for underlying common issues, problems and themes. The results of this process will provide the shape for the final report. - WG 2: Informatics in Secondary Education
This Working Group, led by four well-established German computer science education researchers, will collect, evaluate, integrate and present research findings about Informatics in secondary schools, based on a theoretical framework for the synopsis. As a result, they expect a comparison of the effects of different organizational conditions, teaching approaches, curricula, teaching methods of Informatics courses in secondary schools in different countries. - WG 3: Information Assurance Education in Two and Four-Year Institutions
This Working Group, led by three of the co-leaders for the last two related Working Groups, will build on the work of the 2009 and 2010 working groups on information assurance (IA) education. The focus of the 2011 working group is the examination of the educational missions and curricula of two and four-year institutions with respect to IA education. More specifically, this working group will define and describe the distinct and complementary missions of two and four-year institutions with respect to IA education, describe the differences and similarities of the educational programs at two and four-year institutions, and document the challenges and opportunities for IA course articulation between two and four-year institutions.
I am certain that these three topics will find a high number of interested participants who will apply to be a member. You should certainly consider joining a Working Group! I personally have found this to be an exhilarating, if also exhausting, intensive experience that I will only miss this year because my administrative duties to the conference prevent my joining a Working Group.
Dr. Guido Rößling, Februar 12, 2011