Author Archives: Googlefor Edu

CS in media: we are what we see

Posted by Julie Ann Crommett, CS Education in Media Program Manager

Editor's note: Positive perceptions of Computer Scientists make CS Education more inclusive, accessible and identifiable to all students. If you’re ready to start your first Hour of Code during CSEdWeek 2015, check out Google’s High Seas and Inside Out introductory Hour of Code activities.

My TV hero growing up had red hair, wore awesome outfits, and taught science to a diverse group of students. You guessed it, she’s Ms. Frizzle aka The Frizz from PBS’s The Magic School Bus! Her mantra was “Take chances, make mistakes and get messy. It’s the only way you learn.” That mantra is particularly relevant in the world of technology and computer science (CS), and here at Google we are continually trying new, sometimes crazy ideas, and learning from our successes and from our failures. But, what if Ms. Frizzle had never existed?

Close your eyes. Think of your favorite TV show or movie. Is there a scientist, a hacker or, more specifically, a computer scientist in it? What do they look like? Chances are, they are male, white or Asian, wear glasses, and are portrayed as nerdy and anti-social. Based on analysis from the Geena Davis Institute (GDI), only 11% of family films, 19% of children’s shows and 22% of prime-time programs feature women and men equally in speaking parts. Combine these staggering statistics with an overall dearth of CS characters on-screen (see chart below), and it’s no wonder we all think of the same stereotypical image for a programmer.
Why is this a problem? As Google’s Women Who Choose CS--What Really Matters study and the recently published Google-Gallup report, Images of Computer Science: Perceptions Among Students, Parents and Educators in the U.S. found, perceptions of careers in computer science really matter. On-screen stereotypes of those who engage in CS persist as do students’, parents’, and educators’ personal perceptions leading to particularly girls and underrepresented boys not seeing themselves in the field- or in other words, if you can’t see it you can’t be it.

At Google we believe we have a role to play in bridging this gap, which is why we’ve assembled a team that is focused on making CS more appealing to a wider audience, by dispelling stereotypes and showcasing positive portrayals of underrepresented minorities in tech. We are working hand-in-hand with writers, producers, networks, studios, and our own YouTube team to create new and diverse storylines about the limitless creative opportunities computer science provides. This is an opportunity to lift back the curtain on tech and feature stories that all too often go untold.

We’ve partnered with writers and producers of a variety of shows, including ABC Family’s The Fosters, Disney Jr’s Miles from Tomorrowland, FOX’s Empire and HBO’s Silicon Valley to bring the voices of real-life diverse software engineers to the screen. We also premiered award-winning director Lesley Chilcott’s newest film, CodeGirl, on YouTube for free for five days garnering almost 1M views. Great partners like Geena Davis Institute, Paley Center for Media, Campus Movie Fest and others are raising awareness of these issues and helping to move the needle on diversity in Hollywood.

We’re excited to join YouTube Kids in celebrating Computer Science Education Week with a curated playlist (on the YouTube Kids app) of Google engineers’ favorite CS content, including a special piece celebrating Ada Lovelace’s 200th birthday (Today, Dec. 10th). We hope Ada will inspire budding programmers everywhere so over on YouTube Kids we’re bringing her story to life with a little help from Presley at Act Out Games and Inklings Creative. Who is Ada Lovelace, you might ask? Well, you’ll have to watch the short film to find out!
Celebrate Ada’s contributions to CS by sharing the short with friends and family and join us in changing the face of CS one image at a time.

Ideally, one day all students will have an inspiring role model that they can relate to and that encourages them to “take chances, make mistakes and get messy!” It really is the only way to learn.

Learning in new dimensions with Google Classroom and GeoGebra

Posted by Mark Kaercher, Shaker High School Math Teacher

Editor's note:Mark Kaercher teaches mathematics at Shaker High School in Latham, New York. He is also one of his school district’s Instructional Technology Resource Teachers. Here, Mark shares his experience with using Google Apps for Education alongside GeoGebra, available as an app for Chrome and now as a native Android phone app.

Every so often, over the course of a long teaching career, we find a special tool or resource that makes us wonder how we ever taught without it. Personally, I’ve had a lot of success with GeoGebra, a free mathematics program for teachers and students. GeoGebra lets me build and share interactive worksheets that demonstrate geometry and algebra concepts. Along with relying on it myself, I’ve helped other educators use GeoGebra by creating how-to videos and leading training sessions.
My first GeoGebra worksheet, created in 2011
 So when my school started using Google Apps for Education last year, there was a big question on my mind: Is it compatible with GeoGebra? Not only do they work well together, but Google Apps has helped me get a lot more mileage out of GeoGebra. Instead of just a teaching tool, it’s now become a hands-on learning environment. This has transformed my classroom into a math lab where students use Google Apps and GeoGebra to explore shapes and patterns, complete assignments, and share their work with both me and their classmates.

During a typical class, I start by posting an agenda in Google Classroom to get us all on the same page. Then I might create a GeoGebra assignment and ask students to paste screenshots of their work into a shared Google Docs file.

Everyone has their own Chromebook to use, so they can each work individually in GeoGebra – and they can even save a step by signing into GeoGebra with their Google Apps account. Now, with the new Android phone app my students can create, search, save and share their ideas and homework from their phone, saving to Drive and sharing in Classroom. Meanwhile, I track their progress and grade their submissions in Classroom.
Sometimes I have my students record screencasts of their GeoGebra worksheets using the Screencastify extension for Chrome. They can save their videos to Google Drive and share them with me through Classroom. You can see more about how I do this here.

It’s been really neat to see how beautifully Google Apps and GeoGebra work together to bring my lessons to life. It’s also been exciting to watch my students embrace and learn these new tools – to the point that they’re sometimes the ones showing me how to do something. I was especially proud when some of my students helped me demo Google Apps and GeoGebra at a recent school board meeting, sharing their growing passion for using instructional technology in the math classroom.

I’ll always be a math teacher, but I also see myself as a technology teacher. I want my students to understand that technology isn’t just about taking selfies and sending texts. Now, thanks to GeoGebra and Google, they’re using it to interact with mathematics in a whole new way.

Google Code-in: may the source be with you

Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs

(Cross-posted on the Open Source blog.)

Editor's note: We're celebrating Computer Science Education Week through December 13, and hope to inspire students to explore CS all year long. Code-in is a great opportunity for students to start on their 'second hour of code' and beyond.


For the sixth year running, teens from around the world now have the chance to learn and develop new CS skills by competing in Google Code-in (GCI). By working on real software projects—with help from mentors along the way—students just starting out with Computer Science can begin to investigate and discover the countless opportunities at their fingertips through code.


During the seven weeks of Google Code-in, pre-university students (ages 13-17) can browse hundreds of tasks created by 14 open source organizations. Students then get to choose the tasks they find most intriguing. A wide variety of skills and interests are required to make any software project work, so the tasks in Google Code-in are designed to reflect that diversity. Students can choose to work on projects across documentation, coding, training, research, quality assurance, user interface and outreach tasks.

The 14 organizations students can work with during the contest encompass many fields: health care for developing countries, learning activities for elementary students, desktop and portable computing, the encouragement of young women in computer science, game development, to operating systems used in satellites and robots.

Each task has at least one mentor assigned to it - not only to review the student’s work, but to help answer questions along the way. Each organization also offers beginner tasks that give students who are newer to open source development an easy and clear place to get started. Another goal of the contest is to encourage students to find a coding community that they enjoy working with and hopefully become an active contributor for years to come.

Over the last 5 years, over 2,200 students from 87 countries have successfully completed tasks by participating in Google Code-in. To celebrate CS Ed Week this year, please help us introduce even more young minds to open source software development through Google Code-in. To learn more about Google Code-in— including rules and FAQs—please visit the site and the Getting Started Guide.

Computer Science tips for parents

Posted by Mo Fong, Director K-12 Education Outreach

(This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post)

Editor's note: Parents are champions and changemakers in education. During this CSEdWeek, here are a few easy steps to dispel CS stereotypes and encourage all students to explore the power of code. If you or your students are ready to try an hour of code, get started now with High Seas and Inside Out.

As I waited for my first grader, Gabriel, to come out of his after school care classroom, I powered up LightBot, a mobile game designed to introduce programming principles to kids, for his younger brother Zeke to play. After a few taps to maneuver the robot to light up the final square, Zeke clapped his hands and as he looked up with a big smile on his face, he saw that a captivated audience of first graders had crowded around him, eager to get a turn at the game. This unplanned demo led by my youngest son made me wonder if the parents of Gabriel’s classmates were introducing them to games based in computational thinking and computer science, they certainly seemed eager to learn more.

Computer Science Education Week, an annual week of programs dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science, is a perfect opportunity for parents to get engaged. While not every student will become a computer scientist, a baseline understanding of computer science can help develop better thinkers and more informed users of technology. Unfortunately 75% of high schools in the US don't offer classes in computer science or coding and by 2020, there could be 1 million more computing jobs than there are students to fill them. This is a missed opportunity for our students and our nation.

I feel incredibly lucky that my job at Google is to run a team where the mission is to solve this challenge. We’re conducting research that looks at who does and doesn’t have access to computers and coding classes and what drives students, especially those underrepresented in the tech industry, to go into computer science in the first place. We’re also working to create ways for more students to have access and exposure to computer science opportunities outside the classroom. The challenges above can't be solved easily but they can be tackled with action from parents that's focused on encouragement and exposure-- things that parents know how to do well.

If you’re not sure where to begin, I’ve answered some of the most common questions we hear from parents below. And don’t worry, you don’t need a degree in computer science to get involved!

What is computer science anyway? Google’s research has found that more than half of parents, teachers, and principals have trouble defining computer science. Let’s clear this up. Computer science is building the machines, developing the set of instructions that tell the machines what to do and how all of this applies to solving world problems. (ACM/CSTA Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science)

Is computer science only for “nerds”? Absolutely not! It’s our job as parents to help debunk this myth, but that's tricky when many students have the impression that computer scientists are super nerdy men with glasses. At Google we’re doing our part by advocating for positive and diverse images of computer science on screen. Recent examples of our work with Hollywood include Loretta from Miles from Tomorrowland on Disney Junior and Mariana from ABC Family’s The Fosters. We need to ensure that our kids are exposed to positive role models both on- and off-screen. Made with Code is an initiative to inspire girls to see that code can help them pursue their passions by highlighting diverse role models as mentors who have integrated coding into their lives in fun and creative ways.


Computer science classes aren’t offered at my child’s school. Where can I find CS-related clubs or activities? Lots of activities are vying for our kids’ attention. As parents, we need not only to find opportunities, but to prioritize the ones that work with our student’s learning styles. Ideally, all schools would offer computer science to all students, but that’s easier said than done. We’ve learned that 85% of parents believe that computer science is as important as math, history, or English. Yet only 25% of schools offer computer science. To close the gap, parents need alternative computer science learning resources outside of school.
                      
There are now a host of introductory and free programs for elementary school students including Google’s High Seas and Inside Out Hour of Code activities, which are one-hour introductions to computer science designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. There’s also CS Unplugged which doesn’t even require access to technology. If your student is in middle school or high school, you can find programs through The Connectory, including Google’s free CS First program, which helps any adult - a teacher, parent, or coach - facilitate a coding club. Hopefully with more options and lower barriers to entry, parents will have the flexibility to choose the right computer science learning opportunity for their families.


What can I do to encourage my student Ensuring that your kids have access to computer science education, however, is just half the battle. You also have a critical role when it comes to encouraging your kids. For some parents it might be learning alongside your kids or driving them to coding events. While for others it may be helping to critique a science fair project like Hania Guiagoussou’s father who pushed her to focus on ideas that would have a social impact. Hania went on to become the youngest recipient of Oracle’s 2015 Duke’s Choice Award, which celebrates innovation in the use of Java technology, for her WaterSaver project that helps consumers control and monitor their water use.

What happens when the projects become harder and the problem sets start to require more effort? In NCWIT’s Top 10 Ways Families Can Encourage Girls’ Interest in Computing, one of the recommendations when the going gets tough is to help our students have a growth mindset. As Carol Dweck writes in her book Mindset, “if parents want to give their kid a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their kid to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.”

With each exposure to fun learning opportunities that integrate computer science principles, both of my sons Gabriel and Zeke are starting down a path to be creators as well as more educated consumers of technology. My hope is that all parents will understand the critical role that they play in shaping their students’ mindset for lifelong learning and see the power of computer science to make our lives and the lives of those around us better.

Supporting the development of excellent computer science teachers globally

Posted by Karen Parker, Program Manager

Editor's note: For CS Education Week, we are celebrating the educators that lead the way by making CS education accessible and inclusive. Stay tuned all week for more programs and stories that celebrate CS champions every day of the year.

Today, Google’s Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) award program opens applications for the 2016 year. Since 2009, CS4HS has provided funding for over 400 computer science teacher professional development (PD) opportunities around the globe. Through these PD opportunities over 20,000 teachers have gained confidence in their understanding of computer science (CS) and learned valuable skills for teaching CS to students. Despite these accomplishments, a recently published Google-Gallup study found that nationwide many teachers incorrectly identified “creating documents or presentations” and, to a lesser extent, “searching the Internet” as part of computer science. If teachers better understand what CS is, learning opportunities can branch beyond literacy and delve deeper into CS concepts, allowing students to acquire skills that are useful and in demand across a growing number of fields. What we learn from research drives why and how we invest in CS teacher PD.
Ramona Santa Maria, CS4HS facilitator from Buffalo State College, problem solving with CS teachers
 In the US, we are eager to continue funding PD efforts that have strong plans for creating new or working with existing Communities of Practice (COP) that support ongoing professional development. This focus is grounded in a wide body of research (for example Joyce & Showers, 2002; and Wiske, Stone, & Levinson, 1993) demonstrating that COPs are a critical element for producing and sustaining innovation in the classroom.

When the new AP Computer Science Principles course launches in 2016, the College Board anticipates that 18,000 students will be interested in taking the AP exam. In an effort to help prepare educators to teach the new AP course, we will fund applications that include PD content that is centered around some or all of the Seven Bigs ideas from the AP Computer Science Principles Framework.

Also, based on research, we believe that regionally based PD allows practitioners to tailor the learning objectives to meet the specific needs of teachers in their areas. We encourage colleges, universities, and educational non profits from all regions of the country to apply.

Funding across the globe
In Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, CS4HS is looking to fund applications that include strong plans for the establishment of new, or work with existing COPs that support ongoing professional development as well as PD content that is focused on the critical principles of computer science. Australia/New Zealand will continue to support PD focused on national CS curriculums and China will continue to support their App Inventor CS PD model.
CS4HS organizer, Alfredo Perez from Columbus State University, providing in-class mentorship for a new CS teacher

Get started with your application
Criteria vary from region to region so please visit the CS4HS website to learn more about the eligibility requirements and deadlines specific to your region and to get started on your application. We hope this year will provide many opportunities to partner with the CS education community to grow and strengthen the CS teacher community around the globe. We hope you’ll be a part of it, and look forward to reviewing your application.

Stay connected
Join the CS4HS Google+ community to connect with past CS4HS organizers and learn about HangOuts on Air we’ll be hosting during the application process. And be on the lookout for an announcement later this month regarding the launch of the RISE Awards for funding student outreach programs.

CS Education Week is All About Making a Difference

Posted by Chris Stephenson, Head of Computer Science Education Programs

Editor's note: For CSEdWeek this December 7-13, we are encouraging students to try High Seas and Inside Out, Google’s new introductory Hour of Code activities. We’re also going behind the scenes on the Google for EDU blog with stories and resources for the parents, educators and students that champion CS education every day. Stay tuned this week to learn more!

This year, Computer Science Education Week runs from December 7 through 13th and students, teachers, volunteers and organizations across the world will participate in a wide variety of activities and events. Very few people know, however, that it all began with one person who wanted to make things better.

In 2008, Calvin College Computer Science professor Joel Adams attended a regional ACM conference where he attended a session focused on advocating for computer science education. This session inspired him to question why secondary school students in his home state of Michigan had so few opportunities to take rigorous computer science courses when the data showed a tremendous demand for jobs in computing-related fields. Adams was especially concerned because the downturn in manufacturing had devastated Michigan and he believed his students deserved better opportunities and better jobs. Adams collected the jobs and education-related data and made an appointment with Dr. Vern Ehlers, his representative in the United States Congress. Ehlers heard Adams’ message and decided to take action.

Meanwhile, ACM and the Computer Science Teachers Association had been working to raise the profile of K–12 computer science education nationally. Cameron Wilson (then ACM’s Director of Public Policy) happened to be a former staffer for Rep. Ehlers. Following the meeting with Adams, with Ehler’s support, Wilson and Ehlers’ staffer Julia Jester drafted a resolution to designate the week of Grace Murray Hopper’s birthday as “National Computer Science Education Week”.

House Resolution 558 was introduced June 18, 2009. Rep Bart Gordon (D-TN) introduced the resolution in the House and Rep. Ehlers (R-MI) spoke eloquently in favor of his motion as did Jared Polis (D-CO). The resolution passed and was enacted on October 20, 2009 and with the help of numerous organizations, companies (Google among them) and individuals, the first celebration took place the week of December 7, 2009.

The annual event continued to grow and in 2013 it reached unprecedented levels with the participation of Code.org and the launch of the Hour of Code. Thanks to Code.org’s efforts, public figures from Ashton Kutcher to President Obama were talking about the importance of learning computer science. To date, more than 137,683,279 people have gotten a taste of computer science as Hour of Code participants.

As the global conversation about the importance of computer science education has grown, so too have the events. In Europe, Google helped launch EU Code Week which took place October 10-18th, 2015 with more than 150,000 people and 4000 events in 37 countries. From October 1-10, 2015, again with help from Google, 88,763 children and youth participated in more than 3,000 events in 17 countries during Africa Code Week. These are just two examples of the computer science education celebrations internationally.

Computer Science Education Week, whatever the event is called and whenever it takes place, is now a global experience. Everyone is invited to participate, and anyone can make a difference. And you can be sure that you will be hearing more about what Google is planning. But it is worth knowing and remembering that it all began with one man, who wanted to make life better for his students and did something about it.

Stay tuned for more posts on this topic throughout the week tagged with #CSEdWeek2015, on our Twitter and Google+ pages, too!

The facts about student data privacy in Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Google Apps for Education

Our goal is to ensure teachers and students everywhere have access to powerful, affordable and easy-to-use tools for teaching, learning and working together. We have always been firmly committed to keeping student information private and secure.

On December 1st, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a complaint regarding Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and other products and services especially Chrome Sync. While we appreciate the EFF’s focus on student data privacy, we are confident that our tools comply with both the law and our promises, including the Student Privacy Pledge, which we signed earlier this year. The co-authors of the Student Privacy Pledge, The Future of Privacy Forum and The Software and Information Industry Association have both criticized EFF's interpretation of the Pledge and their complaint.

I want to reiterate some important facts about how our products work, how we keep students’ data private and secure, and our commitment to schools, more broadly.

Google Apps for Education Core Services 
The GAFE Core Services -- Gmail, Calendar, Classroom, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Contacts, Groups, Vault and Hangouts -- are the heart of Google’s educational offering to schools. Students’ personal data in these Core Services is only used to provide the services themselves, so students can do things like communicate using email and collaborate on assignments using Google Docs. There are no ads in these Core Services, and student data in these services is not used for advertising purposes.

Chrome Sync
Chrome Sync enables Google Account holders to log into any Chromebook or Chrome browser and find all their apps, extensions, bookmarks, and frequently visited web pages. For students, this means that they can get to work, right away. That's one of the reasons Chromebooks have become so popular in classrooms, especially for schools that can't afford a device for every child. With Chromebooks and Chrome Sync, students can have a personalized experience on any device they share with their classmates.

Personally-identifiable Chrome Sync data in GAFE accounts is only used to power features in Chrome for that person, for example allowing students to access their own browsing data and settings, securely, across devices. In addition, our systems compile data aggregated from millions of users of Chrome Sync and, after completely removing information about individual users, we use this data to holistically improve the services we provide. For example if data shows that millions of people are visiting a webpage that is broken, that site would be moved lower in the search results. This is not connected to any specific person nor is it used to analyze student behaviors. If they choose to, educators, students and administrators can disable Chrome Sync or choose what information to sync in settings whenever they choose. GAFE users’ Chrome Sync data is not used to target ads to individual students.

Additional services
Schools can control whether students or teachers can use additional Google consumer services -- like YouTube, Maps, and Blogger -- with their GAFE accounts. We are committed to ensuring that K-12 student personal information is not used to target ads in these services, and in some cases we show no ads at all. In Google Search, for example, we show no ads when students are logged in.

We build products that help teachers teach and help students learn. We are constantly working to improve our products and we take all feedback from customers and consumer protection groups seriously. You can learn more and stay updated on our commitment at google.com/edu/trust.

Creating a collaborative learning environment across Texas schools

Posted by Kevin Hodges, Google for Education

Editor's note: We're going across the U.S. to shine light on the great things schools are doing with technology at the statewide level. Texas is up next. There we asked educators and administrators to reflect on how technology has changed what it means to teach and learn. From group projects to collaborative lesson plans, technology has improved the teaching and learning experience across the state. And we’re happy to announce that 100% of Texas’ online standardized tests can be administered on Chromebooks, giving educators an easy, secure way to manage the testing process. To learn more about Google solutions for Education, watch this recent webinar with Arlington Independent School District.

When students want to learn and collaborate with classmates, they no longer have to travel to the library after school or schedule time to work at another student’s house. With teachers and administrators in Texas integrating technology – including Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks – into their curricula, students can learn and work on assignments when they’re not in the classroom. Teachers are preparing students for college and future careers while staying under budget and saving time managing thousands of devices. Inspired by how schools are innovating with technology across the region, we’re highlighting a few of the successes we’ve heard about directly from Texas schools:

Leveling the playing field 

Google Apps for Education isn’t just a way to share information – it’s the learning hub at Arlington Independent School District (case study) in North Texas. Students and teachers at Arlington ISD create more than 50,000 documents in Google Docs during any given week, and students can access this bounty of information when they aren’t in the classroom. For example, physical education students used heart monitors to measure their heart rates during different activities. As a homework assignment, they analyzed the data in Google Sheets and shared their findings with their peers. With the affordability of Chromebooks, more students have access to devices. When students leave the classroom, they can sign onto Chromebooks on loan through the 1:1 program and access Google Apps for Education to continue learning, regardless of their technology options at home.

Collaborating beyond the classroom walls 

North East Independent School District uses technology to create a collaborative approach across schools, so students on its 70 campuses can share their work with peers and teachers. They’re creating a global learning environment by sharing assignments in Google Docs with students at international schools and with subject matter experts to get real-world feedback. For example, a sophomore history class shared its Middle Ages project with students in Denmark. “These devices have captured student’s excitement to learn, collaborate and think creatively,” says Tom Johnson, senior director of technology at North East ISD.

Introducing affordable devices for 21st century learning 

McAllen Independent School District is introducing 12,500 Chromebooks this winter to give students 24/7 access to technology as part of its new initiative: Transforming Learning in the Classroom, Campus and Community. Students, teachers and parents provided their input on the devices they wanted, and the technology team evaluated the costs. “As we move toward a 1:1 model, we had to consider the cost of providing devices for students, the ability to manage 12,500 devices and the cost of fixing and replacing devices,” says Ann Vega, director of instructional technology at McAllen ISD. After the rollout, more students will have access to tools that will equip them with 21st century skills.

Schools continue to expand what it means to go to school by incorporating digital learning into their curricula. Technology inspires students to think beyond their lesson plans, whether they’re in study hall, waiting for soccer practice or on a family vacation. Check out the schools’ stories and watch Arlington's webinar to learn more.

We’ve heard great stories from many of you about how you’re using technology to do amazing things in your schools, so we're going across the U.S. to see for ourselves! Check out the map below to see where we’ll head next. We’d love to hear what’s happening in your state, so please share your story on Twitter or Google+ and tag us (@GoogleEdu) or include the #GoogleEdu hashtag.

Google-Gallup research report: Perceptions of computer science reflect and reinforce stereotypes

Posted by Sepi Hejazi Moghadam, Head of Research & Development, K-12 Education

Editor's note: Ensuring the appropriateness, value, and impact of our efforts in the computer science education space first requires an understanding of the issues which broadly impact the discipline, its practitioners and its students. This article is part of our ongoing effort to explore those issues and share our learnings along the way.

Technology is undeniably becoming an integral part of our lives, shaping virtually everything around us. Unfortunately the computer science (CS) behind all of the technology we love isn’t so widely understood. Compounding the issue is the fact that groups like women, Blacks, and Hispanics are underrepresented in CS education and in the high tech workplace. This underrepresentation has been growing for decades and because of it, we simply don’t have enough students--especially those with diverse backgrounds--studying CS to even fill the projected number of computing jobs that will be available in five years (NCWIT). In order to change that trajectory, we need to better understand the current landscape and the factors that led us to this point.

That’s exactly why today, in partnership with Gallup, we’re releasing our second report from an ongoing series of studies on the state of U.S. K-12 CS education: Images of Computer Science: Perceptions Among Students, Parents and Educators in the U.S.

This report explores participation in and perceptions of CS learning by gender, race and income. We surveyed nearly 16,000 respondents, representing students, parents, teachers, principals and superintendents. From our first report, Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education, we learned about the differences in exposure and access to CS learning and computers between Black, Hispanic and White students. The findings from today’s report show that we have more work to do beyond just providing access.

The results show that there’s high value and interest in CS among all demographics, and even more so for lower-income parents. But unfortunately perceptions of who CS is for and who is portrayed in CS are narrow--White, male, smart with glasses. Even though they value it, students often don't see themselves in it. Students who are female or Hispanic, and lower-income students all report lower confidence to learn CS. Our hope is that these findings will inform strategies that encourage more diverse students to pursue CS and increase access to CS learning opportunities for all students.
Here’s a summary of our findings:

Parents and teachers of lower-income students view CS as critical to a student’s future, yet lower-income students are less likely to have access to CS learning in school: 

  • 76% of parents in lower-income groups believe CS should be required in school. 
  • These parents are also more likely to value CS over other required courses. 
  • Teachers in schools with a larger percentage of students eligible for a free or reduced lunch are more likely than other teachers to think CS learning opportunities are more important to a student’s future success than other elective courses.

Image about CS is positive, but confidence to learn it is low:

  • More than 90% of students & parents have a positive image of CS jobs and more than 80% of all populations studied believe CS is used in many jobs. 
  • Yet only half of students are confident to learn CS, and the percentage is even lower for Hispanics and girls. 
  • We found that students who are more confident in their ability to learn CS are also more likely to say they will learn it in the future.

Perceptions reflect stereotypes: 

  • Given the high value of CS among all populations studied, it’s disappointing to learn that many have narrow perceptions of who practices CS. 
  • Students and parents perceive few portrayals of female, Hispanic or Black computer scientists on TV or in movies. 
  • These groups are much more likely to see White or Asian men engaged in computer science.
  • About half of students and 57% of parents agree that “People who do computer science need to be very smart”.

Computer science is misunderstood: 

  • We see that CS is becoming recognized as important, but there is still confusion of how it is different from general technology skills. 
  • Over half of students, parents, teachers and principals do not properly distinguish between computer science activities (e.g., programming and coding; creating new software), and general computer literacy (e.g., creating documents; searching the internet). 
  • This is more pronounced among female, Black and Hispanic students and parents.

These findings highlight the need to create learning environments that work for all students. Increasing awareness about what CS is will require efforts to help students, parents and educators alike fully understand the critical principles of CS in order to fulfill students’ potential rather than limiting them to basic low-level skills. Also, we need to do more to ensure that all students are able to see themselves in CS careers - we’ve got to help them see it, to be it. This will require continued efforts to leverage media outlets to help dispel stereotypes and showcase positive portrayals of diversity in computing.

Uplifting CS education opportunities for all students will require effecting change to the entire ecosystem. A comprehensive set of recommendations from our findings can be found here.

To find out more about Google’s CS learning opportunities and research, visit g.co/csedu.

Google brings educators, startups and researchers together in North Carolina

Posted by Helen Hwang, Google for Education

Editor's note: We're going across the U.S. to shine light on the great things schools are doing with technology at the statewide level, with North Carolina up first. North Carolina is a strong Google partner. From the rollout of broadband infrastructure to the adoption of Google for Education, Google for Work and Google Cloud Platform in schools, nonprofits, labs and startups, Google technology is helping to liberate learning, empower employees and give researchers tools that can help solve real world problems.

North Carolina’s Research Triangle has a rich tradition of fostering quality education, research and entrepreneurship – prime areas for investment and innovation. In fact, Google is now laying thousands of miles of state-of-the-art fiber optic cable that will expand internet connectivity in the area. In the spirit of building next-generation technologies, the Google Cloud Platform and Google for Education teams hosted an inaugural Innovate with Google event at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill.

Startups, researchers and educators come together to innovate 

The event brought together more than 200 educators, startup executives, life science researchers and others who are innovating with Google. They’re building new teaching models, services and scientific advancements designed to improve lives.

Attendees heard from Jonathan Rochelle, Google’s director of Product Management, who discussed innovation used by billions of people. He gave the example of his own XL2Web startup that became Google Sheets and Expeditions, which allows teachers to take students on virtual field trips.

A panel of educators, students and entrepreneurs shared stories of creating change with technology. Brittany Wenger, Duke University student and Google 2012 Science Fair winner, shared her experience of teaching herself how to code and building a platform powered by Google App Engine that predicts breast cancer with 99 percent accuracy. Dr. Valerie Truesdale of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools talked about the district’s Chromebook program (83,000 devices across 168 schools), which began with researching what age group most needed the devices. Sarah Noell of North Carolina State University discussed how faculty and students are working together to design engaging lessons that inspire creativity.

Learning, building and scaling 

Attendees chose from breakout sessions in genomics, startups and education. In the education track, teachers and school administrators shared how they’re rethinking traditional teaching and learning methods with help from Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks. Teachers also got hands-on with tackling current educational challenges with a 10X Design Thinking workshop. Jamel Mims of the Urban Arts partnership led a challenge on how to align pedagogy with art and culture to engage students. He shared his approach of teaching history through rapping. Ellie Gamache of American Underground led a group on how to foster community between local schools, universities and startups to drive innovation and embrace diversity.
Attendees worked in small groups with tools like pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, construction paper and Play Doh to brainstorm ideas to solve different educational challenges.




The genomics breakout sessions appealed to attendees whose work with big data uses the very same cloud computing platform that powers the Google backbone and services like Search, Maps and Google Genomics. The non-profit organization Autism Speaks, for example, discussed how they’re sequencing 10,000 whole genomes and building the world’s largest private collection of autism-related DNA samples. They shared how they already uploaded nearly 100 terabytes of data from more than 1,300 genomes onto Google Cloud Storage and how they make this genomic data available to researchers for free via the Google Cloud Platform, searchable through BigQuery.

The future looks bright for students, teachers, scientists and entrepreneurs in North Carolina. From research on Autism to creating new companies to enabling students to collaborate on projects remotely, Google tools are providing the building blocks people need to turn their big thoughts into reality and build a better tomorrow.

We’ve heard great stories from many of you about how you’re using technology to do amazing things in your schools, so we're going across the U.S. to see for ourselves! North Carolina was the first state we visited. Check out the map below to see where we’ll head next. We’d love to hear what’s happening in your state, so please share your story on Twitter or Google+ and tag us (@GoogleEdu) or include the #GoogleEdu hashtag.