cs4fn: a flexible model for computer science outreach

  • Authors:

  • Chrystie Myketiak;Paul Curzon;Jonathan Black;Peter W. McOwan;Laura R. Meagher

  • Affiliations:

  • Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;UK Technology Development Group, Fife, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

There are a variety of initiatives to attract secondary school students to computer science. cs4fn is one such project. It combines a magazine, website and live shows, telling stories about computer science in spirited and creative ways. Here we focus on the use of the magazine and, using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, we analyze comments from students and teachers to understand why they have requested (free) subscriptions to the magazine and how they plan to use it. Our analysis shows that both students and teachers are attracted to the flexibility that cs4fn provides, and use it in a variety of learning contexts. We find that the flexibility of the magazine makes it a valuable tool to engage students and teachers and that they use it to further enthuse others (i.e., other students and teachers). We suggest that cs4fn magazine is a powerful form of outreach and that this approach can be widely disseminated within computer science and other academic disciplines, raising the profile of computing to both students and teachers, and spreading enthusiasm for computer science.