Innovating Our Self Image (Special Session)
Abstract
The NSF CISE Directorate selected Owen Astrachan and
Peter Denning as the first two Distinguished Education
Fellows. Their job is to serve as ambassadors for
curriculum change in a field whose basic curriculum
structure is much the same as it was in the 1970s. They
believe that: The outdated 1970-era curriculum structure is largely
responsible for the harmful and misleading external
image that CS=programming.The external image reflects an internal self-image that
started in the 1970s as “we are programmers” and
matured in the 1990s to “we are masters of
abstraction.” These images do not foster collaboration
with other fields and do not excite the curiosity of
young people.