MSU and Capital Area District Libraries announce local computer science coding club at 2018 summit in Detroit.

Michigan State University joined with other leading institutions around the country on Oct. 9 at the 2018 CSforALL Summit in Detroit in announcing new commitments to computer science education.

More than 400 stakeholders including educators, school districts, and representatives from government, industry, higher education, and the nonprofit sector gathered at the annual event, this year hosted at Wayne State University.

Laura Dillon, professor of computer science and engineering at MSU, said MSU has created Technovation, a local computer science coding club for 28 students in the Lansing area in grades 6-12. The CS club is led by eight undergraduates at MSU and will run from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays for seven weeks in the fall and nine weeks in the spring.

“Priority will be given to Lansing residents in underserved school districts during the 2018-19 academic year,” Dillon explained.

“Computing has become a basic infrastructure of education – everyone needs some understanding of it,” Dillon said. “Computer science allows students to solve problems, be creative, and effect change in their own lives and the lives of others.”

MSU’s main partners in Technovation are the Capital Area District Libraries and Grok Learning.

“Cafecito Caliente and Men Making A Difference are helping promote Technovation to parents involved in their organization,” Dillon added.

The first Technovation meeting took place Saturday, Oct. 6.

“There will be more than 200 commitments made to the CSforALL movement this year at the summit in Detroit,” said Ruthe Farmer, chief evangelist of CSforALL. “It is institutions like Michigan State University that are making high-quality computer science an integral part of the educational experience for students of all abilities.”

Farmer said commitments all center on addressing equity for underrepresented students, computer science accessibility for students with disabilities, cybersecurity education, and evidence-based computer science education pathways.

CSforALL is an initiative to empower all K-12 students to learn computer science and be equipped with the computational thinking skills they need to be creators in the digital economy. CSforALL is the national hub and central resource for people interested in computer science education to find content providers, school districts, funders, and researchers focused on the goal of providing high-quality CS education to every child in the United States.

(Date Posted: 2018-10-09)