For the fourth year running, tech giant Google selected OSU Institute of Technology as the only university in Oklahoma to host its Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) professional development workshop. Thirty-seven high school teachers and counselors from throughout the state participated in the workshop with 10-12 experts from Google and other information technology leaders.
CS4HS is an initiative sponsored by Google to promote computer science careers and computational thinking by incorporating exciting technological advances into high school and middle school curriculum.
Other universities in the United States hosting CS4HS workshops this year include Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and the University of Washington. International workshops are also planned in Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand.
Held on the OSUIT campus, the workshop included informational talks by industry leaders, breakout sessions to gain a working knowledge of new and emerging technologies, a team-based quiz bowl, and opportunities to network with other area IT professionals and educators. Participants also conducted an on-site IT tour of River Spirit Casino in Tulsa, a local organization recognized for leveraging existing and new technology in almost every aspect of their business.
Breakout sessions during the workshop included wireless networking, mobile device vulnerabilities, social media in teaching technology, FBI mobile IT forensics, JavaScript, Windows 8, security awareness, teaching computers through gaming and new Google technologies.
Participants in the workshop attended for a variety of professional development pursuits. Kelli Wilson, a computer science instructor from Bethel High School explained, “As teachers, we always need to know more about emerging technology and social media so we can incorporate new applications and features into our curriculum.”
The panel discussion covered such topics as international and corporate cyber-security, software development trends, applications of data analysis or business intelligence, augmented reality devices, mobile development and cloud technologies and applications.
“Participants in our CS4HS workshop spent two days interacting with industry experts in relevant and emerging computer technologies,” said Scott Newman, OSUIT Information Technologies chair. “They also left with a flash drive full of implementation-ready, non-resource intensive curriculum they can take back to their classrooms to literally facilitate some of the same lessons we conducted here at the workshop.”