Teaching without technology: CS Unplugged

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” Edsger Dijkstra

“Here we are, in a school with no electricity, and no computers, trying to teach ICT. I get Charles to ask the class how many of them have seen a computer. (Answer: about a third). Then I get him to ask them how many have used a computer. Answer – none. They laugh nervously at the very thought that any of them might have had a chance to use a machine.” Bruce’s Rwanderings: the ups and downs of life as an education adviser in Rwanda.

There are some really interesting and clever projects that deal with teaching parts of information and communications technology without using any technology. You may have heard of the CS Unplugged website. If not, check it out because it has a whole lot of fun and interesting CS projects that don’t require a computer or any other supporting technology. Well, ok, some projects do require string. I’ll concede the point.

It always bothers me when I end up doing something that has an implicit price barrier on it. There’s a world of difference between “not having enough knowledge to proceed” and “not having the resources to even be able to get to the knowledge, so don’t proceed”. I don’t want to set up a resource constraint that limits my students to “only those people who can afford technology x”. What I often forget is the level of privilege that I enjoy which gives me a choice of technologies in the first place. That’s why things like CS unplugged are great because they remind you that Computer Science is often implemented on computers but, as the quote implies, they’re just tools. Knowledge can be transferred in many ways and the lessons learned through enjoyable activities away from the computer can be more meaningful and far less confrontational than staring at the vast unfriendliness of a blank screen.

CS unplugged is active, it doesn’t need a big box of computers, it can be done anywhere, it works when the power is out. It’s free. A lot of the activities are what I refer to as contagious knowledge – you show someone, they like it, they someone else. It’s like an amusing picture of cats with a caption in Impact, except, well, useful.

Every so often, rarely these days, a student transfers in who has a degree from a place where they studied Computer Science without any computers at all. There wasn’t one in the school or, if there was, it was so valuable that the students weren’t allowed near it! It’s obvious when another teacher has taken the wrong approach: depending on memorisation of algorithms or characteristics as an indication of knowledge, rather than trying to come up with techniques to apply and extend knowledge. Why didn’t the previous teacher do something better? The science of computation and algorithms should always be more than just a tool course.

But that is so easy for me to say, with all of the resources that I have. It’s ignorant and arrogant for me to try and apply intention to the outcomes that I perceive. The right thing for me to do is, as always, think “How can I fix this?”  Increasing knowledge reduces ignorance. How can I help people who may not have access to some of the resources I take for granted?

How did I find out about CS Unplugged? Someone told me about it, then explained how it was being used in places like small schools, or in underfunded districts, or where student numbers had grown but labs hadn’t, or where people thought that it was a great way to teach Computer Science without having to worry about “Ok, now right click on the third tile on the left hand side of the second screen.” Imagine that, teaching CS without having to worry about whether all the logins have been created, the network is up, if all the patches have been applied. Teaching CS without wondering who is secretly Facebooking or IMing in the middle of your lessons.

As always, this approach is part of your tool box. You look at the problem, think about it and then pull out an appropriate tool. Sometimes, of course, we have to wander off and forge a new tool – exciting, arduous and rewarding all at the same time. If you haven’t heard about CS Unplugged, welcome to a new tool. If you have, but you haven’t used it, maybe it’s time to trot it out somewhere to see how it could work for you. If you like it, pass it on!

Your cheating heart will do you wrong

One of the most unpleasant things I have to do is dealing with students who cheat. We have a pretty thorough and fair process for handling this and, most of the time, we catch someone once for basically being lazy or stupid, they lose the marks for the assignment and they never do it again. Even so, the number of people who write “this lecturer is the worst person in the Universe” on their end-of-semester assessment forms is generally the same number of people as I caught cheating – it has an impact on both of us.

When I see someone again, or someone comes up for a second or third offence, that’s sad. It’s sad for so many reasons. It’s sad because, this time, they risk a penalty of getting zero for the course. Or getting kicked out of Uni. It’s sad because they haven’t taken in what I was telling them about knowledge being more important than cramming or copying. But, for me, it’s sad because now I feel that I’ve failed the student. Somewhere along the line, they got the message that 75/100 cheating is somehow better than 50/100 fairly earned.

That a pass by any means is better than a fail.

Of course, pragmatically, it is. Student are paying, directly or indirectly, to study and they want to be in the workforce as soon as they can, with the best marks possible. But what that means is all those talks on ethics, on professional practice, on honesty, on integrity, have missed these students entirely. Students aren’t buying a degree, they have an opportunity to earn a degree. (Ideally, I’d like everyone to have the opportunity to go to the college and course of their choice. Real world factors jump on my head really quickly there.)

Even if a student sneaks through with undetected cheating, they still have a problem, because their lack of knowledge will probably get found out once they hit the job market. They may get one job, or two, but once it becomes obvious that they don’t know what they’re supposed to, people’s estimation of them will drop. People’s ideas of what our degrees our and what our school does will drop. Everyone loses.

I’m up front about my dislike of cheating. But I’m also fair in my reaction. When it’s dealt with, that’s it. Records leave me to go elsewhere and I try my hardest to forget the details so that I don’t stare at that student for the rest of their time and wonder what they’re doing. Give me 6 months and I’ve achieved it. The student is back in the pack and, if it doesn’t happen again, it never gets mentioned again. It’s a trap to immediately scrutinise everything as if the student is cheating again. Has action been taken? Yes? Is it over? Yes? Move on. Ok, they might do it again but that’s what you have Turnitin and MOSS for. If they do it again then, yes, it may be systematic and more action has to be taken but, while cheating is not anything that should be condoned or excused, I can almost understand why a confused, rushed 17-year old might thing it was not the worst idea in the world to save themselves some effort.

But it is the worst idea in the world, because it can damage the learner-teacher relationship and risk a student’s entire career. In a harsh school, it can be an inescapable sentence for the rest of someone’s career.

This is a G-rated blog, so I can’t tell the joke about “I kiss one goat” here but those of you who know the joke know that the punchline is that the teller is a man of great merit, has done many things, but he kissed one goat and he is henceforth known as Henri the Goat Kisser. So, yes, I don’t like cheating, and I wish people would stop, but I try not to categorise someone by actions that they may only take once in their life, and regret for the rest of it, because part of my job is making new and better people. Well, that’s over-stating it really. Part of my job is helping people to make themselves new and better.

When I’m teaching, I’m often thinking about how I can structure assignments to reduce the temptation and opportunity to cheat. I think about how I can make students interested enough to take part, to be involved – this often involves other students, using neighbour techniques. But, when cheating happens, I try to be as understanding as I can – while still having a firm line that cheating doesn’t fly here. It’s hard and I welcome comments from other people who’ve had to deal with this.