The US' National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have released a report titled 'Digitally Enhancing America's Community Colleges' that details the findings from a joint Strategic Summit on Computing Education Challenges at Community Colleges. The report seeks to determine why community colleges are not able to apply successfully for federal funding for computing programmes, among other challenges and opportunities.
The report's recommendations are designed to spur new grant proposals, inventive initiatives and dynamic partnership activities to infuse innovation into community college computing courses and programmes.
The Summit identified a major stumbling block in computing education - lack of awareness among students. Feedback from participants suggests potential actions the computing and community college communities can take to combat that low level of awareness.
The report is seen to coincide with growing national interest in the future of community colleges. This includes the White House Summit on Community Colleges and its four regional summits held by the US Department of Education, which Secretary Arne Duncan convened "to ensure the vitality of our nation's economy." The ACM-NSF report states that America's community colleges have never had a higher profile - or shouldered higher expectations. In the face of the extraordinary rate of technological advances and their impact on America's job force, the report makes the case that community colleges' development plans need up-to-date computing courses and initiatives if they are to meet those demands.
To ensure a broad view, ACM's Committee for Computing Education in Community Colleges convened at the Summit a diverse group of 33 professionals from two-year colleges, four-year colleges, high schools, industry and government to inform the results of the report.
The complete report is available at http://capspace.org/committee/CommitteeFileUploads/FinalSummitReport.01.28.2011.pdf.
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