Learning How to Teach Computer Science - And Why I Teach the Way I do

Teaching computer science has been one of the greatest joys of my life. There is no happier sound then hearing the exuberant shout from a student: “My program runs!!!”. In this talk, I describe my own journey learning and then later teaching computer science. I was trained to do research, earned a PhD, and was then thrown into a classroom of students. Whoa!!! With little training, I learned how to teach computer science, and over thirty years later I am continuing to try new practices and strategies. Along the way I realized how to make concepts come alive through visualization and interaction, built some tools, and baked some cookies. Underneath it all, I encountered my own struggles that I have conquered or learned to live with.

Biosketch

Susan H. Rodger is a Professor of the Practice in the Computer Science Department at Duke University. She works in the areas of visualization, tools for interacting with computer science concepts, data structures and algorithms, computer science education, and computing in K-12. Rodger has developed educational software and materials, co-authored two books, co-created online Coursera courses on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java and Alice, and published over fifty journal and conference publications. With over forty-five students, Rodger developed JFLAP, software that is used world-wide in experimenting and teaching formal languages and automata. She has organized over fifty workshops on tools for teaching CS, Alice programming, peer-led team learning, and mentoring.

Rodger was the chair of the AP Computer Science Development Committee, Chair of ACM SIGCSE, a member of the ACM Education Policy Committee, and is currently Co-Chair of CRA-WP. She received the IEEE Computer Society 2019 Taylor L. Booth Education Award, Duke University Trinity College 2019 David and Janet Vaughn Brooks Distinguished Teaching Award, the ACM 2013 Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, and she was one of two finalist candidates (with seven students) for the 2007 NEEDS Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware for the software JFLAP. She received a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from North Carolina State University, and an MS and PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University. Prior to Duke, she was an Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.