TechIntersect

I try to tell all of my female computer students about Grace Hopper, especially those who question the decision to be computer professionals. Too many people do not realize the amazing contributions of women to the field of computing. It is seen as a men-only club, which simply is not true. Some of the best computer people I know are women.

The picture in this post is from 1985, the year that Admiral Grace Hopper and Seaman Recruit Bill Genereux served together in the Navy. I never met her but that was the first year I learned about her.

Yesterday was Ada Lovelace International Day of Blogging. I wrote about another pioneer, Jean Jennings Bartik, who actually worked on the ENIAC and other computer projects before Grace Hopper. Literally hundreds of blog posts were made about women in technology yesterday. Check them out!

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day I would like to tell you about Jean Jennings Bartik. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Bartik a few years ago when she was speaking at a CCSC computing conference at her alma mater, Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri, USA.

Bartik was one of the world’s very first computer programmers— she worked on the original digital computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).

Programmers Betty Jean Jennings (Bartik) (left) and Fran Bilas (right) operate the ENIAC’s main control panel at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. (U.S. Army photo from the archives of the ARL Technical Library)

The word “computer” originally was not about a machine, it was a job title for a human being. “Betty” Jean Jennings Bartik was hired as a human “computer” by the US Army after graduating in 1945 from Northwest Missouri State Teachers college. Her major was Mathematics, which at the time was an unusual choice for women. She was the only female graduate in Math from the college that year.

Her first job with the Army was computing ballistic range tables for artillery guns. (When I was a Navy Firecontrolman, I had first hand exposure to such range tables. Here’s an example range table for  5″/38 guns like we had on the Battleship Missouri.) Imagine a large telephone book sized document listing all of the possibilities for where a projectile would land with a given initial velocity and a particular angle of elevation. Each calculation was made by hand, since there were no calculators or computer spreadsheets to help do the Math. Day after day, recording page after page of these numbers, that was the sort of tedious work she did for the Army.

She found the work quite monotonous and uninteresting, which is why she jumped at the opportunity to work for a new “secret” government project without knowing exactly what she would be doing. So that is how the girl from Missouri wound up becoming one of the world’s first computer programmers. Instead of doing the ballistics calculations by hand, she would be working with the team learning to use the new ENIAC computer which would ultimately do the same job a thousand times faster than a human computer could. According to the January 2009 issue of the Communications of the ACM:

There were no manuals or instruction guides for programming the ENIAC, which included 17,468 vacuum tubes, occupied more than 680 square feet, and weighed 30 tons. Instead, Bartik and her five female colleagues—Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Betty Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum—pored over its logical and electrical block diagrams and discussed design details with the male engineers and physicists who had created them. Ultimately, the women figured out how to set ENIAC’s 3,000 switches and hundreds of connection cables so calculations would progress correctly
through the complex machine.

That’s right. No manuals or instructions; not even a keyboard, not even punch cards! The machines instructions were hardware encoded directly into the circuitry with switches and cables. English-like computer programming languages would come later thanks in no small part to the efforts of another female computing pioneer (and fellow Navy veteran) Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.

Jean also later worked on the BINAC and the UNIVAC computers. In 1997, Jean and her fellow programmers were inducted into the Women In Technology International Hall of Fame. Jean was given an honorary doctorate from Northwest Missouri State University in 2002.

I remember enjoying her talk very much, she has a great sense of humor, and just tells it like it is. When I had the chance to meet Jean Bartik briefly and get her autograph, I told here about my Navy gunnery experience, and that I’m a college computing teacher. Knowing I am a professor, she wrote to me this very funny note:

Teach women that it is fun. I mean Math and Science. – Jean J. Bartik

It’s only one week until Murders R Us is coming to the Brown Grand Theatre to host “Who Dunnit to Elvis?”. If you read my Happy Birthday Elvis post last January, you know I’m a huge Elvis fan. The show is audience participation live theatre and I’m in it playing the role of Elvis #2. The interesting thing is that we have one rehearsal day before the performance. We don’t have a script, and at this point don’t even really know much about the story line. It is a little daunting for me, but I actually think it is great teacher training. Many times a classroom teacher has to “improv” when things don’t quite go as planned.

I just finished co-authoring a paper for the National Society for Engineering Educators conference this summer about using digital video to enhance student learning. (It will be published by ASEE so I can’t share it here.) While researching, I learned some interesting things about how acting training improves memory. I even read one article in which Alan Alda used improv acting with engineering students to help their own understanding of engineering.

I would like to learn more about this idea of using acting & improvisation to help teach engineering. First, I’ll need to get some help with improvisation games, and how they can be related to the engineering concepts in my classes.

I’m really looking forward to next week’s play at the Brown Grand. Performing on stage really forces me out of my comfort zone and although I couldn’t prove it, I believe it helps me with my teaching by helping me to think on my feet.

I’m wondering if any readers of this blog have similar experiences and activities that you do which on the surface seem to have nothing to do with your profession, but actually do help you be the best you can be?

My 7 year old daughter recently started a blog Science Girl Em. Since signing up for the Miss W’s Blogging Challenge, she has been getting some attention & comments which certainly helps her motivation for continuing her efforts. My wife and I are amazed at how such a young child, only beginning to build literacy skills, can be so interested in blogging. Right now, I think she enjoys reading the blogs of others as much or more than working on her own blog.

At the last parent/teacher conference I had a chance to briefly describe what she is doing to her teacher, and while I sensed some interest, I also noted some hesitation because of a lack of available class time that could be used to try it. I wonder if at her age, a simple focus on reading other blogs might be the best approach. When she tries to do her own typing, it is tedious for her and she can lose interest pretty quickly. But it has been amazing to watch her write out what she wants to say in a journal, then try to type it into her blog.

One of my own first blog posts was entitled: “Web 2.0 should be taught”. It was about how teacher education programs ought to include Web 2.0 technologies as a regular part of the curriculum. When I wrote it, I was operating from a position of blind faith. I had read a few blogs, I was starting to understand the power of the read/write web and how it could be a useful tool for learning.

Interestingly, that early post of mine is still getting occasional attention and comments; some new comments were even added within the past week. Now that I have been at this for almost a year, I have to say I’m even more convinced, especially after seeing my daughter working with the technology. Teachers really need to 1) learn how to use Web 2.0 themselves, and also 2) how to incorporate its use into classroom instruction. I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on part 1, and only now starting to consider how to make part 2 work.

I have to say that I’m very fortunate that the person who started me on this journey is Michael Wesch. He was kind enough to meet with me shortly after his YouTube video was gaining attention. (Wow, it’s over 8 million views now!) I have been watching his blog and the projects he has his students do. Hopefully, I’ll even be in his class as his student next year.

Wesch started me thinking, then attending SXSW last year really opened my eyes. People were making a living at blogging & I thought it was merely an ego trip. I decided it was time to really start paying attention, and not long after I created the TechIntersect blog. After only a year, I am still learning, but I feel like I have also learned so much as well. Thanks to everyone who has made it an interesting journey.

Probably the most profound professional experiences I have had since becoming an educator has been my involvement with Wakonse, the annual conference on college teaching held at Camp Miniwanca, in Shelby Michigan.

An unconference really, there are no paid speakers, no corporate sponsors; simply a group of college educators coming together with one mission in mind– improvement of teaching and student learning at the college level. It is an absolutely amazing experience, no small part of which is the natural beauty afforded by the summer camp setting along Lake Michigan.

That’s right, it’s a summer camp for college professors held in an actual 1920’s era American Youth Foundation summer camp. There is hiking & canoeing; all of the things you would associate with a summer camp, but most of all it is an amazing gathering of people passionate about college teaching.

All of the content, all of the sessions throughout the conference are developed and presented by professionals who are doing the job of educating college students. Everything from instructional techniques to maintaining work/life balance is addressed. There is an amazing mix of multi-decade veterans along with first-year novices, and there is no outward sign of academic rank; everyone simply is.

I am reminded of one of my favorite Matthew Kelly quotes from his book “The Rhythm of Life”

Don’t be a do person, be a be person. You are not a human doing, you are a human being.”

At Wakonse there is plenty to do, but there is also plenty of time to just be. Time to renew spirits, to make friends, to reflect upon doing the business of educating our students, to meditate, to simply be.

However, when I search Google for “Teacher Camp” or “Summer Camp for Teachers” I find little to suggest there is a similar experience available for primary & secondary educators in the USA. In fact, the very first link on my search is for the Teacher Camp in Baguio, Philippines (which incidentally would be ideal for what I have in mind were it not so far away– Baguio is beautiful).

The problem with Wakonse, if you even care to call it a problem, is that it is exclusive to college educators. My experience has been that all great teachers have something worthwhile to share. I have learned a tremendous amount from primary & secondary teachers that I apply in my college classes. When you put thoughtful teachers together in an environment like Wakonse, everyone goes home enriched without regard to what level or subject matter is taught.

So my question to you dear reader is this:

What would you think about forming a Summer Camp for Teachers experience open to educators of all levels, from kindergarten to college?

Eventually, an international experience for teachers would be amazing, and the Teacher Camp in Baguio might be just the venue to host such an event, but for now my sights are set much lower and I’m thinking we could start something like this in the US since travel funds are currently very tight.

We don’t need yet another teaching conference. There are tons of them, and many are amazing. We need an actual teaching retreat, and I think the outdoor component of Wakonse is critical. (My Wakonse photo series is here.) I don’t think the renewing of spirit that happens would be quite the same in a metropolitan convention center. There is something worthwhile, I think, in getting back to nature and living a somewhat rustic lifestyle for a few days. It wears you out, it breaks you down, it allows you to let go of the facade that we all must wear in our normal professional lives. It allows you to become your true essence, your true self you would be if you didn’t have all of the normal worries that go along with being a professional.

I think Wakonse is just fine the way that it is, and I wouldn’t dream of tinkering with the format. In fact, it wouldn’t be possible to extend Wakonse beyond college level because it has grown to maximum size as it is. I just think that non-college teachers and administrators are really missing out because to my knowledge there’s nothing like it for anyone other than college teachers. There is really something to be said for emulating the Wakonse conference and creating something new that allows educators of all grade levels and all walks of life to come together for a sharing of ideas and encouragement.

It is probably too late to organize anything for this year, but perhaps if you are intrigued by the idea, we could come together in a planning event with the notion of kicking this off in the summer of 2010. (northern hemisphere summer, I keep forgetting to think globally in my seasonal descriptions on my blog!)

I am just brainstorming in this post. I’ve thought about this before, but never floated the idea publicly. I very much appreciate your thoughtful comments and constructive feedback on this idea. I really think there’s something to it. Perhaps if the idea caught on, and a series of these teacher camps started taking root, maybe we truly could begin a grass-roots reform of education?