NSF Makes It Rain: $722K Award To Evaluate Microsoft-Backed TEALS

theodp writes: Microsoft has $92 billion in cash parked offshore, so it's kind of surprising to see a $722K National Science Foundation award is going towards validating the efficacy of Microsoft TEALS, the pet program of CEO Satya Nadella that sends volunteer software engineers with no teaching experience into high schools to teach kids and their teachers computer science. Among its Program Changes for 2015, TEALS said it "explicitly commits to provide a core set of curriculum materials that are complete, organized, and adaptable," which should help improve the outcome of the Developing Computer Science Pedagogical Content Knowledge through On-the-Job Learning NSF study schools are being asked to participate in. Meanwhile, CSTUY, a volunteer organization led by experienced CS teachers (including Slashdot user zamansky), finds itself turning to Kickstarter for $25K to fund Saturday Hacking Sessions. So, as Microsoft-backed Code.org — which has also attracted NSF award money to validate its CS program — is fond of saying: What's wrong with this picture? (To be fair to TEALS: it may have Microsoft backing, but it's not strictly a Microsoft effort, and also started out as a pure volunteer effort, as founder Kevin Wang explained earlier this year.)

Comments

No Teaching Experience?

[KermodeBear]

I'm not sure that is a great idea. Some people are great at teaching, others are not. Someone with no teaching experience has a good probability of being on the "not" side. Even people WITH teaching experience are often poor teachers.

My concern with this is that you'll get someone with no experience that is also a poor teacher, and that person will turn the kids off to what could be an interesting field of study.

Re:No Teaching Experience?

[zamansky]

Many of my students who have volunteered with TEALS said that they felt that it wasn't doing much or anything to build long term capacity with respect to teaching.

That said, they all felt that while they were in the classroom the kids were getting something that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise and that was worth it.

They didn't think it was a game changer but they did feel it was a good thing. I tend to agree.

Funny TEALS connection

[zamansky]

Funny thing is that I've been told that my graduates form the largest subset of all the NY area TEALS volunteers.

Meanwhile we continue to produce results but struggle to raise funds while the rich get richer.

To everyone reading this, please do check us out at cstuy.org, vet us, and draw your own conclusions.

Oh well, back to the grind.

If they want to do some good they should share

[Hasaf]

The slash article says, "a core set of curriculum materials that are complete, organized, and adaptable." As a middle school teacher I would love to get some material that meets those qualifications.

Because Computer Science is not a core subject, the teachers are left making up things as we go along. At this point I have a pretty good scheme of work that eaves the students leaving with a lot more than they came in with. However, it would be nice to have some real standards and expectations for each grade level. Meaningful material for hitting those goals would be even better; but at the present the teachers really don't have anything beyond what some department head thinks is important.

(BTW: for my classes, giving full authority to a department head, who doesn't even teach at my school or at my level, meant I got an edict of "No programming!"

Even Arduino boards got nixed. I can show them to the students; but they are not allowed to program, or play with, them. I was told, "Even you have said they are controllers. The students might learn how to control things, and we can't have that happening." I was left with ??? on my face.

Fear of "hacking," something that the administrators cannot even define, is hobbling us.)

So, provide the material, let teachers try to present it as a "standard" curriculum.

Re:92B

[ShanghaiBill]

that is documented independently.

So? The $92B is not only parked overseas, it was earned overseas, by mostly non-Americans selling to other non-Americans. And it will be reinvested overseas, along with trillions of dollars parked by other corporations, creating jobs for non-Americans, because our idiotic tax laws would tax the hell out of the money if it was invested in America. No other country has such a counterproductive tax policy, pushing away investments by their own corporations.

It is absurd to blame Microsoft for our dumb tax laws. They are just responding to the incentives. It is even sillier to throw out this red herring into the first sentence of a summary of an article about a completely different subject.

Re:It's no surprise Microsoft is trying to damage.

[MightyMartian]

Not to mention pushing Microsoft development tools and technologies.

Re:It's no surprise Microsoft is trying to damage.

[exomondo]

Not to mention pushing Microsoft development tools and technologies.

No, it is about teaching computer science and pretty much anybody in the industry can volunteer to be a part of it. But you saw "Microsoft" and immediately projected your own bias rather than actually doing any research or educating yourself about it didn't you. So from the TEALS site:

What’s the curriculum?
Our partner schools select from two TEALS courses: Intro CS (“Introduction to Computer Science Principles”) and AP CS A (“Introduction to Java Programming”).

Intro to CS uses Berkeley's Snap! visual programming language to teach CS fundamentals, not Microsoft tools.

Introduction to Java Programming? That doesn't sound very Microsoft does it. It's actually based on a text from Washington University.

Seriously it's all on the website, instead of being an ignorant naysayer spreading FUD you could actually contribute.

Re:$92 billion in cash parked offshore

[Notabadguy]

You have the mentality of a peasant, now let me tell you as insultingly and snarkily as I can why my shit doesn't smell bad...

I see - you don't have a CPA or a tax professional minimize your tax exposure. You donate extra funds to the IRS in your generosity. You want big businesses to replicate your attitude. Good for you!

Personally, I don't like giving up what I've earned to a government that has proven at every turn to be terribly incompetent, corrupt, and incapable of financial responsibility. I hold no ill feelings towards other people (include boards of directors) who feel the same.

You keep riding your high horse though, and prance about. Or go back to your Occutard bullshit.

Re:Big Returns, Off The Books To NSF Managers

[guruevi]

I doubt they bring in the cash on their persons. If this conspiracy theory were true, these people don't need the cash here in the US. Once you've got enough money in banks across the globe in a global bank (eg. HSBC) you can take out 'loans' against that money in other countries because your global 'net worth' is billions of dollars.

People like Mr. Trump and Mr. Gates have millions if not billions of dollars in debt which is neatly managed, repackaged and sold, yet they are 'worth' billions, not because they have the cash on hand but because they have 'investments' and 'holdings' and 'real estate'.

If someone tells you a rich/famous person's 'net worth' you can easily read "socialized debt".