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

Posted by timothy on from the whose-heart-is-purest dept.

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.)

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. No Teaching Experience? by KermodeBear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Love sees no species.
    1. Re:No Teaching Experience? by zamansky · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

  2. Re:It's no surprise Microsoft is trying to damage. by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not to mention pushing Microsoft development tools and technologies.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. Re:It's no surprise Microsoft is trying to damage. by exomondo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.