The United States' leadership in computer science and information technologies may be threatened as other countries begin to develop a crucial component missing from America's science pipeline--a comprehensive curriculum in computer science at the K-12 level. In response to this, Congress has declared December 6-12, 2009, as Computer Science Education Week. Joining this webcast to discuss the week and why computer science education needs extra attention right now are Jan Cuny, Program Director at NSF, Cameron Wilson of the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM), Maggie Johnson, Director of Education and University Relations for Google Inc., and Jane Margolis, a UCLA researcher who is working in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Credit: National Science Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles and the Association for Computing Machinery

The U.S. House of Representatives recently designated December 6-12, 2009, as Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), in recognition of the transformative role of computing and necessity of rigorous computer science education at all levels. The development of CSEdWeek is a joint effort led by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) with the cooperation and deep involvement of the Computer Science Teachers Association, the Computing Research Association, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the Anita Borg Institute, the National Science Foundation (NSF), Google, Inc., Intel and Microsoft.

Credit: ACM, 2009