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Computing Research in Curricula: Knowledge, Education & Training
How to do Computing Education Research
A workshop for CSEd researchers and practitioners (and others) at IIT Gandhinagar
3rd February 2024 (Saturday) — 4th February 2024 (Sunday) OR 5th February 2024 (Monday)
(A choice between a two-day format and a two-and-a-half-day format will be made in due course, based on the preferences of the participants.)
You likely know what it means to study computing. But what does it mean to study computing education? What kinds of questions do we ask, and how do we go about answering them?
Join us for the CRiCKET workshop to have a hands-on experience navigating the current and future landscape of CS Education, with a particular emphasis on how research (CER: Computing Education Research) in this area works.
Though ostensibly about computing education, what we’re really going to study is how to learn things about humans. Obviously, education is about humans. But several other branches of computing largely or partly do, or could, work with humans too. Obvious candidates are areas like HCI or usable security; less obvious might be areas like formal methods (how to make logics and tools that people can work with effectively) and programming languages (how to design languages, how to design error messages, etc.); even systems and algorithms have human components. So anyone who is interested in learning about how to learn things about humans will find useful content here, and is welcome.
The format will not be slides-and-lectures. There will be virtually no slides, and there will be very little lecturing. Rather, we will do lots of hands-on activities, and we will have several conversations. Most of the learning will take place bottom-up.
Here are the things we want you to learn to think about in computing education research:
- What kinds of areas does CER cover?
- What kinds of questions does CER ask?
- What kinds of study designs do we see?
- What kinds of analysis methods are used?
- How (and where) are findings presented?
Because our goal is to have a highly interactive event, we’ll adjust the schedule to accommodate participants. We can speed up on parts that are easy, and slow down on parts that are hard. Therefore, we won’t be publishing a detailed schedule a priori. The “schedule” below is just a skeleton to help you with logistics.
It is very likely that each question in the topics list will get its own session. Some of these sessions will end with extended homeworks, and the next session will be devoted to going over the work that participants do. We will use a variety of techniques to respond and evaluate work, always with a constructive, not judgmental, end.
Venue
The event will be held at IIT Gandhinagar. Gandhinagar is close to Ahmedabad.
Please see this page for more details about reaching IITGN and this page for general information about the IIT Gandhinagar campus.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (AMD) is an international airport serving the cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India and is nearer to our IIT campus.
- Ahmedabad Junction Railway Station (ADI), locally known as Kalupur station is the main terminus which is very well connected with the other parts of the country.
- Geeta Mandir & Paldi are the bus terminals of Ahmedabad city.
We will meet in AB1/101 (Learning Theatre).
Devices
We will be asking you to do work during the event. It will therefore be useful for you to have some kind of computing device. A phone probably has too small a screen for large-scale editing and collaborating with others. A laptop or at least tablet would be far preferred. However, we do not have any expectations of operating systems, CPU, memory, etc. Anything on which you can comfortably edit documents (Word, Google Docs, etc.) and draw some basic pictures (with the drawing package of your choice) is sufficient.
Communication
The event will be conducted in English. However, we expect have participants from across the country. While all languages are welcome during conversations:
When in a group, please make sure you are using a language that everyone is comfortable with.
When communicating with the whole class, please use English.
Expectations
“It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.”
The workshop is participatory in nature. Being a fly on the wall may be technically possible to pull off, but will very likely be suboptimal. The organizers will work towards ensuring that you are in an environment that is inclusive and open. In that setting, we expect you to:
- Attend the whole event (modulo unanticipated circumstances).
- Be mentally present and to interact with each other, not spend your time looking at your computer or phone. Put your devices away unless directed to use them. You can read your email, WhatsApp, etc. later.
- Let your guard down. Everyone who is attending is doing so because there are things they don’t know. Therefore, however uncomfortable it may be, speak up when there are things you don’t understand. You probably aren’t the only one who’s confused!
- Participate in discussions. As you will see, there is often no “right answer”. You may not be comfortable initially, but we hope to create an environment where everyone is welcome to speak up. The workshop is purely in-person and off the record: please make the most of this!
- Ask questions. There are no “stupid questions”. There may be some banter, and it will all be in good spirit. Don’t let it intidimate you!
- Feel free to disagree with others, and expect them to disagree with you! This is normal. Civilized and on-topic debates are welcome.
- Respect differences between participants from different parts of the country, of different language capabilities, of different personal value systems, etc.
The workshop is now closed for applications.
Note to participants: There are no registration fees for the workshop. Also:
For student participants, a limited number of shared hostel rooms available, and these will be allocated to student participants at no cost.
For non-student participants, we have a limited number of rooms in the guest house available at standard rates, please send an email to
cer2024iitgn@gmail.com
with the subjectGuest House Accommodation
for details of charges. Participants planning to stay at nearby hotels will have to make their own arrangements to cover the relevant costs.We expect outstation participants to cover their travel-related expenses, and local participants are also expected to make their own arrangements to commute to the venue. We are currently unable to offer any TA/DA reimbursements.
All participants are welcome to join us as on Discourse to engage in conversations ahead of the workshop! The invitation email has the invite code and a link to a broadcast-only whatsapp group as well (which will be used for announcements related to the logistical aspects of the workshop).
Adithi Iyer (IIT Gandhinagar)
Amey Karkare (IIT Kanpur)
Anirban Dasgupta (IIT Gandhinagar)
Anupama Pradeepan (IITGN)
Arup Kumar Chattopadhyay (IIT Madras)
Arvind W Kiwelekar (DBATU Lonere)
Atul Pratap Singh (IIT Madras)
Bhavesh Neekhra (Ashoka University)
Bhavini Korthi (IIT Gandhinagar)
Bhumika Shah (Gujarat University)
Binita Maity (IIT Gandhinagar)
Divya Joseph (Raspberry Pi Foundation)
Dr. Amiya Ranjan Bhowmick (Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai)
Dr. Archana Kumari (School of Education, Devi Ahilya University, Indore)
Dr. Girija Limaye (DES Pune University)
Dr. Nishant Pandya (BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus)
Gnaneswar Kulindala (IIIT Hyderabad)
H Srimathi (SRM Institute of Science and Technology)
Hrishikesh
Jatin Ambasana (Unitedworld School of Computational Intelligence)
Jyothi Krishnan (IIT Gandhinagar)
Kareena Beniwal (IIT Gandhinagar)
Lavanya S.C (Dr.Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology)
Mamta Manaktala (Raspberry Pi Educational Services)
Mrityunjay Kumar (IIIT Hyderabad)
Mrudula Adawadkar (Beyond Classroom Pune)
Nawazish Parween (Cluster Innovation Centre ,Delhi University)
Neeldhara Misra (IIT Gandhinagar)
Neha Garg (IIT Gandhinagar)
P. Sita Rama Murty (Vishnu Institute of Technology)
Parthasarathy PD (BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus)
Prajish Prasad (FLAME University)
Pranav Vats (IIIT Hyderabad)
Professor (Dr) Gurrala Srinivasa Rao (Indian Naval Academy Ezhimala)
Rashmita Panigrahi (Raspberry Pi Foundation)
Riddhi Bharani (Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Arts, Science and Commerce)
Rinkal Mansukhbhai Sardhara (L J University)
S P Suresh (Chennai Mathematical Institute)
Sakshi Sharma (IIT Ropar)
Saurabh N. Mehta (Vidyalankar Institute of Technology)
Shubham Kumar
Siddharaj Mopkar (vidyavriksh.com)
Srikumar Subramanian (Krea University)
Sudarshan Iyengar (IIT Gandhinagar)
Vaishnavi Sundararajan (IIT Delhi)
Venkatesh Choppella (IIIT Hyderabad)
Vipul Vaibhaw
Viraj Kumar (IISc)
Yashpal Yadav (IIIT Hyderabad)