SIGCT+2009+Breakfast+Summary

This page is a summary of the emails that are presented on the email discussion page. Presumably we haven't forgotten any ideas, so after any further editing of this page, we should determine a process to narrow down these proposals within the next week.

B. On Smash Lab, Deanne Bell is an engineer who specializes in far out ideas for resolving problems. These folks could draw a crowd and a Lady Engineer can cover a lot of interest levels. It is rumored that Deanne will replace Karie soon so she might still be cheap.
 * Proposal #1:** a panel with some government officials to deal with legislative and education issues related to CS/IT workforce issues (like there will be 1.5 million openings in next 8 years, only elipsed by registered nurses and very low paying service jobs) and K-12 education. US Dept of Labor calls the CS/IT workforce Computer Specialists in their tables and charts.
 * With the help of Audrey, Hilary Goldman, ISTE's governmental relation specialist, suggested we avoid legislators or even their staff members (vacations and ignoring commitments to meet)
 * Refine of panel idea would be to hone in on new House Bill and relate this to our job with regard to teaching these teachers
 * Proposal #2:** engage one or more of the following: A. On MythBusters, there is Grant Imahara: EE and robotics whiz. His design won the Battle Bots competition and really knows his stuff. Also, Karie Byron- same show, math teacher, great hostess.
 * In followup, Grand and Karie are $15,000 each; Deanne is $7500; all too expensive for SIGCT budget - could ISTE help? (answer was no because keynote speakers are already set; as a result of our inquiry, the possibility of SIG involvement and influence in future keynote speakers (NECC 2010 and beyond) will be discussed).

**Proposal #3:** panel on advocacy. Panel members could include Cameron Wilson from ACM plus someone from a legislator's office (to be avoided per H. Goldman); several emails included a positive response to this idea.
 * refinement: perhaps include someone from NSF (Jeanette Wing?), from ISTE (Don Knezek? to talk about ISTE's advocacy), various National Academies (?) and possibly another education-oriented policy organization (Math or Science Teachers); how about someone from NPR like Ira Flatow (he's from Connecticut, though)?
 * more refinement: invite your congressman to the breakfast, just don't depend on them coming (make special badges and include free exhibit pass)
 * further refinement: someone from Project Lead the Way, an engineering program mostly for grades 7-12
 * and more: we also need presenters to show the Washington people that we teach all accountability tested subjects - math and English through problem solving and hands-on application


 * Proposal #4**: panel consisting of two SIGCT board members, reps from CSTA, SIGTE (Hilary Goldman and or others), plus 2 representatives for the Senate and/or house Education Committee- not necessarily elected members because, as Audrey explained, they won't show, but rather their Chief's of Staff or other member of their staff.
 * additional remarks are in an October 2 email on the SIGCT Breakfast planning discussion page
 * comment suggesting that this kind of panel won't draw many, that we should stick with CT/CS/IT topics that more directly impact on SIGCT members; suggested we look at dynamic/controversial people to present, possibly requiring honoraria.
 * Proposal #5:** Possible speakers: Marc Prensky from New York; Jeanette Wing from NSF
 * comment: there is a small amount of money for honoraria and expenses, but probably not enough for Prensky (he was a the lunch Keynote at NECC in 2005)
 * additional comment: perhaps Jeanette Wing and Tom Cortina from Carnegie-Mellon University both on Computational Thinking

Other comments related to creating a program for the Breakfast Forum
 * Proposal #6**: Focus the panel around business world peopoe who deal with schools as part of their larger educational mission. Some possibilities would be the new President of CompTIA, Gretchen Koch its education director; David Saedi, president of Certiport (his focus is on global standards in computing education);
 * comment: all of these have talked about an industry-wide set of CS assessments, like those that exist in all other areas of IT; add in university experts to keep perspective wide and interesting.
 * comment: Gretchen Koch is in charge of the IT Career Cluster program, working with Dept of Education and she speaks at a number of national conferences; she has experience in both education and industry
 * additional comment: how far afield from the SIGCT mission can we get; is the breakfast for prof development, to draw registrants, ???
 * additional comments: possible list of speakers might include the two noted plus Mitch Resnick, Brian Harvey, Kathleen Schrock and Susan Patrick; possible titles might be "Programming: the New Literacy", "Computational Thinking" or "Preparing the Workforce"
 * additional comment: Call it IT, CS, Computational Thinking, whatever, the program should support the IT Career Pathways which includes both skills and concepts and development of the entire spectrum of careers as defined in the Computing Specialists category of US Dept of Labor (which includes both programming intensive and non-programming intensive occupations).
 * additional comment: avoid having SIGCT business as a focus for the Forum
 * additional comment: speaker topics seem to be quantum leaps from our objectives (ie teaching students).
 * additional comment: SIGCT needs to establish an advocacy committee which will work on advocacy issues over the long term (many years); a breakfast forum focusing on advocacy could be a first step
 * comment: we shouldn't charge a fee (note that the $20 fee only partially pays for the Forum; the additional $10 per person is paid out of the SIGCT budget)