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The article looks at the introduction of computer programming into high school classes other than mathematics or computer science classes, focusing on the authors' project of creating Task-Specific Programming (TSP) languages, also called teaspoon languages, that teachers and students in classes such as history can learn quickly and then use for tasks related to their subject. They note that TSP languages are a type of domain-specific programming languages (DSLs).

The author discusses the importance of training K-12 teachers in computer science (CS) education in order to permit colleges and universities to offer CS, computer programming, and STEM education courses to undergraduate students.

In this article the author considers indicators that U.S. K-12 students will study computer science. Topics discussed include the addition of programming to children's computer games, insights on the overall projected populations of school children in the U.S. and details on the learners of computing versus other learners of STEM.

The article presents blog posts adapted from the website http://cacm.acm.org about the role of variables in computer programming and the direct instruction approach in computer programming education. The relations of variables to constants and values is addressed. Comments on the use of examples in computer programming instruction are presented.

The article discusses natural language processing and the teaching of computer programming in public schools. Topics include the computer program word2vec's ability to give manipulations of word representations that resemble semantics produced by vector math, and educational historian Larry Cuban's argument that computer programming education advocates blending the roles of school in preparing citizens and preparing workers as computing is necessary in society.

The article discusses teaching computer science to Science and Technology Entry Program students at Union College's Kenney Community Center and the benefits of Jython Environment for Students, the text editing software for Python programming language. Topics include the use of a visual perception card game to analyze how human's solve problems versus how to program computers to solve problems, data representation inside computers, and the use of JES to facilitate programming in Media Computation.

The author discusses the importance of providing programming languages that support multimedia, taken from his blog post "Why Don't Languages Support Multimedia All the Way Down," located at http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/109917, from the "Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)." He addresses the need for computer scientists to be able to shift levels of abstraction, the prominence of digital media usage in the 21st century, and the benefits of teaching computer programming language manipulation to students in an introductory computer science class.

The Communications Web site, http://cacm.acm.org, features more than a dozen bloggers in the BLOG@CACM community. In each issue of Communications, we'll publish selected posts or excerpts. twitter ollow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blogCACM http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm Mark Guzdial writes about why teachers must grasp introductory CS students' theories about computing. Bertrand Meyer argues for the necessity of analyzing large-scale software disasters and publishing a detailed technical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses problems with teaching introductory computer science. It is suggested that the common practice of asking students to engage in programming activities that simulate the problems of professionals in the field may not be the most effective teaching method. A research paper titled "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experimental, and Inquiry-Based Teaching," by Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark is cited as finding evidence that the minimal-guidance technique is not productive.