Computing in context (abstract only)

As computing moves into its sixth decade as a formal field of study, a great deal of attention is focused on the breadth of relationships between computing and other disciplines. Descriptors of this relationship include computing in context, computing with a purpose, computing + X, computational X, interdisciplinary computing, multi-disciplinary computing, and trans-disciplinary computing. Regardless of the descriptor, the goals for exploring the relationship remain the same: students need to understand how the power of computing informs and shapes ideas throughout the academy and society. They need to learn appropriate concepts in computing and to see these applied to other areas of study. This learning will be most effective when approached through active participation of students, as they tackle questions and problems coming from society's ever-growing and ever-changing reliance on computing devices and modes of interaction. Our NSF-funded project, titled Computing in Context, fosters interdisciplinary computing education by creating exemplars of curricular materials, testing these materials in undergraduate computing courses, and disseminating the materials through computingportal.org. We focus our effort on four areas of applied computing: computational linguistics, computing and music intelligence and security informatics, and web science. Our materials will be designed for inquiry-based learning, whether this occurs in lecture as a brief conversation between pairs of students or in lab as loosely formulated problem or scenario or as a multi-week, team-based project.