July 8, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB Department of Computer and Information Sciences is training librarians from the Birmingham Public Library and teachers from some city schools on the newest computer programming technology this week. Participants will then pass on their new knowledge to the city's K-12 students in a series of new during-and-after school classes.
During the five-day workshop, which will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 6-10, 20 Birmingham teachers and librarians are learning how to work with a computer programming language called Alice, an innovative 3D programming environment that utilizes a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate engaging, less-frustrating first-time programming. The educators will use their knowledge to teach Alice programming to students so that the children can create animated stories, games or videos to share on the Web.
"Our UAB professors are already volunteering in many metro area classrooms to teach computer technology to students, but we can't be everywhere," said Jeff Gray, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science. "This workshop is about teaching educators so that they can develop their own classes and offer more computer programming opportunities to our community's students."
Birmingham librarians in the workshop plan to turn their new skills into a series of after-school workshops at local libraries this fall, said Renee Blalock, director of the Birmingham Public Library. Blalock said the Central Library downtown will be the first location to offer the classes, which likely will be offered one evening a week for a period of six weeks at no cost to enrolled students.
"We already have many kids in the libraries after school each day working on our computers," Blalock said. "These programs will capitalize on the interest in computers, adding an extra dimension of learning that will keep students engaged outside of school."
"We are very excited about the library system's plans to offer computer programming lessons and hope the school teachers in our workshop are able to develop similar classes or augment their existing classes to offer similar training because technology learning will be crucial to our students growing into a competitive state workforce," Gray said.
About UAB
The Department of Computer and Information Sciences is located in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. Its undergraduate program provides a Bachelor of Science degree with the opportunity to minor in another discipline, as well as co-op programs with local industries. CIS also offers programs of study leading to master's and doctoral degrees, as well as an interdisciplinary bioinformatics program. Find more at http://www.cis.uab.edu/.