On Saturday March 3, 2012, I had the pleasure of serving as the master of ceremonies at the 3^rd annual Bay Area Affiliate Aspirations in Computing Award Ceremony at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This fantastic NCWIT program celebrates the hard work and talent of girls and teachers nationwide every year. It was a humbling and an inspiring moment. Twenty-three outstanding high school students from the San Francisco Bay Area were honored for their achievements in computer science.

March 3, 2012,  the Bay Area  Aspirations Award Ceremony took place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Parents, teachers, supporters, and of course, the girls, filled the environment with smiles. The day was gorgeous, and the California sunshine definitely attended the event, too. Anyone could sense the excitement of the girls who were finally being told Good Job, Keep Going, You're Doing Great, You Can. 

Online Learning and the Curse of Knowledge

Has your institution embraced new approaches to teaching and learning? A recent conference at Harvard looked at this topic, finding that "A growing body of evidence from the classroom, coupled with emerging research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, is lending insight into how people learn, but teaching on most college campuses has not changed much." As higher education institutions see a student body increasingly concerned with its "ROI" and feel competition from non-traditional online or vocational models, many are pushing to evolve their practices - exchanging lectures for writing or quizzes, and teaching graduate researchers how to teach. Do you think an openness to new pedagogical approaches could open the door for teaching and learning computing among a broader audience?

On February 10, 2012, the NCWIT El Paso/Las Cruces Affiliate Award Event was held at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Chemistry and Computer Science Building. During this ceremony, the winners and runners-up of the award were recognized for their achievements and provided with their respective rewards. The winner of the educator award, Mr. Ismail Turel, was also revered in this event. Amongst the winners were Andrea Rivera, who was also a was a national winner, and Noor Muhyi, who not only was a national winner, but was also selected to participate at the White House Science Fair.