Wednesday 21 September 2016

Computer Science Curriculum Internationalization

I have been a long time practitioner and advocate of internationalising Computer Science teaching. My fundamental aim is to give students global computing skills. One such global skill, for example, is the processing of Unicode text rather than the very restricted ASCII text. Once one encompasses Unicode then one is encompassing most languages and scripts of the world.

Over the years I have tried to find other like minded Computer Science educators but have had no success. I had more or less concluded I am a solitary voice when it comes to Computer Science internationalisation. There does though appear to be some light as I recently discovered two organisations that promote internationalisation of teaching curricula.

 The Centre for Curriculum Internationalisation (CCI) which is based at Oxford Brookes University, UK. brookes.ac.uk/services/cci/index.html In addition to their website they have a google discussion group. I posted some information on my Computer Science Internationalisation initiatives and practices to this google forum. Please see groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/cicin/6XJCrqcdLD4

Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC) in action which is based in Australia. ioc.global

Update 19th March 2017: I reached out to people and groups and I conclude I am still a solitary voice with respect to Computer Science Curricula Internationalization in UK Universities. I do believe UK Universities will have to embrace Computer Science Internationalization but I think it will be at least ten years before that happens. So, why do I persist? Am I wrong? Well, if I am wrong then so are, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Nivea, Booking.com, Nestlé, Hotels.com, Pampers, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, Adobe, Twitter and many many more companies. They all operate globally and are all producing software for the world. These global companies need graduates who have the skills and attitude necessary for building global software.
Note: I have taken these company names from The top 25 global websites from the 2017 Web Globalization Report Card globalbydesign.com/2017/02/16/the-top-25-global-websites-from-the-2017-web-globalization-report-card/

Update 1st October 2017:  I recently created an open forum specifically for discussion on the topic of Computer Science/ICT/IT curricula internationalisation. If this topic interests you, please become a member and join in the discussions. It is open to all. Please see groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/computer-science-curriculum-internationalization