Making information cities livable

Reviewer: Charles R. Leake

This is an interesting paper on the nature of computer science (CS) student culture, and how it has traditionally clashed with the need for graduates to have good group work skills. The motivation for addressing this problem is the common complaint of industry that CS majors are typically well prepared technically, but lack the ability to collaborate effectively with others. As others have also observed, simply adding project courses, and requiring assignments to be done in groups, does not usually improve this situation. Tactics for group work include: sequential segmentation (one person does part of the work, then passes it on); parallel segmentation (each person does an independent piece of the whole); natural selection (each person does the whole thing, and the group chooses the best result, or the best person is chosen to do the work); and collaboration (the team members work closely together as the work is being done). Working alone is the value held highest by most students, and the first three tactics provide for that in one form or another, but the industry claim means that the real deficiency is in collaborative skills. One of the results of collaborative discussion in groups is improvement in the process of thinking about solutions to problems, a benefit that transcends group skills development, since it generally broadens students' insights in problem solving. A study of CS student culture identified a number of key characteristics: preference for working alone (as noted above); procrastination; experimentation; disregard for process; combativeness; unwillingness to support others; and absence of passion. The authors discuss these observations in an insightful way that has evolved over time. To address the issue of improving the students' collaborative skills, three interventions were developed to overcome the natural resistance of most students. The first is the conversational classroom, where the professor facilitates discussion on a topic rather than giving a lecture. The second is group decision making exercises, and the third is assignment devaluation. The authors carefully describe these interventions, with a focus on how they contribute to developing collaborative skills. The paper is well written, well organized, and very effective in addressing the issues of CS student culture, the negative effect that culture has on developing collaborative work skills, and how the culture can be modified to develop those collaborative work skills without lessening technical competence. There is something here for almost everyone who has an interest in computer science pedagogy and career preparation. Online Computing Reviews Service