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Comment Re:Holy Run On Sentence!! (Score 1) 14

Oops, Copilot rewrite: "On Wednesday, the tech-backed nonprofit Code.org launched a legal offensive in its ongoing dispute over $3 million in outstanding licensing fees. These fees relate to the utilization of Code.org's free K-12 computer science curriculum by WhiteHat Jr., an edtech company specializing in coding education. Notably, WhiteHat Jr. has a controversial history and was acquired by Byju's for a staggering $300 million in 2020. Byju's, in turn, secured a $50 million investment from Mark Zuckerberg's venture firm and prominently highlights this connection on its investors page."

Submission + - Code.org Tells Court Zuckerberg-Tied BYJU'S Undermines Mission to Teach Kids CS

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Tech-backed nonprofit Code.org on Wednesday fired the latest salvo in its legal battle over $3 million in unpaid licensing fees for the use of Code.org's free [for non-commercial purposes] K-12 computer science curriculum by WhiteHat Jr., the learn-to-code edtech company with a controversial past that was bought for $300M in 2020 by Byju's, another edtech firm that received a $50M investment from Mark Zuckerberg's venture firm that still touts its ties to Zuckerberg on its Investors page.

In a filing in support of a motion for default judgement, Code.org founder and CEO Hadi Partovi wrote: "Whitehat’s continued use of Code.org’s platform and content without payment following Code.org’s termination of the Agreement has caused, and is continuing to cause, irreparable injury to Code.org, because it undermines Code.org’s charitable and nonprofit purpose of expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups and because it jeopardizes Code.org’s status as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. As a Section 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, Code.org may not use its assets to benefit for-profit entities without receiving fair compensation."

According to the [proposed] default judgement, "Code.org is awarded the principal amount sued for of $3,000,000, along with attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses in an amount to be determined following Code.org’s submission of an application, together with pre-judgment interest of $216,001.16, from May 26, 2023 to March 13, 2024, and any additional pre-judgment interest that may accrue until the date of judgment, calculated at the rate of 9% per annum pursuant to CPLR 5001 and 5004, plus any post-judgment interest at the statutory rate, for a total judgment in the amount of $[TBD]."

Submission + - Campaign Site Touts Trump as the K-12 Computer Science Education President

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "President Joe Biden included his administration’s K-12 education priorities in a State of the Union address focused on American resilience Thursday," reports EducationWeek. "Biden echoed his past support for raising teacher pay and increasing access to early childhood education, and he highlighted his administration’s efforts to promote tutoring, summer learning, and career and technical education. 'To remain the strongest economy in the world we need the best education system in the world,' Biden said."

The Trump campaign countered that message Thursday with a news release on Improving Education and Protecting Parents' Rights, arguing that "Joe Biden's Education Department is more focused on social justice indoctrination than teaching students. President Donald J. Trump protected the rights of parents and ensured children have every opportunity to receive the best education possible." The press release boasts that President Trump "allocated no less than $200 million each year in grants to prioritize women and minorities in [K-12] STEM and computer science education," a reference to a 2017 Presidential memorandum that Microsoft President Brad Smith later credited to a deal struck with Trump's daughter Ivanka, a Presidential advisor ("She said she would work to secure $1 billion of federal support over five years if the tech sector would pledge $300 million during the same time," Smith explained in his 2019 book Tools and Weapons).

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton branded herself as the K-12 CS presidential candidate in her unsuccessful 2016 campaign against Trump, vowing to "provide every student in America an opportunity to learn computer science" and to "engage the private sector and nonprofits to train up to 50,000 computer science teachers in the next decade."

So, are reports that computer science wins elections greatly exaggerated?

Submission + - Black Girls Code and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year of 2022

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The year 2020," notes an IUPUI Women’s Philanthropy Institute report, "was marked by upheaval across all areas of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting economic woes, and a renewed racial justice movement in response to the murder of George Floyd—and philanthropy was no exception, especially philanthropy devoted to women and girls." Such was the case at Black Girls Code, the nonprofit founded in 2011 by electrical engineer Kimberly Bryant that provides computer programming education to nurture careers in tech for girls of color, where contributions and grants surged to $23.7 million in 2020 (from $4.6M in 2019) and $16.9M in 2021, including a $3 million donation from MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos's ex-wife).

But what goes up must come down, including charitable giving in 2022. A newly-available IRS 990 filing reveals that Black Girls Code saw net income fall to a negative $5.2 million in 2022. Not only that, but legal expenses for 2022 were $3.9 million, 57% of the nonprofit's $6.7 million in contributions and grants. News reports and court records show that Black Girls Code was involved in at least two since-settled lawsuits in 2022 — one over events surrounding the termination of its founder and CEO and the other a trademark dispute — that resulted in the organization temporarily losing control of its own website and organization name. Under new leadership, Black Girls Code is currently doing some rebranding ("STEM has always been our core, and now, with the inclusion of Art, we’re transforming STEM into STEAM").

Of the three most successful learn-to-code K-12 CS nonprofits that emerged more than a decade ago, Black Girls Code was the 'David' compared to 'Goliaths' Code.org ($33M revenue in 2002) and Girls Who Code ($27M revenue in 2002), whose founders enjoyed support from billionaire tech leaders and deep-pocketed tech giants pretty much from the get-go. In 2013, Black Girls Code managed to edge out newcomer Code.org (whose Board at the time included Microsoft President Brad Smith) to win the top $50,000 prize in a Microsoft Azure-sponsored popularity contest for technology education nonprofits. Interestingly, as the Microsoft contest's voting period came to a close in 2013, Internet Archive captures show that Code.org wordsmithed its mission statement (adding "increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color" to "Code.org is a non-profit dedicated to growing computer science education"), essentially incorporating and expanding Black Girl Code's own mission statement ("to provide young and pre-teen girls of color opportunities to learn in-demand skills."). Hey, what's that old Microsoft saying? "Embrace, extend, and extinguish"?

Comment Re:A history trove (Score 3, Informative) 25

by theodp (#64286600) Attached to: 'Communications of the ACM' Is Now Open Access

In the past, I've found ACM articles useful primarily in three ways: 1. An independent source of research to help confirm or refute claims of the benefits of "hot" technology (Generative AI, for instance), 2. An roundup and explanation of some of the research/theory behind techniques employed in software from both a user and developer perspective, 3. An early look a promising technology currently in the R&D stages. I'd imagine academic types find ACM publications (reading and publishing) much more valuable than the rest of us as far as advancing their careers goes.
 
That being said, with the shift in breakthrough technologies from more independent and open university and college research CS labs to tech giants and startups, as well as the Open Access fees the ACM plans to charge universities/colleges and paper authors to help maintain their revenue stream ($66 million in 2022), one wonders what kind of content ACM publications will offer in the future.

Submission + - K-12 CS Nonprofit Black Girls Code's Legal Fees Were 57% Of Donations in 2022

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: A newly-released IRS 990 filing for Black Girls Code reveals that 2022 was a rocky year for the K-12 computer science nonprofit. Not only did net income fall to a negative $5.2 million after surging in the wake of civil unrest to $20.9 million in 2020 (incl. $3M from MacKenzie Scott) and $10.9 million in 2021, but legal expenses were $3.9 million, 57% of its $6.7 million in contributions and grants. News reports and court records show that Black Girls Code was involved in at least two lawsuits in 2022 — one over events surrounding the termination of its founder and CEO (which was settled in 2023) and the other a trademark dispute over the temporary loss of the charity's Black Girls Code name in California (also settled in 2023).

Black Girls Code, which focuses on the race/gender segment perhaps most struggling with K-12 CS success, started out in 2011 and was the 'David' compared to other learn-to-code K-12 CS nonprofit 'Goliaths' Code.org (which is contending with its own $3M lawsuit and a $2.5M uncollectible pledge write-off) and Girls Who Code, whose founders enjoyed support from billionaire tech leaders and deep-pocketed tech giants pretty much from the get-go.

In 2013, Black Girls Code managed to edge out Code.org to win the top $50,000 Microsoft AzureDev prize in a popularity contest for technology education nonprofits. Code.org — whose Board members included Microsoft President Brad Smith at the time — snagged 2nd place and pocketed $20,000 (Girls Who Code finished out of the money). Interestingly, as the contest's voting period came to a close, Internet Archive captures show that Code.org added "increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color" to its prior mission statement (which was "Code.org is a non-profit dedicated to growing computer science education."). Code.org's targeted-audience change, which came as Microsoft's Smith announced Code.org's inaugural Hour of Code and as the Microsoft-led Computing in the Core Advocacy Coalition was merged into Code.org, neatly embraced-and-extended Black Girls Code's own mission, "to provide young and pre-teen girls of color opportunities to learn in-demand skills."

Submission + - Communications of the ACM is Now Open Access

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "CACM [Communications of the ACM] Is Now Open Access," proclaims the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in its tear-down-this-CACM-paywall announcement. "More than six decades of CACM's renowned research articles, seminal papers, technical reports, commentaries, real-world practice, and news articles are now open to everyone, regardless of whether they are members of ACM or subscribe to the ACM Digital Library."

Ironically, clicking on Google search results for older CACM articles on Aaron Swartz currently returns page-not-found error messages and the CACM's own search can't find Aaron Swarz either, so perhaps there's some work that remains to be done with the transition to CACM's new website. ACM plans to open its entire archive of over 600,000 articles when its five-year transition to full Open Access is complete (January 2026 target date).

Submission + - Nvidia CEO Says Kids Shouldn't Learn to Code - They Should Leave It Up to AI 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Asked at the recent World Government Summit in Dubai what people should focus on when it comes to education, what they should they learn, and how they should educate their kids and their societies, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a counterintuitive break with tech CEOs advising youngsters to learn how to code. Huang argued that, even at this early stage of the AI revolution, programming is no longer a vital skill. With coding taken care of by AI, Huang suggested humans can instead focus on more valuable expertise like biology, education, manufacturing, or farming

From the video: "You probably recall over the course of the last 10 years, 15 years, almost everybody who sits on a stage like this would tell you it is vital that your children learn computer science, everybody should learn how to program, and in fact it's almost exactly the opposite. It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program and that the programming language, it's human, everybody in the world is now a programmer. This is the miracle, this is the miracle of artificial intelligence. For the very first time, we have closed the gap, the technology divide has been completely closed and it's the reason why so many people can engage artificial intelligence. It is the reason why every single government, every single industrial conference, every single company is talking about artificial intelligence today. Because for the very first time you can imagine everybody in your company being a technologist.

"And so, this is a tremendous time for all of you to realize that the technology divide has been closed. Or another way to say it, the technology leadership of other countries has now been reset. The countries, the people that understand how to solve a domain problem in digital biology, or in education of young people, or in manufacturing or in farming, those people who understand domain expertise now can utilize technology that is readily available to you. You now have a computer that will do what you tell it to do to help automate your work, to amplify your productivity, to make you more efficient. And so, I think that this is just a tremendous time. The impact of course is great and your imperative to activate and take advantage of the technology is absolutely immediate. And also to realize that to engage AI is a lot easier now than at any time in the history of computing. It is vital that we upskill everyone and the upskilling process, I believe, will be delightful, surprising, to realize that this computer can perform all these things that you're instructing it to do and doing it so easily."

Huang's words come as tech-backed nonprofit Code.org — which is lobbying to make CS a high school graduation requirement in all 50 states — hedges its bets by also including AI usage as part of its mission through its new TeachAI initiative (trademark pending). Interestingly, conspicuous by its absence from the Who's Who of tech giants on the advisory committee for the Code.org staffed-and-operated TeachAI is Nvidia (Nvidia is also missing from the list of Code.org donors). So, is it time to revisit the question of Is AI an Excuse for Not Learning To Code?

Submission + - New York State to Start Requiring Credentials for All K-12 CS Teachers

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In 2012, Microsoft President Brad Smith unveiled Microsoft's National Talent Strategy, which called for K-12 Computer Science education for U.S. schoolchildren to address a "talent crisis [that] endangers long-term growth and prosperity". The following year, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org burst onto the scene to deliver that education to schoolchildren, with Smith and execs from tech giants Google and Amazon on its Board of Directors (and Code.org donors Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg as lead K-12 CS instructors). Using a mix of paid individuals (Code.org 'Affiliates'), universities and other organizations (Code.org 'Regional Partners') it helped fund, and online self-paced courses, Code.org boasts it quickly "prepared more than 106,000 new teachers to teach CS across grades K-12" through its professional learning programs. "No computer science experience required," Code.org teases prospective K-12 teachers (as does Code.org partner Amazon Future Engineer). Funded by tech billionaires and their companies, Code.org's get-big-fast K-12 CS teacher workforce expansion workshops were endorsed by the Obama White House (which later tapped Smith to help sell the press on President's failed $4 billion CS for All initiative).

However, at least one state is taking steps to put an end to the practice of rebranding individuals as K-12 CS teachers in as little as a day, albeit with a generous 10-year loophole for currently uncertified K-12 CS teachers.

"At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year," reports GovTech, "the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is honing its credential requirements for computer science teachers, though the state has yet to join the growing list of those mandating computer science instruction for high school graduation. According to the department's website, as of Sept. 1, 2024, educators who teach computer science will need either a Computer Science Certificate issued by the state Board of Regents or a Computer Science Statement of Continued Eligibility (SOCE), which may be given to instructors who don't have the specific certificate but have nonetheless taught computer science since Sept. 1, 2017. [...] The NYSED website says the SOCE is a temporary measure that will be phased out after 10 years, at which point all computer science instructors will need a Computer Science Certificate."

Submission + - Microsoft President: "You Can't Believe Every Video You See or Audio You Hear"

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "AI will create exciting opportunities for all of us to bring new ideas to life," blogged Microsoft President Brad Smith this week in Combating Abusive AI-generated Content: A Comprehensive Approach. "But, as these new tools come to market from Microsoft and across the tech sector, we must take new steps to ensure these new technologies are resistant to abuse." Microsoft, Smith wrote, is committed "to a robust and comprehensive approach that protects people and our communities, based on six focus areas," the last of which is Public Awareness and Education.

Smith explains, "Finally, a strong defense will require a well-informed public. As we approach the second quarter of the 21st century, most people have learned that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet (or anywhere else). A well-informed combination of curiosity and skepticism is a critical life skill for everyone. In a similar way, we need to help people recognize that you can’t believe every video you see or audio you hear. We need to help people learn how to spot the differences between legitimate and fake content, including with watermarking. This will require new public education tools and programs, including in close collaboration with civil society and leaders across society."

Happy now, Taylor Swift?

Submission + - California Bill Would Require Computer Science for High School Graduation

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Flanked by posters holding K-12 computer science education advocacy charts and stats copied verbatim from tech giant backed and led nonprofit Code.org, California Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) joined State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond at a press conference (Vimeo) last week to announce AB-2097, a bill that, if passed, will require every public high school to teach computer science and establish CS as a high school graduation requirement by the 2030-31 school year. A California Dept. of Education news release also echoed Code.org K-12 CS advocacy factoids.

The announcement came less than two weeks after Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi — whose goal is coincidentally to make CS a HS graduation requirement in all 50 states by 2030 — was a keynote speaker at the Association of California School Administrators Superintendents' Symposium. In an Oct 20 Facebook post, Berman noted he'd partnered with Code.org on legislation in the past and hinted that something big was in the works on the K-12 CS education front for California: "I had the chance to attend Code.org’s 10th anniversary celebration and chat with their founder, Hadi Partovi, as well as CS advocate Aloe Blacc. They’ve done amazing work expanding access to computer science education, especially for women & communities of color, and I’ve been proud to partner with them on legislation to do that in CA. More to come!"

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