I’m a day late.
As we enter the fifth day of Matthew’s life outside the womb, I’m finding I do not have the time to craft a particularly eloquent essay on the topic of women and computing—Carrie and I spent the majority of the last night awake, and we both have long days ahead of us. (I get off easy with classes and meetings throughout the day.) So, we’ll go for short and to-the-point.
I will simply say that I am grateful to my academic parents—my colleagues at the University of Kent—and specifically Sally Fincher, my PhD supervisor, for the absolutely world-class mentorship I received. Further, through her work on the Bootstrapping and Scaffolding projects, the Disciplinary Commons, and the founding of ICER, I know that many other people have benefited from her knowledge and insight when it comes to computer science education research.
So glad you lauded Sally! She was on the list of people I considered when doing my blog. Sally is the most important researcher in computing education today, clearly the main impetus for the re-birth of the field. Her work on BootScaffs, starting ICER, and editing the CS Ed journal have created a new generation of computing education researchers, provided them forums to meet, and venues in which to publish.
Congratulations on the birth of your son, Matt!! Best to all three of you!