Author Archives: Janet Davis

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About Janet Davis

Founding computer scientist at Whitman College.

I’ve got a POSSE

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When Grinnell College announced that its relationship with the Posse Foundation would end, many folks at Whitman asked me what I thought or if I had any inside information. This post is not about that Posse.

Rather, it’s about my experiences with the Professor’s Open Source Software Experience (POSSE), an NSF-funded project that engages faculty from across the US in developing and deploying learning activities that engage computing students with humanitarian free and open source software (HFOSS).

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Letter to the Editor: Whitman sees increased interest in computer science

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Yesterday the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin printed my first letter to the editor. I read an article about demand for computer science in the Sunday newspaper, and was disappointed that there was no local angle on the story. Wednesday morning I got to work early and wrote this letter. Thanks to Gina Ohnstad, Manager of Media and Public Relations, for her feedback and assistance. Continue reading →

Prospective students and pre-registration

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I’ve heard colleagues describe April as “the month of a thousand nights” because of all the senior recitals, shows, celebrations, and so on. April is also the month of admitted student visits and fall pre-registration. Next year I need to account for all the time in April I’ll spend just  talking with current and prospective students.

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How I spent my time at SIGCSE 2016

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Each year in March, the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) hosts the Annual Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE for short. SIGCSE is a medium-sized conference; the final registration count for SIGCSE 2016 was 1243. It’s usually in a medium sized city big enough to have a convention center, but not too expensive for the high school and community college teachers who often don’t have institutional support to attend. This year it was in Memphis. Don’t ask me about Memphis: As usual, I didn’t see much beyond the convention center.

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