Computer science was originally invented as a tool to support learning in other disciplines, including engineering and economics. Today, most of computer science education is aimed at preparing future software developers. In this talk, I will review the earliest visions for what computer science might be, and describe how computing education might change to broaden the appeal of and access to computer science education, to something closer to what the inventors of the field had in mind. I will offer an example of what teaching for computational literacy might look like, rather than teaching for software development, and present some new work in *task-specific programming* — re-defining computer programming to meet the unique needs of other disciplines.
Mark Guzdial is a Professor in Computer Science & Engineering and Engineering Education Research at the University of Michigan. He studies how people come to understand computing and how to make that more effective. He was one of the founders of the International Computing Education Research conference. He was one of the leads on the NSF alliance “Expanding Computing Education Pathways" which helped US states improve and broaden their computing education. He invented and has written several books on the “Media Computation” contextualized approach to computing education. With his wife and colleague, Barbara Ericson, he received the 2010 ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator award. He is an ACM Distinguished Educator and a Fellow of the ACM. His most recent book is Learner-Centered Design of Computing Education: Research on Computing for Everyone (Morgan & Claypool, 2015). He received the 2019 ACM SIGCSE Outstanding Contributions to Education award.