An educational program for middle and high school children, originally developed by a research team at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q),will launch in several Pakistani schools in 2021. The Alice Middle East program uses graphics and animation to teach basic computing concepts, even if students are not familiar with programming languages.

A computer scientist of Pakistani origin, Dr. Saquib Razak has been at the heart of the Alice Middle East team since it began more than a decade ago. During this time, he has seen the need for computer science education grow: “During this pandemic, we have seen how technology and innovation can build bridges between children and teachers, workers and employers, and friends and family who are physically distant. As the next generation looks ahead to their future studies and careers, computing skills will be necessary in nearly any field they choose,” he said.

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Razak is an associate teaching professor of computer science at CMU-Q, as well as the associate area head of the CMU-Q Computer Science Program. He also serves as the co-director of the Hamad Bin Jassim Center for K-12 Computer Science Education that oversees the Alice Middle East program. About 10% of all CMU-Q graduates are from Pakistan, and many have returned to their home country to pursue their careers.

Alice comes to Qatar

Alice programming environment was originally developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s main campus to help children learn the basic concepts of computing. Instead of using a programming language, which can be difficult to grasp for school children, Alice uses graphics, animations, and a drag and drop environment to walk students through the programming concepts.

We want students to start looking at technology in terms of how to create it instead of how to use it.

In 2008, Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser expressed an interest in bringing Alice to Qatar. Through a grant from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Razak and a team of researchers localized Alice to the Middle East context, creating a curriculum in Arabic and English, and developing teaching resources.

In 2012, Razak’s team piloted Alice Middle East in one Qatar private school. Each year, the schools teaching Alice grew, and the team used teacher and student feedback to hone the learning materials. In 2018, the Qatar Ministry of Education and Higher Education incorporated Alice Middle East into the Information Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum for Qatar government schools. Today, Alice is taught to more than 5000 students per year in either English or Arabic.

Alice Middle East is now funded by the Hamad Bin Jassim Center for K-12 Computer Science Education, a partnership between CMU-Q and the Jassim and Hamad Bin Jassim Charitable Foundation.

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In 2018, Razak began work on a second research project: to develop the original Alice learning modules into a comprehensive three-year curriculum. The Alice software introduces the concepts, and eventually students move to the Python programming language to continue their learning.

“Education in computer science is critical for the next generation. Technology is integral to so many fields, and when students understand computational thinking, it opens doors of opportunity for them,” says Razak.“We want students to start looking at technology in terms of how to create it instead of how to use it”.

Expanding to Pakistan

Before the pandemic, Razak travelled to Pakistan to introduce the Alice-based curriculum to schools and organizations around the country. Several schools showed an interest in the curriculum, recognizing the importance of computational thinking, logical reasoning, and 21^st century skills in middle school education.

Razak’s curriculum includes an essential element throughout the different levels of learning: “The curriculum defines what should be taught, but there is another integral component: effective delivery by trained and knowledgeable teachers. This is crucial so that educators can keep the students engaged and guide them as they learn.”

During the spring and summer of 2020, Razak trained teachers from a group of private schools in Pakistan to use the Alice program to teach computing to their students. When the academic year starts, the program will be taught to roughly 20,000 students in middle schools.

Razak now serves as advisor to the National Curriculum Committee for Pakistan’s Ministry of Educationand Professional Training, for the design of a national curriculum for middle school computer studies.

“I am very excited about the computing portion of the Single National Curriculum,” said Razak. “The youth of Pakistan is our nation’s greatest asset, and if we can train this generation in computational thinking skills, we enable them to excel in any field of work they choose. The computing curriculum in the SNC can be the vehicle to elevate this new generation’s thinking skills.” 

The above article is written and submitted to Nada Taha who works at BLJ Worldwide. She is social media specialist at BLJ Worldwide. You can contact her at nadat@bljworldwide.com