4D CS

The Center for Curriculum Redesign is very grateful for the generous support of the Harold Alfond Foundation, thanks to which it has created a world-leading Computer Science course for High Schoolers, starting with grades 9 and 10.

The ultimate goal and outcomes of this “Four-Dimensional Computer Science” (“4D CS”) courseware is broad economic development, and understandings for life.    

4D CS provides all the following employability outcomes:

• CS students bound for CS in college
• CS students bound for any college discipline
• CS students acquiring Certifications
• CS student entrepreneurs
• CS teachers (which are in cruel deficit in the US and worldwide)
• Computational thinkers in all disciplines and job endeavors

One key advantage of CS is that it can be practiced anywhere one has a computer and sufficient bandwidth, so practitioners can join the global economy while still enjoying their locality – no need for uprooting!

But Education quality is also an arms race of sorts:  

• The practitioners need to be globally competitive, as the “work anywhere” advantage of CS makes it an easy target to cost-based offshoring.  
• Furthermore,  advances in techniques make some aspects of CS automation probable.

The ultimate challenge is to avoid delocalization and automation through commodification, which implies a significant emphasis of 4D CS on both high-end education which includes competencies such as “learning how to learn”.

 The unique, overall strategy relies on all of the following elements: