skip to main content
10.1145/1095714.1095727acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesiteConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article

The role of programming in IT

Published: 20 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Early in its history as an academic discipline, depth in computer programming was frequently a distinguishing factor between IT and older computing disciplines, such as computer science or software engineering. Initially, IT was misperceived as being "computing without the programming." As IT has matured as a discipline, programming has emerged as "the" foundation skill for information technologists. However, since the requisite skill sets of IT professionals differ from those of other computing professionals, programming in IT is fundamentally different from programming in computer science or software engineering.The IT Department at RIT has changed the weight and delivery of programming in its curriculum several times since its inception in 1992. Today, programming is an essential foundation for other more advanced IT skills in all curricular knowledge areas, and it is a central outcome of our curriculum. This paper discusses the role of programming in IT, the types of skills necessary, how we see the need for this skill changing in the other "pillars" of this academic discipline, and the impact on programming curricula.

References

[1]
ACM Computing Curriculum - Information Technology Volume, April 2005 Draft, Chapter 7, p. 24; retrieved June 5, 2005, from sigite.acm.org/activities/curriculum/.
[2]
IT Body of Knowledge, 3/2005 Draft; retrieved June 5, 2005, from sigite.acm.org/activities/curriculum/.
[3]
Hill, L., Bills, D., and Biles, J. A Studio Model Approach to Teaching Introductory Object-Oriented Programming and Problem-Solving Using Java. In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference for Information Technology Curriculum, Rochester, NY, Sept. 19-21, 2002.
[4]
Whittington, K., Bills, D., and Hill, L. Implementation of Alternative Pacing in an IT Introductory Programming Sequence. In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on Information Technology Curriculum (Lafayette, IN, Oct. 16-18, 2003). ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, 2003, 47--53.
[5]
Dougherty, J., et al. Information Technology Fluency in Practice. ITiCSE Conference 2002, Working Group Report (Aarhus, Denmark, June 28-30, 2002). ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, 2003, 153--171.
[6]
Chenoweth, J. Lessons Learned in the Development of an Information Technology Concentration. Journal of Computing Sciences in College, Oct. 2001, 17(1), 218--223. Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, USA.
[7]
Prasad, C., Li, X. Teaching Introductory Programming to Information Systems and Computing Majors: Is there a Difference? In Proceedings of the Sixth Australasian Computing Education Conference (Dunedin, New Zealand, 2004). Australian Computer Society, Darlinghurst, Australia, 2004, Vol. 30, 261--267.
[8]
Spooner, D. A Bachelor of Science in Information technology: An Interdisciplinary Approach. In Proceedings of the 31st Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (Austin, Texas, 2002). ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, 2000, 285--289.
[9]
Taffe, W. Information Technology: a Degree in Computing. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Feb. 2002, Vol. 17, Issue 3, 183--189. Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, USA.
[10]
Ekstrom, J. and Lunt, B. Education at the Seams: Preparing Students to Stitch Systems Together; Curriculum and issues for 4-Year IT Programs. In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Conference on Information Technology Curriculum (Lafayette, IN, Oct. 16-18, 2003). ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, 2003, 196--200.
[11]
DeRemer, F. and Kron, H. Programming-in-the-large versus programming-in-the-small. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Reliable Software (Los Angeles, CA). ACM Press, New York, NY, 1975, 114--121.
[12]
Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 1994.
[13]
Biles, J. The importance of Synergy: Integrating Curricular Components in IT. In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference for Information Technology Curriculum, Rochester, NY, Sept. 19-21, 2002.
[14]
Cockburn, A. Agile Software Development. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, 2002.
[15]
Forte, Andrea. Programming for Communication: Overcoming Motivational Barriers to Computation for All. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposia on Human-Centered Computing Languages and Environments, 2003, Auckland, New Zealand, 285--286.
[16]
Dougan, Cort. Good Programmers are Not Lazy. Unpublished manuscript retrieved June 30, 2005, from http://hq.fsmlabs.com/~cort/publications/lazy/lazy.pdf.

Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Revisiting Syntax Exercises in CS1Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/3450329.3476855(9-14)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2021
  • (2016)Learner Views about a Distance Education CourseContemporary Educational Technology10.30935/cedtech/61647:1Online publication date: 2016
  • (2009)Integrating software engineering in computer programming educationProceedings of the 10th ACM conference on SIG-information technology education10.1145/1631728.1631745(50-54)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2009
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
SIGITE '05: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education
October 2005
402 pages
ISBN:1595932526
DOI:10.1145/1095714
  • General Chair:
  • Rob Friedman
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 20 October 2005

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. application domains
  2. computer programming in IT
  3. curriculum
  4. information technology education
  5. programming fluency

Qualifiers

  • Article

Conference

SIGITE05
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 176 of 429 submissions, 41%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)9
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2
Reflects downloads up to 28 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Revisiting Syntax Exercises in CS1Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/3450329.3476855(9-14)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2021
  • (2016)Learner Views about a Distance Education CourseContemporary Educational Technology10.30935/cedtech/61647:1Online publication date: 2016
  • (2009)Integrating software engineering in computer programming educationProceedings of the 10th ACM conference on SIG-information technology education10.1145/1631728.1631745(50-54)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2009
  • (2008)Implementing a contextualized IT curriculumProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/1595356.1595365(51-61)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2008
  • (2007)Sharing introductory programming curriculum across disciplinesProceedings of the 8th ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology education10.1145/1324302.1324324(99-106)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2007

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media