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An Interview with Anthony Owen, Arkansas’ New Computer Science Leader

4 min read

Anthony Owen will assume his role a Computer Science Coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Education on July 1. 

In that role, he will serve as the leader of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s statewide computer science initiative, helping schools integrate new computer science standards and courses and to recruit computer science teachers. 

Arkansas Business spoke with Owen last week about his new role, his goals for computer science in Arkansas and the challenges that await.

Q: How would you define your role?

A: My role is going to be to keep the communication flowing between all the different entities that are interested in this initiative or have a part to play in this initiative. Not only here at [the education department], making sure that our internal structure is moving forward with this, but involving industry, involving secondary workforce and just keeping the communication lines open and working with the task force and the governor’s office.

Q: What are you going to do to improve computer science education?

A: Really this is much bigger than myself. It really has to come out of the guidance and the vision and the mission of what the governor sees and what the industry and educational experts on the task force think that needs. 

I’m the facilitator of the governor’s vision on this — that in short is my role … What I want is secondary to what I can do to make sure that the governor’s vision and the task force’s recommendations come to light.

Q: What do you expect to be the biggest challenge?

A: The biggest challenge we are facing is we need more qualified teachers to teach computer science. Because this is a new initiative and we’re trying to bring it to every high school in the state, we’re looking at ways to expand our teacher pool and to bring the content knowledge of our teachers that are out there up to the level that I think the task force needs … I think that what we have to do first is we have to start building our teacher capacity as a state.

Q: How will you deal with the students who are “digital natives” compared to teachers who may not know as much?

A: We have a wonderful group of teachers in Arkansas. I think that our teachers will rise to the challenge, any challenge we put in front of them … I think our teachers can connect with our students of today as long as they are provided with the resources and the guidance and the encouragement to do so. 

We already have teachers that across the state are incorporating technology … My wife is an elementary school teacher — she already is incorporating technology well within her classroom, and she teaches within the Bryant school district.

They do a wonderful job — along with our other school districts — of making sure they’re meeting the needs of our digital native students, and I think that, as we move forward and come up with a more comprehensive plan for the state, the teachers will, in short, rise to the challenge we put in front of them and will exceed our best expectations. 

Q: What should students be able to do by the time they graduate? Is there are certain skill set they should have?

A: I think that the students need to have a computer science education that is based on what they see for their futures and what [the] needs are in the fields that they’re going to go into. 

There is not a field out there in any industry anymore that computer science does not touch in some form or fashion. So for some students, that will be Microsoft-type applications; for some students [who] are interested in the development side of computer science, there may be a track for them on that side — it may be a cyber security track that a student takes …

I want to see students coming out of high school that are prepared technology-wise … that they can step into a job immediately out of high school if that’s their desire. 

But I also want kids that can be feeders — that can feed into our post-secondary institutions and can go on and gain greater skill sets in programming and different applications. So I think that every student is going to be touched by computer science in some way.

Q: How do you think these initiatives will affect Arkansas in the long run?

A: When people think of technology centers of the nation right now, they think of Silicon Valley, and I want us — Arkansas — to be in that thought process. Every time an industry starts looking at where they want to locate a technology-based business, I want Arkansas to be in the discussion for that. Whenever schools or industries are looking for students … I want them to be able to look at an Arkansas applicant and know that the education they received through our public education system and through our post-secondary education system is second to none. 

(The transcript of this interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.)

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