Professional learning—it rarely inspires excitement. But if it’s relevant, fun, and hands-on, professional learning opportunities can spark creativity and remind educators just why they started teaching in the first place. Below are some of my favorite articles, podcasts, books, and more around professional learning in computer science:
Websites
- NCWIT Promising Practices: A compilation of research-based strategies for engaging women in tech. Each set of strategies revolves around a central research question such as, “How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way?” and “How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning?”
- CS Teaching Tips: Simple, readable tip sheets for all kinds of CS teaching practices, from “Reducing Bias” to “Pair Programming.”
Podcasts
- The Teach Better Podcast, Podcast Episode 52 “Teams and Game Design with Walker White”: An interview with the director of Cornell’s Game Design Initiative. This episode delves into building student teams and feedback loops.
- Zulama Podcast on Equity in Computer Science Education: An interview with Leigh Ann DeLyser, a former CS teacher and currently co-founder and chief academic officer at the CSforAll Consortium.
Startups and other businesses looking for intel on the school marketplace should check out EdWeek Market Brief, a service that provides news, analysis, and original data on the ever-changing needs and priorities of schools.
Books
- Connected Gaming: What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy by Yasmin Kafai and Quinn Burke: An exploration into how making video games, as well as playing them, can help us develop core competencies like creativity and collaboration.
- Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age by Kurt Squire: This book looks at how students who are used to playing video games can participate in digital media through learning to make original video games.
Videos
- Twelve-year-old app developer Thomas Suarez’s Ted Talk: Find out Thomas’s approach to teaching himself and his peers to become programmers.
- Linda Liukas’s Ted Talk: Liukas, founder of Rails Girls, provides insightful ideas about how code is a universal language for creativity and self-expression.
Twitter Edchats
- #EthicalCS: Co-hosted by Ed Saber, a CS educator, and special educator Alana Robinson who is connected to #CS4ALLNYC. This edchat takes place on the last Wednesday of each month at 8 p.m. EST. Educators, computer scientists, and education policy experts come together to discuss how to make the field of CS more ethical.
- #InfyEdChat: InfosysFoundationUSA invites education thought leaders to host these bi-monthly edchats. Topics range from “How to Start a Makerspace in the New School Year” to “Teaching CS Away From the Computer.” Here’s a guide to getting started with edchats if you haven’t tried it before!
Newsletters
- CSTA Newsletter: Connect with fellow educators who teach computer science. Hear from innovators in computer science curriculum, tools, and professional learning. For instance, Zulama and CSTA have developed an online Game Design and Computer Science Certificate for teachers that is eligible for an EdEx credit from St Catherine’s University.
- EdSurge Newsletter: Find out what’s new in edtech.
Follow EdWeek Market Brief on Twitter @EdMarketBrief or connect with us on LinkedIn.
Images courtesy of Nikki Navta, captured from web pages.
See also:
