Category Archives: Google for Education Blog

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Helping libraries get youth excited about computer science

I grew up in a library. Well, sort of. My family arrived in the United States as refugees when I was a toddler and, living in a community without many resources or youth programs, my parents were unsure of what to do with me outside of school. This was especially true in the summers, so they would take me to our local library several times a week — it was free and air-conditioned. I was a regular at every literacy program and summer reading competition, and it was through these programs that I honed my reading skills and developed a love of learning that have guided me ever since.

Now, decades after those visits to our local branch, I’m excited to share that Google is partnering with the American Library Association (ALA) on Libraries Ready to Code, a new project to help librarians across the U.S. inspire youth to explore computer science (CS). This work builds on previous Google support for library programs, including Wi-Fi hotspot lending.

Libraries are, and have always been, at the heart of communities throughout the country. They play a unique role in education, inspiring youth (and adults!) to be lifelong learners. More than just a place to borrow books, libraries provide access to critical knowledge, workforce skills, and opportunities to become civically engaged. As the world changes, libraries have adapted with new services, media and tools. They promote digital inclusion—providing free access to digital content, hardware, software, and high-speed Internet.

And, increasingly, libraries are recognizing the importance of exposing youth to CS and computational thinking (CT) skills—arguably, the “new literacy” of the 21st century. “Libraries and library staff can create opportunities for youth to gain basic exposure and a basic interest in coding. From there, with support and mentorship from librarians and staff, they can develop long term engagement and possibly computer science as an envisioned future,” says Crystle Martin, Secretary of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

Libraries and library staff can create opportunities for youth to gain basic exposure and a basic interest in coding. Crystle Martin Secretary of YALSA

While 40 percent of U.S. schools offer CS courses that include programming, access is not universal and demographic disparities exist. Libraries can help broaden that access: with more than 100,000 public and school libraries in the U.S., including in rural and lower-income areas, more than 306 million Americans live within a service area. But to expand access to CS, we need to provide librarians with the resources and understanding to curate and implement programs that suit their communities’ needs.

Through Libraries Ready to Code, Google and ALA will help equip librarians with skills to provide CS learning opportunities like Google’s CS First program, which New York Public Libraries are already using for NY coding clubs. The project will support university faculty at Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in redesigning their tech and media courses. They’ll integrate content on facilitating CS activities and teaching CT, and after the courses are evaluated, we’ll share these model courses with LIS schools nationally.

Ready to Code isn’t intended to transform librarians into expert programmers or computer scientists. Rather, we want to provide them with the knowledge and skills to do what they do best: empower youth to learn, create, problem solve, and develop the skills needed in tomorrow’s workforce—all while having fun, of course.

The next time you’re at your local library, find out if they are Ready to Code. If not, they can visit the Ready to Code website to learn about resources to get started and request more information. Meanwhile, I’ll be at my local branch with my five-year old — checking out books and learning to code together.

EDU_ReadyToCode_HaiHong_Son.JPG

Source: Education


Helping libraries get youth excited about computer science

I grew up in a library. Well, sort of. My family arrived in the United States as refugees when I was a toddler and, living in a community without many resources or youth programs, my parents were unsure of what to do with me outside of school. This was especially true in the summers, so they would take me to our local library several times a week — it was free and air-conditioned. I was a regular at every literacy program and summer reading competition, and it was through these programs that I honed my reading skills and developed a love of learning that has guided me ever since.

Now, decades after those visits to our local branch, I’m excited to share that Google is partnering with the American Library Association (ALA) on Libraries Ready to Code, a new project to help librarians across the U.S. inspire youth to explore computer science (CS). This work builds on previous Google support for library programs, including Wi-Fi hotspot lending.

Libraries are, and have always been, at the heart of communities throughout the country. They play a unique role in education, inspiring youth (and adults!) to be lifelong learners. More than just a place to borrow books, libraries provide access to critical knowledge, workforce skills, and opportunities to become civically engaged. As the world changes, libraries have adapted with new services, media and tools. They promote digital inclusion—providing free access to digital content, hardware, software, and high-speed Internet.

And, increasingly, libraries are recognizing the importance of exposing youth to CS and computational thinking (CT) skills—arguably, the “new literacy” of the 21st century. “Libraries and library staff can create opportunities for youth to gain basic exposure and a basic interest in coding. From there, with support and mentorship from librarians and staff, they can develop long term engagement and possibly computer science as an envisioned future,” says Crystle Martin, Secretary of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

Libraries and library staff can create opportunities for youth to gain basic exposure and a basic interest in coding. Crystle Martin Secretary of YALSA

While 40 percent of U.S. schools offer CS courses that include programming, access is not universal and demographic disparities exist. Libraries can help broaden that access: with more than 100,000 public and school libraries in the U.S., including in rural and lower-income areas, more than 306 million Americans live within a service area. But to expand access to CS, we need to provide librarians with the resources and understanding to curate and implement programs that suit their communities’ needs.

Through Libraries Ready to Code, Google and ALA will help equip librarians with skills to provide CS learning opportunities like Google’s CS First program, which New York Public Libraries are already using for NY coding clubs. The project will support university faculty at Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in redesigning their tech and media courses. They’ll integrate content on facilitating CS activities and teaching CT, and after the courses are evaluated, we’ll share these model courses with LIS schools nationally.

Ready to Code isn’t intended to transform librarians into expert programmers or computer scientists. Rather, we want to provide them with the knowledge and skills to do what they do best: empower youth to learn, create, problem solve, and develop the skills needed in tomorrow’s workforce—all while having fun, of course.

The next time you’re at your local library, find out if they are Ready to Code. If not, they can visit the Ready to Code website to learn about resources to get started and request more information. Meanwhile, I’ll be at my local branch with my five-year old — checking out books and learning to code together.

EDU_ReadyToCode_HaiHong_Son.JPG
Hai Hong and his son programming in Scratch at their local library

Source: Education


Active listening apps on Chromebooks foster future skills

Editor’s note: Today’s post is by Michael F. Opitz, professor emeritus of reading education at the University of Northern Colorado and author of Listen Hear! 25 Effective Listening Comprehension Strategies. At today’s Google Next event, we’re announcing a new program to offer active listening apps on Chromebooks. Visit g.co/educhromebookapps and follow @GoogleForEdu for details.

In school, students are often told  “be a good listener,” but listening is not just about paying attention and following instructions in class. Active listening helps students develop skills for future success and is a highly desirable quality for new hires, according to a report by Fast Company. Active listening is the backbone of communication and literacy: if students learn to listen critically, and take away value from what they’re listening to, their comprehension improves—and so does their ability to communicate.

As teachers, we’re good at reminding students to listen, but we need to teach them how to listen. There are techniques to doing this. For example, if a librarian is explaining how to get a library card, a teacher can preface the listening exercise by asking students what they think the librarian will talk about. When the librarian starts talking, the students know what to expect. After the exercise, the teacher can ask students about the steps the librarian outlined for getting a card. This is the essence of teaching active listening: letting students know what to listen for, and assessing their comprehension of the material.

To support students’ active listening skills, Google spokewith educators around the country about the most helpful active listening apps to use with Chromebooks and two kept popping up—FluencyTutor and Listenwise. These apps integrate active listening into classrooms and lessons, and both apps can be used across a range of grades and subjects.

FluencyTutor.png

Developed by Texthelp, FluencyTutor lets students record themselves reading different types of texts, like web content, Google Docs, and almost 500 leveled reading passages. Students can listen to their recordings and self-reflect before submitting for teacher feedback. Practice happens at each student’s own pace, which is less stressful than asking reluctant students to read aloud in front of the class. Reading assistance tools, like text-to-speech, picture dictionary and translate tools, are available to help students practice and reach proficiency.

Students may not have confidence to read out loud. Practicing with Fluency Tutor—rehearsing, recording themselves and listening back—is invaluable. Mandy Marlowe 6th grade teacher, Chagrin Falls, OH

Teachers can use FluencyTutor to gain a view into student struggles with reading. They listen to the recordings and use features like comprehension questions to gauge understanding of the text and track progress over time. They also see the tools that students use to help them get through the assignment, so they can determine how to help students in the future – for example, supporting their vocabulary skills.

listenwise.png

Listenwise is a collection of podcasts and public radio stories featuring NPR content that improves students’ listening comprehension while also drawing them into the world around them. Students can listen and read along with transcripts, and even slow down the recording to get a better grasp on complex subjects. Teachers can assign quizzes at the end of each listening assignment to assess which skills students need to improve. Teachers are able to gauge student comprehension in several areas, such as their understanding of the story’s main idea, knowledge of vocabulary, and ability to summarize the story.

“Listenwise helps me present interesting, timely and thought-provoking topics that students might not otherwise have a chance to consider,” says Lisa Goldman, a 7th grade teacher at Bird Middle School in East Walpole, Massachusetts. “Whether the story is war’s impact on preservation of historical artifacts, or how democracy in Athens is not so different from democracy today, each one gets my students contemplating topics outside the norm.”

To make these apps on Chromebooks accessible to a wide range of school districts, Google worked with Chromebook partners to create a special price when both apps are purchased as a bundle. They may be purchased alongside Chromebooks or on their own, and they are available as an annual subscription per license from Chromebook resellers in the US.

To learn more about these apps and other content programs including creative apps on Chromebooks, visit g.co/educhromebookapps, check out the apps’ websites, or contact your school’s Chromebook reseller.

EDU_ActiveListening_2.jpg
EDU_ActiveListening_1.jpg
EDU_ActiveListening_3.jpg

Source: Education


Active listening apps on Chromebooks foster future skills

Editor’s note: Today’s post is by Michael F. Opitz, professor emeritus of reading education at the University of Northern Colorado and author of Listen Hear! 25 Effective Listening Comprehension Strategies. At today’s Google Next event, we’re announcing a new program to offer active listening apps on Chromebooks. Visit g.co/educhromebookapps and follow @GoogleForEdu for details.

In school, students are often told  “be a good listener,” but listening is not just about paying attention and following instructions in class. Active listening helps students develop skills for future success and is a highly desirable quality for new hires, according to a report by Fast Company. Active listening is the backbone of communication and literacy: if students learn to listen critically, and take away value from what they’re listening to, their comprehension improves—and so does their ability to communicate.

As teachers, we’re good at reminding students to listen, but we need to teach them how to listen. There are techniques to doing this. For example, if a librarian is explaining how to get a library card, a teacher can preface the listening exercise by asking students what they think the librarian will talk about. When the librarian starts talking, the students know what to expect. After the exercise, the teacher can ask students about the steps the librarian outlined for getting a card. This is the essence of teaching active listening: letting students know what to listen for, and assessing their comprehension of the material.

To support students’ active listening skills, Google spoke with educators around the country about the most helpful active listening apps to use with Chromebooks and two kept popping up—Fluency Tutor and Listenwise. These apps integrate active listening into classrooms and lessons, and both apps can be used across a range of grades and subjects.

FluencyTutor.png

Developed by Texthelp, Fluency Tutor lets students record themselves reading different types of texts, like web content, Google Docs, and almost 500 leveled reading passages. Students can listen to their recordings and self-reflect before submitting for teacher feedback. Practice happens at each student’s own pace, which is less stressful than asking reluctant students to read aloud in front of the class. Reading assistance tools, like text-to-speech, picture dictionary and translate tools, are available to help students practice and reach proficiency.

Students may not have confidence to read out loud. Practicing with Fluency Tutor—rehearsing, recording themselves and listening back—is invaluable. Mandy Marlowe 6th grade teacher, Chagrin Falls, OH

Teachers can use Fluency Tutor to gain a view into student struggles with reading. They listen to the recordings and use features like comprehension questions to gauge understanding of the text and track progress over time. They also see the tools that students use to help them get through the assignment, so they can determine how to help students in the future – for example, supporting their vocabulary skills.

listenwise.png

Listenwise is a collection of podcasts and public radio stories featuring NPR content that improves students’ listening comprehension while also drawing them into the world around them. Students can listen and read along with transcripts, and even slow down the recording to get a better grasp on complex subjects. Teachers can assign quizzes at the end of each listening assignment to assess which skills students need to improve. Teachers are able to gauge student comprehension in several areas, such as their understanding of the story’s main idea, knowledge of vocabulary, and ability to summarize the story.

“Listenwise helps me present interesting, timely and thought-provoking topics that students might not otherwise have a chance to consider,” says Lisa Goldman, a 7th grade teacher at Bird Middle School in East Walpole, Massachusetts. “Whether the story is war’s impact on preservation of historical artifacts, or how democracy in Athens is not so different from democracy today, each one gets my students contemplating topics outside the norm.”

Listenwise helps me present interesting, timely and thought-provoking topics that students might not otherwise have a chance to consider. Lisa Goldman 7th grade teacher, East Walpole, MA

To make these apps on Chromebooks accessible to a wide range of school districts, Google worked with Chromebook partners to create a special price when both apps are purchased as a bundle. They may be purchased alongside Chromebooks or on their own, and they are available as an annual subscription per license from Chromebook resellers in the US.

To learn more about these apps and other content programs including creative apps on Chromebooks, visit g.co/educhromebookapps, check out the apps’ websites, or contact your school’s Chromebook reseller.

EDU_ActiveListening_2.jpg
EDU_ActiveListening_1.jpg
EDU_ActiveListening_3.jpg

Source: Education


Lowering barriers to technology adoption: three tips from City Schools of Decatur

Editor’s note: Schools are working with Google for Education Premier Partners to throw open their doors for the ExploreEDU event series, which invites neighboring educators to learn first-hand from their own experiences using Google tools. To see if there’s an event near you, visit the ExploreEDU site. Today’s guest author is Eston Melton, Director of Technology from City Schools of Decatur in Decatur, GA. The district hosted an event on February 22 at Google’s Atlanta office with their partner Promevo.

At City Schools of Decatur, we believe that technology should feel like an instinctive part of teaching and learning. Since adopting G Suite for Education in 2015 and Chromebooks in 2016, we’ve focused on making it as easy as possible for teachers and students to use new technology. Here are our main takeaways for lowering barriers to integrating technology:

1. Anticipate future needs

Four years ago, our fourth graders were issued one-to-one tablets. As these students approached eighth grade, our middle school’s leadership wanted to transition them to a device that would be easier to maintain while still meeting the requirements of our students’ learning; Chromebooks were identified as the solution. But after we deployed Chromebooks, we realized that we could have expanded the device vetting process district-wide to identify good fits for lower and higher grade levels at the same time. For instance, some elementary schools were keen to add Chromebooks, but needed a different type of Chromebook to fit smaller learners. To help us better anticipate such needs in the future, we’re creating a diverse team of IT staff, teachers, students and parents to standardize how we vet services and devices for all corners of our instructional program. This team will ensure that we can support successful initiatives that others could adopt down the road—not only for devices, but also the critical training and ongoing support needed to get the most from them.

2. Create clear access policies for teachers and students

Being thoughtful about how files and other materials are shared between students, teachers and administrators is critical. In one of my previous districts, students and staff initially had separate G Suite domains, which meant teachers and students struggled to share materials with each other. We avoided this issue at City Schools of Decatur because we set up both students and staff on a single G Suite domain, and our IT department created G Suite organizational units for staff and students that made setting different levels of permissions easy. That ease of sharing also meant that it was important to train staff on being deliberate with their sharing permissions in Drive. Comfort with Drive has allowed many of our teachers to use Google Classroom to share materials and assignments.

CitySchools_Decatur_teacher.png
Students using Chromebooks for online coursework guided by their teacher in the background. Photo credit: Katie Meyer.

3. Encourage experimentation in the classroom

We encourage students and teachers to experiment with technology so they can learn what works best for their own styles and needs. G Suite for Education lets students try new presentation styles by giving them access to collaborative tools such as Sheets and Slides. Students can also reach audiences beyond their peers by sharing their work with the public on channels such as our 3ten Convergence Media’s YouTube channel or our English students’ creative writing Blogger sites.

Students aren’t the only ones who experiment—we see staff use Google tools to implement quick improvements in their work as well. For example, when it was time for students to select their courses, our staff recognized that our course selection site featuring static PDFs was not user-friendly. Using Google Sites, our staff was able to rapidly implement several cycles of feedback to create an improved site, made better with an instructional video and cleaner layout.

Over the past few years, we’ve learned that technology adoption requires a balance of careful planning and open-mindedness. We believe this mindset is key to our district’s long-term success, and to the success of our students.

Source: Education


Google Cloud supports $3M in grant credits for the NSF BIGDATA program

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) serves more than one billion end-users, and we continue to seek ways to give researchers access to these powerful tools. Through the National Science Foundation’s BIGDATA grants program, we're offering researchers $3M in Google Cloud Platform credits to use the same infrastructure, analytics and machine learning that we use to drive innovation at Google.

About the BIGDATA grants

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced its flagship research program on big data, Critical Techniques, Technologies and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (BIGDATA). The BIGDATA program encourages experimentation with datasets at scale. Google will provide cloud credits to qualifying NSF-funded projects, giving researchers access to the breadth of services on GCP, from scalable data management (Google Cloud Storage, Google Cloud Bigtable, Google Cloud Datastore), to analysis (Google BigQuery, Google Cloud Dataflow, Google Cloud Dataproc, Google Cloud Datalab, Google Genomics) to machine learning (Google Cloud Machine Learning, TensorFlow).

This collaboration combines NSF’s experience in managing diverse research portfolios with Google’s proven track record in secure and intelligent cloud computing and data science. NSF is accepting proposals from March 15, 2017 through March 22, 2017.  All proposals that meet NSF requirements will be reviewed through NSF’s merit review process.

GCP in action at Stanford University

To get an idea of the potential impact of GCP, consider Stanford University’s Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine, where scientists work with data at a massive scale. Director Mike Snyder and his lab have been involved in a number of large efforts, from ENCODE to the Million Veteran Program. Snyder and his colleagues turned to Google Genomics, which gives scientists access to GCP to help secure, store, process, explore and share biological datasets. With the costs of cloud computing dropping significantly and demand for ever-larger genomics studies growing, Snyder thinks fewer labs will continue relying on local infrastructure.

“We’re entering an era where people are working with thousands or tens of thousands or even million genome projects, and you’re never going to do that on a local cluster very easily,” he says. “Cloud computing is where the field is going.”

“What you can do with Google Genomics — and you can’t do in-house — is run 1,000 genomes in parallel,” says Somalee Datta, bioinformatics director of Stanford University’s Center of Genomics. “From our point of view, it’s almost infinite resources.”


Source: Education


Three ways to get started with computer science and computational thinking

Editor’s note: We’re highlighting education leaders across the world to share how they’re creating more collaborative, engaging classrooms. Today’s guest author is Tim Bell, a professor in the department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury and creator of CS Unplugged. Tim is a recipient of CS4HS awards and has partnered with Google in Australia to develop free resources to support teachers around the world to successfully implement computational thinking and computer science into classrooms.

My home of New Zealand, like many countries around the world, is fully integrating computer science (CS) into the national curriculum. This change affects all teachers, because the goal of standardizing CS education curriculum is bigger than CS itself. It’s not just about grooming the next generation of computer scientists—it’s about equipping every student an approach to solving problems through computational thinking (CT). This way of thinking can and must be applied to other subjects. Math, science, and even English and history teachers will need to teach CT, and many feel uncertain about the road ahead.

Progressing CS + CT education at the national level will only be successful if all teachers feel confident in their ability to get started. This first step can be the most daunting, so I want to share a few simple ways any teacher can bring CS and CT into the classroom.

1. Engage students as builders and teachers

CT is about building new ways to solve problems. These problem-solving methods can be implemented with a computer, but the tool is much less important than the thinking behind it. Offline activities create opportunities for students to explain their thinking, work with others to solve open-ended problems, and learn by teaching their peers.

My session during Education on Air showed some of these offline activities in practice. For example, playing with a set of binary cards, pictured below, can teach students how to explain binary representation.

CSUnpluggedActivity.jpg
Year 5 and 6 students learn about binary representation through a CS Unplugged activity

2. Build lessons around real-world examples

CS is practical—algorithms speed up processes so people don’t have to wait, device interfaces need to be designed so they don't frustrate users, programs need to be written so they don't waste resources like battery power on a mobile phone. Examples like these can help students understand how CS and CT impact the world around them. Consider discussing human interface design as it applies to popular mobile apps as well as real-world systems, like factories and libraries.

As Maggie Johnson, Google’s director of education and university relations, wrote last year: “If we can make these explicit connections for students, they will see how the devices and apps that they use everyday are powered by algorithms and programs. They will learn the importance of data in making decisions. They will learn skills that will prepare them for a workforce that will be doing vastly different tasks than the workforce of today.”

3. Connect new ideas and familiar subjects

Some of the most successful CS and CT lessons reference other subjects. For example, biology students can reconstruct an evolutionary tree using a string matching algorithm. Students might also apply geometry skills to Scratch programming by using their knowledge of angles to represent polygons with blocks of code. CS can also be combined with non-academic subjects, like physical education.

Google’s engineering director in Australia, Alan Noble, explained this interdisciplinary approach well: “CS combined with another discipline, brings with it new insights and new ways of approaching things. We call this ‘CS + X,’ where ‘X’ can be virtually anything. Universities around the world are starting to recognize this by introducing CS + X programs, where X can be any subject area, not just a science.The opportunities are endless. Students will be a whole lot more excited about studying Computer Science if they can combine it with their passion, their ‘X’.”

I’ve seen everyone from first-timers to PhDs use simple techniques to make CS and CT approachable—and fun too! A few simple exercises can spark students’ curiosity and support a bigger change.

Source: Education


How online courses can help teach computational thinking and CS

Editor’s note: We’re highlighting education leaders across the world to share how they’re creating more collaborative, engaging classrooms. Today’s guest author is Rebecca Vivian, one of the keynote speakers from Education on Air, Google’s free online conference which took place in December 2016. Rebecca, a Research Fellow at the computer science education research group (CSER) at the University of Adelaide in Australia, shares professional development ideas for preparing teachers for a classroom focused on computational thinking and computer science.

These days, we need to prepare the next generation of students to be creators—not just consumers—of digital technology. As the demand for computer science and computational thinking skills increases, countries are integrating these skills into their K-12 curriculum. This year, Australia implemented a digital technologies curriculum, incorporating the teaching of computational thinking and CS into curricula from foundation level, and many other countries are rapidly following suit. But teachers need help to implement this type of digital focussed curriculum.

One of the ways we can support teachers in this area is via "massive open online courses," or MOOCs. In Australia, the computer science education research group (CSER) at the University of Adelaide, is partnering with Google to develop online communities and free MOOCs, where K-12 teachers can share their creative ideas and suggest professional development lessons. With these resources, teachers are learning to integrate computational thinking and computer science into their curriculum.

Since launching the digital technologies MOOC in 2014, we’ve been able to scale professional learning across Australia and introduce new learning styles such as algorithmic thinking, which teaches students to develop step-by-step solutions for problems they encounter. More than 7,200 teachers are engaged in this professional learning program and have shared more than 4,500 resources as a result of these MOOCs. The program isn’t just working for experienced CS teachers: Ellie, a 56-year-old grandmother and primary school teacher with virtually no technology background, created a lesson on binary and data resources after taking our first course. In late 2016, the Australian government decided to invest nearly 7 million dollars over four years to scale our efforts further and support remote and low-income communities.

Connecting teachers to share creativity and insight

The success of Australia’s MOOCs and online teacher community has proven the value of peer-to-peer professional learning. Teachers have embraced our “professional learning in a box” kits—slide decks of instructor notes, videos, and in-person activity ideas that they can customize to deliver professional learning sessions in their school or community. Teachers also love user-generated content in our online communities because they can interact with teachers who created them, and apply concepts they’ve learned online to their classroom.

Education on Air, which I participated in last year, works much like a MOOC by providing a space for people with a shared interest to come together and learn from one another, no matter where they’re located. In my breakout session, “Making Computational Thinking Visible: Classroom Activities and Google Tools,” I explained algorithmic thinking, demonstrated the way it applies to other learning areas, and shared tips on how Google tools can assist in introducing this framework to students. Teachers left the session with ideas they could implement the next day, including tips for engaging lessons that integrate algorithmic thinking, and ideas for applying this framework to other learning areas, such as experiment design.

Students need more than coding skills—they need to understand how technology changes the way we live, work and solve problems. The success to date of the digital technologies MOOCs in Australia shows that online courses can be a scalable way to empower teachers to incorporate computational thinking and CS concepts into the classroom. And by introducing computational thinking as a method of problem-solving to students, teachers can shape the next generation of STEM leaders.

Source: Education


How online courses can help teach computational thinking and CS

Editor’s note: We’re highlighting education leaders across the world to share how they’re creating more collaborative, engaging classrooms. Today’s guest author is Rebecca Vivian, one of the keynote speakers from Education on Air, Google’s free online conference which took place in December 2016. Rebecca, a Research Fellow at the computer science education research group (CSER) at the University of Adelaide in Australia, shares professional development ideas for preparing teachers for a classroom focused on computational thinking and computer science.

These days, we need to prepare the next generation of students to be creators—not just consumers—of digital technology. As the demand for computer science and computational thinking skills increases, countries are integrating these skills into their K-12 curriculum. This year, Australia implemented a digital technologies curriculum, incorporating the teaching of computational thinking and CS into curricula from foundation level, and many other countries are rapidly following suit. But teachers need help to implement this type of digital focussed curriculum.

One of the ways we can support teachers in this area is via "massive open online courses," or MOOCs. In Australia, the computer science education research group (CSER) at the University of Adelaide, is partnering with Google to develop online communities and free MOOCs, where K-12 teachers can share their creative ideas and suggest professional development lessons. With these resources, teachers are learning to integrate computational thinking and computer science into their curriculum.

Since launching the digital technologies MOOC in 2014, we’ve been able to scale professional learning across Australia and introduce new learning styles such as algorithmic thinking, which teaches students to develop step-by-step solutions for problems they encounter. More than 7,200 teachers are engaged in this professional learning program and have shared more than 4,500 resources as a result of these MOOCs. The program isn’t just working for experienced CS teachers: Ellie, a 56-year-old grandmother and primary school teacher with virtually no technology background, created a lesson on binary and data resources after taking our first course. In late 2016, the Australian government decided to invest nearly 7 million dollars over four years to scale our efforts further and support remote and low-income communities.

Connecting teachers to share creativity and insight

The success of Australia’s MOOCs and online teacher community has proven the value of peer-to-peer professional learning. Teachers have embraced our “professional learning in a box” kits—slide decks of instructor notes, videos, and in-person activity ideas that they can customize to deliver professional learning sessions in their school or community. Teachers also love user-generated content in our online communities because they can interact with teachers who created them, and apply concepts they’ve learned online to their classroom.

Education on Air, which I participated in last year, works much like a MOOC by providing a space for people with a shared interest to come together and learn from one another, no matter where they’re located. In my breakout session, “Making Computational Thinking Visible: Classroom Activities and Google Tools,” I explained algorithmic thinking, demonstrated the way it applies to other learning areas, and shared tips on how Google tools can assist in introducing this framework to students. Teachers left the session with ideas they could implement the next day, including tips for engaging lessons that integrate algorithmic thinking, and ideas for applying this framework to other learning areas, such as experiment design.

Students need more than coding skills—they need to understand how technology changes the way we live, work and solve problems. The success to date of the digital technologies MOOCs in Australia shows that online courses can be a scalable way to empower teachers to incorporate computational thinking and CS concepts into the classroom. And by introducing computational thinking as a method of problem-solving to students, teachers can shape the next generation of STEM leaders.

Source: Education


New approaches aimed at addressing the CS capacity crunch

We launched the CS Capacity program in 2015 to help address a very specific problem: the dramatic increase in undergraduate Computer Science (CS) enrollments, which is creating serious resource and pedagogical challenges for many colleges and universities. Through this program, we’ve been working alongside a diverse set of universitie—including George Mason University, Mount Holyoke College, Rutgers University, the University California, Berkeley, Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of Florida, and the University of North Carolina—who each bring a unique approach to dealing with increasing numbers of students with a limited resources (including faculty and classroom space).

Two years in, we wanted to share an update on some of the projects and ideas that have emerged to help support the expansion of high-quality undergraduate CS programs:

Enabling self-paced learning

Allowing students to move through learning content at their own pace benefits students by enabling them to take as much or as little time as they need to master concepts and skills. It also reduces overcrowding in CS1 by moving students into higher level courses more quickly.

  • The team at George Mason have developed an online system that provides self-paced learning for CS1 and CS2 classes, guiding learners through the materials quickly or slowly depending on their needs. The system, called SPARC, includes course content, practice and assessment exercises, mini-lectures and more.
  • At Rutgers, they’re defining additional features to improve their use of Autolab (a course management system that include automated grading). This includes building a hint system to provide more information for students who are struggling with a concept or assignment, crowd-sourcing grading, and studying how students think about CS content and the kinds of errors they regularly make.

Ensuring better engagement of women and underrepresented students

Women and some populations of minority students are significantly underrepresented in CS programs. More research is needed to understand how these populations are being impacted by increased enrollments.

  • The team at Rutgers has been exploring the gender gap at multiple levels using a longitudinal study across four required CS classes. They’re investigating several factors that may impact the retention of women and underrepresented student populations, including intention to major in CS, grades and prior experience.
  • The Dept. of Computer Science at Duke has been conducting a systematic assessment of what student characteristics predict retention and success in its undergraduate program—focusing particularly on women, underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students.
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Some members of the MaGe Peer Mentor program at Mount Holyoke College

Increasing access to mentorship and tutoring

Many CS programs are dealing with the significant increase in students in early CS courses by increasing the number of undergraduate tutors, creating a need for better tutor training.

  • The MaGe Peer Mentor program at Mount Holyoke College has created online course curriculum that helps to recruit and train students to be undergraduate peer mentors, preparing them to provide effective feedback on coding assignments. They’ve made this content accessible online so that other institutions can also prepare their student tutors.
  • At University of California, Berkeley, the team has instituted a small-group tutoring program that includes weekend mastery learning sessions, increased office hours support, designated discussions sections, project checkpoint deadlines, walkthrough videos, and a new office hours app that tracks student satisfaction.
  • The team at Duke, NCSU, UNC and UF have created a free online tool called My Digital Hand (MDH) that helps manage and track data such as how many hours peer mentors are spending with mentees. The team has also been working on ASCEND (Adaptive Student Computing Environment with Natural Language Dialogue), a tool that allows students to share their projects and chat with their peer teaching fellows during lessons. ASCEND also logs all programming actions and chats.

    These teams participating in CS Capacity program will continue to share their solutions and results with the community via conferences and publications. Several will be presenting papers on these new interventions and tools at the SIGCSE conference in March. If you’ll be there, please join the “New Tools and Solutions to Address the CS Capacity Crunch” panel discussion on Thursday, March 9 called from 3:45-5:00 pm.

    Given the likelihood that CS undergraduate enrollments will continue to climb, it is critical that the CS education community continue to find, test and share solutions and tools that enable institutions to effectively teach more students while maintaining the quality of the education experience for students.

    Source: Education