Challenges facing Computing educators

The latest episode of the teach computing podcast has arrived and in this final episode of 2020, Sue Sentence and James Robinson sit down to discuss the PRIMM approach to teaching programming and the importance of talk in the computing classroom. Find more information and show notes at http://ncce.io/tc12 You can also view the full transcript for this episode.

As pupils and teachers around the world return to school for what is likely to be a challenging year in education, many will be benefiting from the latest piece of support provided by the National Centre for Computing Education. The "Teach Computing Curriculum" aims to support teachers, reduce workload, and provide outstanding learning experiences for pupils. This massive 18-month project reached its goal in July, completing 500 hours of computing lessons for Key Stage 1 - 4 students (aged 5 -16). In this episode, we hear from the team behind the project as well as teachers preparing to use this exciting new content. The episode comes in two versions, this one is focused on secondary education. Notes Find more information at http://ncce.io/tc11 This month, everything we've discussed can be found on the teachcomputing.org site or via ncce.io/tcc You can also view the full transcript for the primary episode and the full transcript for the secondary episode.

As pupils and teachers around the world return to school for what is likely to be a challenging year in education, many will be benefiting from the latest piece of support provided by the National Centre for Computing Education. The "Teach Computing Curriculum" aims to support teachers, reduce workload, and provide outstanding learning experiences for pupils. This massive 18-month project reached its goal in July, completing 500 hours of computing lessons for Key Stage 1 - 4 students (aged 5 -16). In this episode, we hear from the team behind the project as well as teachers preparing to use this exciting new content. The episode comes in two versions, this one is focused on primary education. Notes Find more information at http://ncce.io/tc11 This month, everything we've discussed can be found on the teachcomputing.org site or via ncce.io/tcc You can also view the full transcript for the primary episode and the full transcript for the secondary episode.

Today see the launch of our brand new program focused on supporting educators to develop their practice through action research in the classroom. Improving computing classroom practice through action research is a 6 month programme that begins with our 2 week online course which begins later this month. In this  episode I spoke to Lynda Chinaka about her experience of action research in the computing classroom. For our full show notes visit ncce.io/tc10

This month's episode focuses on Peer Instruction, a classroom practice we recently covered in a Pedagogy Quick Read. There is compelling evidence that Peer Instruction can have a significant impact on learning outcomes for students if delivered well. Emma Posey and I talk about the practice, the evidence and how peer instruction might be relevant during periods of remote teaching. Our full show notes can be found at http://ncce.io/tc09

Given current events, we wanted to hear from a group of educators about their experiences of shifting learning online at short notice.  Throughout this episode our guests, eager to support their fellow educators shared many ideas for approaches, tools software and support, which we've collated below: For creating virtual classrooms or communities, Google Classroom came out as a valuable tool that many schools are turning to at this time. There are of course other tools like Microsoft Teams and as James mentioned Tapestry for younger learners. Other collaboration tools that were discussed included Jamboard from Google which allows users to collaborate on a virtual whiteboard area. Bitpaper was also mentioned as a similar tool as was Liveboard. The above tools may support teacher -> pupils collaboration but as Jane pointed out a simple shared document if often all you need to promote collaboration. Schools are overcoming the potential safeguarding challenges and using video tools to communicate with learners. There are many of these from Google Meet (or Hangouts) and Microsoft teams which schools likely already have access to as an organisation plus a range of other tools including Zoom. Other video tools include Flipgrid, which can be used for asynchronous video communication and interaction and screen recorders such as LOOM, which can be used to capture demonstrations or on screen tutorials. For assessment, whether formative or summative, several tools were mentioned from light touch assessments using tools like Kahoot and Quizlet to more structured learning platforms like Seneca or Isaac Computer Science which use questioning to drive learning. For teaching content their were a number of places our guests recommended for either self contained activities or teacher directed tasks. Tynker, Code Combat and Purple Mash were recommended as self contained activities for learners. Whereas for more structured and progress focused activities you may want to look at the NCCE resources, code.org or Digital making at home. An important theme was teacher collaboration, finding time to connect with peers, whether immediate colleagues or educators facing similar challenges across the world. Cat mentioned the GEG Global classroom and Steve uses Facebook workplace for team chats. There are also online meetups such as #caschat & #csedresearchbookclub and many CAS communities of Practice have moved to online meetings. And finally to paraphrase Jane, in this challenging time we have needed to act rapidly to ensure teaching and learning continues. Moving forward we should each focus on getting one thing working (well) and consider the associated pedagogy before attempting the next thing. Read our full notes

Following our recent quick read on the same subject, I spoke to Rebecca Franks from the Raspberry Pi Foundation about the benefits of Live Coding in computing education. Whilst Live coding is typically delivered in person there are also several examples of its successful use online and in remote settings. From next month we'll be focusing on the challenge that many educators now face of teaching their pupils whilst schools are closed and learning is happening remotely. We want to hear your experiences, challenges and ideas which you can share with us via email. Read our full notes at ncce.io/tc07

At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the Educator Support team have been spending a lot of time thinking about how they are approaching progression throughout the NCCE Resource Repository resources. In this month's episode, we hear from members of the team about their approach to progression developing Learning Graphs and how they expect these to be used by educators. Also this month, I speak with Oliver Quinlan, Head of Impact and Research at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, about the upcoming Research Symposium. Thanks to all our guests for their contributions to this episode, and a special thanks to Oliver Quinlan for our intro theme built from Commodore 64 sounds. Full notes and transcript available on the Teach Computing Blog

We believe that all learners should be able to access a high quality but accessible computing education. In this month's episode we explore some practical strategies that not only support SEND students but improve accessibility for all learners. My expert guest this month is Catherine Elliott who has a wealth of experience in supporting SEND students, has written reports on the subject and hosts a fantastic online course. Full notes and transcript available on the Teach Computing Blog

Computing is often perceived or presented as an inherently hard subject. Whilst we at Teach Computing would disagree with this characterisation, it's clear that there are some specific challenges that come with teaching computing. Our latest podcast episode aims to explore these challenges and highlight some of the ways in which teachers can get support.  We spoke to Katie Vanderpere-Brown a school leader, experienced CS teacher and most recently NCCE hub leader about these challenges. Full notes and transcript available on the Teach Computing Blog