#CSK8 Podcast - A podcast for computer science educators

Note: If you or anyone you know are experiencing signs of depression or suicidal ideation, please reach out to local healthcare professionals or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255In honor of national suicide prevention week, in this week’s episode replay I read a paper I wrote on the topic of depression, suicide, and computer science education. This paper is formatted into the following sections: 1) A vignette on my own experiences coping with depression and suicide; 2) Statistics on depression and suicide as it relates to various populations computer science educators work with; 3) A vignette of a computer science educator helping a student through depression and suicidal thoughts; 4) Risk factors and warning signs; 5) Suggestions for providing support; 6) A vignette from a computer science educator's perspective on a student who committed suicide; and 7) Closing thoughts.Click here for this episode’s show notes.Learn more about National Suicide Prevention Month/Week/Day.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00 Intro4:38 Vignette 1: Jared10:45 Statistics on suicide17:44 Statics on depression20:30 Vignette 2: Chris and Elliott28:14 Risk factors and warning signs32:28 Suggestions for providing support37:04 Vignette 3: Alex and Sam40:55 Closing thoughts

In this episode I unpack the impact of an apprenticeship of observation and what computer science educators can do about it.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 What is the apprenticeship of observation?00:46 Why apprenticeship of observation is important for educators to know about02:23 The problems that arise from the apprenticeship of observation06:49 What can educators do about the apprenticeship of observation?16:35 We need to teach not just our students, but society as a whole

In this episode I unpack Loehr and Schwartz’s (2001) publication titled “The making of a corporate athlete",” which provides some suggestions relevant to educators interested in performing at their best by focusing on rest and recovery.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro01:07 The high-performance pyramid02:00 Ideal performance state04:55 Physical capacity09:05 Emotional capacity12:32 Mental capacity16:46 Spiritual capacity (it's not what you think)19:15 Outro

In the 200th episode of the #CSK8 Podcast I want to take a moment to thank everyone for listening over the years and to share some thoughts around the content I’m creating and the future of this podcast.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Thank you for listening!00:47 Some changes I've made01:57 What are your thoughts on the changes?03:05 My plans for future content06:00 Let me know what you think06:10 Again, thank you! I appreciate you!

In this episode I discuss an approach I’ve used for encouraging critical thinking and dialogue through individualized feedback and group discussion.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 How do you encourage critical thinking and dialogue with the classes you work with?00:53 An example of what this might look like01:17 What the feedback looked like01:57 Opening up individualized feedback for group discussion02:54 A pebble in their shoe03:15 What are your thoughts?03:26 Answering a question about room setups06:44 Outro

In this episode I unpack Kumar and Worsley’s (2023) publication titled “Scratch for sports: Athletic drills as a platform for experiencing, understanding, and developing AI-driven apps,” which summarizes explorations of the intersections of computer science and physical education.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Abstract01:33 My single sentence summary01:52 Paper introduction02:33 Related work03:21 Video Sensing: HomeCourt + Scratch05:53 Wearables: Smartwatches + Micro:bits07:35 Ball Sensors: Play Impossible & SIQ + Micro:bits08:32 Discussion and Future Work08:53 Lingering questions and thoughts08:58 How do we incorporate physical computing in an individualized or rhizomatic way?10:07 When do you use physical computing in your classroom?12:10 Outro

In this episode I unpack Obermüller, Greifenstein, and Fraser’s (2023) publication titled “Effects of automated feedback in Scratch programming tutorials,” which investigates the impact of two different types of hint generating approaches among two different classes.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:44 Abstract01:54 My single sentence summary02:02 1 Introduction02:42 2 Background03:25 3 Interactive tutorial system for Scratch03:47 4 Experimental setup06:14 RQ1: How do next-step hints influence08:50 RQ2: How do next-step hints influence11:42 RQ3: How do next-step hints influence help12:29 RQ4: How do next-step hints influence13:15 My lingering questions and thoughts13:22 What kind of projects can students create with such a tool?16:56 How do you teach students to provide feedback to peers when other forms of feedback are unavailable?20:18 As teaching, assessment, feedback, etc. becomes more automated, how will this impact teaching and learning?21:38 Outro

In this episode I talk about political and corporate influences that we need to talk about as a field.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 We need to talk about this01:56 So what does this mean for computer science education?03:23 Impact on computer science professional development and curricula05:47 It's not just politicians who are influencing computer science education06:38 Outro

In this episode I provide some suggestions for setting up your computer lab and talk about their impacts on teaching and learning computer science.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:04 Rows01:46 Stations/pods03:41 Racetrack05:36 Donut07:42 Questions to think through for setting up your room08:00 Outro

Instead of an episode today I have two quick requests: Check out CSTA’s conference going on this week and consider volunteering with CSTA.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:05 1st request00:41 2nd request01:19 Outro

In this episode I unpack Tobias, Campbell, and Greco’s (2015) publication titled “Bringing curriculum to life: Enacting project-based learning in music programs” to explore how computer science educators could incorporate project-based learning in their classroom.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:35 Abstract01:32 What is project-based learning?02:21 Vignettes03:02 The project continuum06:47 Designing project-based learning07:12 Worthy topics12:11 Real-life context15:22 Questions16:55 Critical thinking and dispositions17:55 Scope21:29 Designing the experience23:19 Challenges with PBL25:23 Assessment and evaluation25:40 Parting thoughts from the authors26:36 Lingering questions and thoughts26:44 Where along the project continuum do your projects tend to lie?28:21 How do projects afford certain types of engagement while constraining others?29:22 How might project-based learning differ in constructivist versus constructionist pedagogies?30:51 How comfortable are you with facilitating multiple projects simultaneously?32:11 Outro

In this episode I talk about how you can use Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process to encourage feedback and dialogue among students around the projects they create.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:39 The three roles of the Critical Response Process01:14 The four steps of the Critical Response Process01:28 Step 102:06 Step 202:36 Step 303:13 Step 404:15 Quick summary of the Critical Response Process04:37 Another approach for feedback and assessment05:33 Using questions for feedback and assessment05:55 The importance of modeling feedback06:41 What questions do you have?07:14 Please consider sharing

In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:22 The problem I hope to address in this episode03:52 Brief summary of why I'm qualified to address this problem04:45 Why am I giving this content away for free?06:18 You can do this06:56 Step 1: Setting a vision10:10 Step 2: Develop a plan14:48 Step 3: Reverse engineer CS education21:53 Step 4: Teach CS23:57 Step 5: Reflect, refine, and share27:01 Thanks for listening and sharing with others!

In this episode I ask Bard and ChatGPT what the future of education looks like and probe these platforms to get a pulse on what computer science education looks like according to responses from large language models.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:41 1. What will teaching and learning look like ten years from now?07:10 - How is that different from today?09:32 2. What is the role of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning?17:26 3. Why are teachers leaving the field and what can be done to prevent that?27:40 How much should a public elementary school computer science educator be paid in Arizona with ten years of experience and a doctorate in education?29:21 - How much should a private elementary school educator be paid in Arizona with ten years of experience and a doctorate in education?30:39 5. What are the top five pedagogies for teaching computer science?33:04 - Elaborate on how each of the pedagogies you listed are beneficial for learning33:42 - What are the downsides for each of the pedagogies you listed?35:08 6. How could teachers make computer science classes more equitable?37:50 7. Why should all students learn computer science?40:36 - Should someone learn computer science if they are not going to be a professional computer scientist?43:09 - What prevents students from being interested in computer science?45:15 8. How can teachers learn how to teach computer science classes if they don't have a background in computer science?49:13 9. What is computational thinking and why is it being taught in schools?51:28 - List five examples of computational thinking52:22 10. Write me a lesson that teaches an elementary student how to create a short Scratch.mit.edu story57:41 - Write me a lesson that teaches an elementary student how to create a short Scratch.mit.edu story about algorithmic bias58:53 - Write me a lesson that teaches an elementary student how to create a short Scratch.mit.edu story about algorithmic bias while encouraging students to incorporate their own interests, needs, desires, etc. in the story01:00:25 11. Based on the kinds of questions I've already asked today, what questions should I ask you next?01:02:37 My thoughts on this exploration01:05:12 Outro

In this episode I unpack Olari, Tenório, and Romeike’s (2023) publication titled “Introducing artificial intelligence literacy in schools: A review of competence areas, pedagogical approaches, contexts and formats,” which is a review of literature exploring how researchers from 31 papers investigated AI-related literacies in schools.Click here for this episode’s show notes.How to Get Started with Computer Science Education━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro00:52 Abstract01:48 My one sentence summary02:35 Paper introduction03:09 Artificial intelligence literacy in school education04:08 Research questions04:25 Method05:09 Results: Competence areas07:08 Results: Pedagogical approaches10:46 Results: Contexts and formats12:45 Discussion16:12 Lingering questions and thoughts16:16 When teaching AI, what balance do you strive for between learning about AI and using AI as a tool for learning/creating?17:09 AI in education is an under explored area of potential professional development for educators18:14 Outro