Introduction The education sector has undergone a tremendous shift during forced remote education during the pandemic. Teachers have learned to adopt technology as an essential role in evolving students’ learning. Communication channels and messaging apps have emerged to meet the needs of educators and their students, and one such platform is Discord. Initially developed as …
Introduction For young and upcoming computer scientists, competitive programming can be a powerful tool to hone essential skills. It helps sharpen problem-solving and analytical thinking abilities and provides the creative opportunity to experiment with algorithms in a safe and structured environment. With that said, introducing competitive programming into the classroom curriculum can open exciting opportunities …
Continue reading “Competitive Programming Tools in the Classroom”
Introduction As an instructor of computer science at Simon Fraser University, one of my roles involves assessing the level of computer science knowledge possessed by high school graduates and the ease of their transition into higher education. These assessments help the school to evaluate the adequacy of our university’s introductory computer science courses. Unfortunately, we …
we will analyze the authenticity of a course-based software engineering project and how it can be improved to better prepare students for the challenges of the software development industry.
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As has been oft-discussed on this blog, as well as among communities of teachers since time immemorial, professional development (PD) activities are quite frequently dull, irrelevant, time-consuming, and centered around a single expert delivering one-size-fits-all content to a group of workshop attendees. This is not an effective approach to adult learning (or any learning, really), …
Continue reading “What if Professional Development Could Be…Fun!?”
Just as online teaching and learning became a necessity for K-12 and postsecondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too did online professional learning activities for educators at all levels. Not only have professional development (PD) activities primarily been held in virtual spaces over the last two years (both synchronously and asynchronously), but often the …
Continue reading “Meaningful Feedback in Online Professional Development”
As I continue to dive deeper into the research related to professional development (PD) and adult learning initiatives within higher education, one aspect of PD I’ve yet to explore is the evaluation of PD. In other words, how do we determine if a PD enterprise was successful? Is the learning having an ongoing, meaningful impact …
Though it’s generally acknowledged that education theory and practice inform adult learning and professional development activities in all kinds of domains, the connection between education research/best practices and teaching/learning as it occurs in corporate environments is perhaps less explored. For the purposes of this investigation, I’m interested in finding exemplars of professional learning design and implementation that are taking place outside of K-12 schools and higher education institutions. How are best practices in education …
