A/Professor Katrina Falkner and Dr Rebecca Vivian have just returned from a road trip tour around Tasmania. Peter Lelong from the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office (CEO) invited the Computer Science Education Research (CSER) group to present and run a workshop at their state Professional Learning event. The event was repeated in the South, North and North West regions of Tasmania, over 3 days, from the 2nd to the 4th of February so that all CEO teachers had the opportunity to participate.

This was a full-day event for all teachers to support both the implementation of the ICT Capabilities and the Digital Technologies learning area. The presentations and workshops explored the Digital Technologies learning area, Computational Thinking and ICT integration – from the concepts and the WHY to the practical implementation of lessons within primary classrooms.

A/Prof Katrina Falkner shares CS+X stories.

Katrina provided an overview of why computer science education and computational thinking is important. Katrina shared the group’s favourite “CS + X” stories that showcase why this learning area is a crucial step forward for our nation. The stories also emphasise that Computer Science is about solving problems. Katrina also talked about the group’s free online Digital Technologies MOOCs to support teachers with implementing F-6 activities and showcased some sample lesson ideas.

This is an excerpt from the original post by Dr Rebecca Vivian of the Computer Science Education Research Group.