Head of School, Associate Professor Katrina Falkner, has been awarded EdTechSA Leader of the Year for 2015 and has been nominated for the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) 2016 National Leader of the Year Award.

This award is made by EdTechSA in conjunction with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to acknowledge and honour the outstanding work of local extraordinary educators.

Katrina is leader of the CSER Group and through one of the group’s research streams, Katrina has led CSER to be at the forefront of Australian K-12 Computing Education through research, community outreach and practice.

One of CSER’s goals has been to ensure teachers across Australia have the support they need to implement the new K-10 Digital Technologies curriculum. To support teachers at-scale, Katrina led the development of the free CSER Teacher MOOCs, developed in partnership with Google and Digital Careers, which have been well-received across Australia. First launched in December 2013, the initiative has enabled over 1,600 educators across Australia to engage in free professional learning, and the MOOC has facilitated the sharing of over 3,000 teaching resources.

Katrina is also actively involved in Computing Education committees and groups and has been invited to speak at a number of local and international conferences, and to the media, on the topic of Computing Education. You can read more about Katrina’s work in this space here.