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Why do educators seem to like CT so much more than computer scientists? There’s an ongoing debate in computer science education about what constitutes computational thinking (CT). Computer scientists tend to advocate for a strict understanding of the “computational” half of CT and say that CT without computers is just plain problem solving. On the… Read more

As a final assignment, a portfolio of my learning on electronic assessment this past semester, fulfilling the assessment trifecta: an assessment as learning (self-assessment), an assessment for learning (formative assessment), and an assessment of learning (summative assessment). What I write here serves as a vehicle for self-reflection on what I have learned, as a way… Read more

I’ve had to made a lot of key additions since my previous version! It’s taken a couple of revisions, but I’ve finally developed a solid formative assessment for fourth thru sixth grade student understanding of decomposition in Scratch! Young students, or any novice coding student for that matter, typically struggle with reading and understanding code–even… Read more

Why do educators and computer scientists differ in their acceptance of computational thinking? I have been researching computational thinking (CT) professional development for K-5 educators for just over a year now, which is nearly as long as I have been a graduate student in educational technology. Anecdotally, educators seem far more excited about CT than… Read more

No end in sight yet, but feeling much better about the process. In my last post, I shared how deflating it was trying to think of quality questions to ask about Computer Science Education. But, after mulling over my questions and applying the five whys root-cause analysis to one of them, I feel much more… Read more