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CSER with the University of Adelaide With the support of a Australian Federal Government Grant the CSER (Computer Science Education Research) Team offer four free online courses world wide with personalised workshops for teachers in Australia with project officers in each state. Australian schools that register their staff for an online course are eligible for access to a free lending library . If you would like a project officer to visit your school you can apply through the website. The online courses provide a range of content. F-6: Foundations is the introductory course and assumes no knowledge and is a great way for teachers to introduce coding and the use of computational thinking and digital systems into their classroom and schools.  The courses are mapped to the Australian Curriculum but the content suits all Australian states and their particular version of curriculum. It also covers skills and content required in other countries that require the teaching of...

Coding the latest buzz word There is an international movement to teach coding in schools, everyone is talking about coding, the media , schools , not-for-profits , summer camps , women's magazines . The difficulty is the responsibility for integrating coding into the curriculum falls on the teachers who are not all equipped with the skills to teach coding.  Why? Teaching coding skills is not about teaching everyone to be a programmer. It is about digital literacy and ensuring all students understand how technology works. It also teaches a thinking style referred to as "Computational Thinking". Computational Thinking  (CT) is the thought processes involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution(s) in such a way that a computer—human or machine—can effectively carry out.  (Jeanette Wing 2-14) ( Source ) It was first referred by Seymour Papert in 1980 and then in 1996 and it is an important thinking style for solving complex problems.   ( Sourc...

21 st Century Learning Projects for a new paradigm Innovation Integrator at St Columba Anglican School (SCAS), Meridith Ebbs, shares some of the ground-breaking ways technology has been incorporated into the curriculum at the school. St Columba Anglican School is in it’s 14 th year and is located in Port Macquarie on the mid north coast of NSW. Four years ago the decision was made to migrate the school to the cloud and implement a voluntary bring your own device program. In the past 4 years there has been significant investment in technology and staff training. Many staff now use technology on a daily basis. Implementing technology also requires a commitment to evolving pedagogy. To assist all staff to continue to evolve their teaching methods requires continued support for staff financially and physically with training and flexible resources. Being a regional school attending professional development in the city can be costly so the school committed to employing ski...

Recently I have noticed MOOCs being discussed, more frequently, within my professional learning network (PLN). This year I heard @NatalieGoldman speak on MOOCs and I completed my first MOOC so I thought I would examine what they are, why you would use one and the benefits of them for personal development. What is a MOOC? MOOC is an acronym for Massive Open Online Course. They are often free and run with flexible completion times. To date they have been facilitated by large education groups often universities. Many offer a certificate at the conclusion.  Completion Rates The completion rate of MOOCs is quite low. Wikipedia (I know not a very good source, but easy) claims w hile many people enrol in MOOCs  only 10% of participants complete the course. EdCentral claims a 4% completion rate. This could be because of several factors. Time - MOOCs are often completed during non-work time. Many things compete for this time including family and friends. Finding dedi...

What is social learning? This week I attended the Learn@Work conference, Learning and Development conference. The major theme was social learning. Social Learning is using the natural desire to socialise to enable learning in the work place.  Social learning is when learning occurs in a social situation. Social learning is often unstructured and an informal learning process where you receive just in time training from a colleague or you learn together how to solve a problem. Social Media may form a useful tool for social learning however it can not be forced onto learners. It is up the learner to make effective use of social media as a tool for learning. Forcing a learner to use a tool they are familiar with is not helpful in the learning process. Many people have now started to develop virtual connections using social media. Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) can enhance learning. They provide an opportunity to learn from people with different experience...