At this year EDMedia conference (online) we did a publication about “Practitioner Integration in Computational Thinking Education”.
Abstract:
This pilot study implemented an expert driven participatory workshop in a rural Austrian economic school. An action research approach was utilised to introduce the problem solving method named computational thinking (CT) to students aged 16 to 18 (K-12) in five after school workshop sessions. This research revealed the basic benefits of industry expert integration in a classroom setting with the aim to develop sustainable interdisciplinary interfaces that allow schools and individual teachers to independently showcase possible pathways. Drawbacks of the methods were identified, for example the high overhead efforts currently required without interfaces between practitioners and educators in place or the demanding time requirements. To create a strong, inclusive path to CT education for all young minds, these challenges need to be addressed and ultimately overcome with the support of all involved stakeholders.
Reference: Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2020). Practitioner Integration in Computational Thinking Education. In Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 570-580). Online, The Netherlands: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved July 14, 2020 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/217354/.