Blog #6- NC CS Standards Review- K.Holden
According to "Expand Computer Science Opportunities to All Students in North
Carolina K-12 schools:
Recommendations for Policymakers" the overall goal is to "create and contribute, not just use and consume, in the
digital economy" and "actively engage as informed citizens in our complex, technology-driven
world". The proposed NC K-12 computer science standards are broken into 5 components;
1. Computing Systems
2. Networks & The Internet
3. Data & Analysis
4. Algorithms & Programming
5. Impacts of computing
Which wants students to understand and use computing in various domains. I believe that the standards align well with the purpose, rationale and goals of computer science and technology education in NC. Teaching computer science has become more prevalent in education, however I just don't believe teachers know it to be computer science. For example, in the elementary school in which I work I have seen a lot of teachers experiment with coding with their students and during clubs to introduce other ways to use technology, however I'm not sure they are aware of it being computer science.
I teach 3rd grade, so I primarily work with upper elementary students. Looking at the standards, many could be implemented into core content curriculum and would support learning. In math students could create graphs and code robots such as dash for things like area and perimeter. In science students could work through the scientific method for various experiments, collecting data, and predicting outcomes. In healthful living students could create apps that track their progress in exercise, nutrition, etc.
As mentioned earlier I think lots of teachers are incorporating computer science in their curriculum, just not necessarily intentionally. From the perspective of a teacher professional development facilitator, in order to support teachers to learn to teach the computer science core concepts to their students teachers must first understand what computer science and the core concepts are. I believe with these explanations it will signal a lightbulb in lots of educators minds and they then could teach the core concepts by incorporating into their curriculum. For others it is going to take some modeling, examples of what it may look like to teach these concepts, and possibly even some co-teaching. With everything comes challenges. Potential challenges or issues for classroom teachers could be lack of support. Professional development may be given once and then teachers left to figure the rest out on their own. Another challenge would be having students who are behind in their knowledge of the concepts from previous grades. Another challenge could be lack of resources/devices to accommodate all teachers at all schools in various areas.
1. Computing Systems
2. Networks & The Internet
3. Data & Analysis
4. Algorithms & Programming
5. Impacts of computing
Which wants students to understand and use computing in various domains. I believe that the standards align well with the purpose, rationale and goals of computer science and technology education in NC. Teaching computer science has become more prevalent in education, however I just don't believe teachers know it to be computer science. For example, in the elementary school in which I work I have seen a lot of teachers experiment with coding with their students and during clubs to introduce other ways to use technology, however I'm not sure they are aware of it being computer science.
I teach 3rd grade, so I primarily work with upper elementary students. Looking at the standards, many could be implemented into core content curriculum and would support learning. In math students could create graphs and code robots such as dash for things like area and perimeter. In science students could work through the scientific method for various experiments, collecting data, and predicting outcomes. In healthful living students could create apps that track their progress in exercise, nutrition, etc.
As mentioned earlier I think lots of teachers are incorporating computer science in their curriculum, just not necessarily intentionally. From the perspective of a teacher professional development facilitator, in order to support teachers to learn to teach the computer science core concepts to their students teachers must first understand what computer science and the core concepts are. I believe with these explanations it will signal a lightbulb in lots of educators minds and they then could teach the core concepts by incorporating into their curriculum. For others it is going to take some modeling, examples of what it may look like to teach these concepts, and possibly even some co-teaching. With everything comes challenges. Potential challenges or issues for classroom teachers could be lack of support. Professional development may be given once and then teachers left to figure the rest out on their own. Another challenge would be having students who are behind in their knowledge of the concepts from previous grades. Another challenge could be lack of resources/devices to accommodate all teachers at all schools in various areas.
Comments
I agree with you that many teachers are incorporating computer science in there classrooms. With the surge in maker spacers many teachers have found themselves teaching their student to code within the curriculum, With the standards now they can be more intentional and ensure that they are teaching the correct terminology.