Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) has finished and kudos to those of you who participated in any of the many events around Oregon.  The final tally as of 7:00pm PST today, is 478 HOC events in Oregon out of 43492 in the US and 162,436 worldwide!  Do to some extreme weather (freezing rain and snow) in the Portland Metro area, we had to postpone Thursday’s Oregon CSForAll Kickoff Event.  It is now rescheduled for this Thursday, December 15 starting at 5:30p.  For those registered for last week’s event, if you are planning to join us this Thursday, we already have you signed up. If you have not signed up, there’s still time and if you CANNOT make it, please cancel your order so we can get an accurate head count for catering.  Either way, here again is the registration link

December is shaping up to be a busy month for Computer Science education in Oregon.  In addition to our CSForAll Kickoff Event, the Oregon CSTA  Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have begun to meet.  As an extension of this summer’s SuperQuest workshops, there are going to be 8 PLCs taking place from December 2016 through June 2017:

• Computer Science Curriculum and Program Development (Terrel Smith)
• 3D Printing & CNC Vinyl Graphics – Digital Design and Fabrication (John Niebergall and Wade Sims)
• LEGO Robotics (Don Domes)
• VEX Robotics (Greg Smith)
• Advanced Programming Topics (Jason Galbraith)
• Web Coding and Design (Chris Winikka)
• CSForAll (Andrew Scholer)
• CS Regional Coordinators (Terrel Smith and Kathy Zettl-Schaffer)

More details about each of them can be found in our PLC FAQ

On Wednesday, December 7 the Web Coding PLC, lead by Century High School’s Chris Winikka, had its first meeting.  13 CS teachers (including yours truly) met via a Zoom meeting to discuss, learn and share how we teach Web Design and Development.  There was a wide range of experience both in teaching Web Design and Development and the participants practical experience using these technologies outside the classroom.  This made for a lot of very interesting discussions and learning from others knowledge.  One of the difficulties with virtual PLCs (and meetings in general) is how to allow and encourage equal participation from everyone.  For the most part, Chris was able to engage everyone, either by audio or use of the concurrent text chat. This first session was mostly a get to know each other and get comfortable with the virtual platform.  Next session, sometime in February,  there are plans to do some group work.  One idea suggested by Chris, is that some of us bring in a “piece of work” that we are stuck on or can’t easily move forward. We will then use the Charrette Procotol to allow us to “kick up” the level of performance.  I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how that works and of course will post about it afterwards.

Today (Monday, December 12) the Advanced Programming PLC holds it first session, again via a Zoom meeting. Led by Sunset High School’s Jason Galbraith, this PLC will cover a variety different programming languages and environments that can be taught to middle and high school students.  Your truly will again be participating and I will post a summary later this week.

Well, that’s all I have to say about CS education for today, but stay tuned; I will continue to provide updates about any past and post CSEdWeek events.