Online Professional Development for Exploring Computer Science

教育发展中心提出了一个开发在线专业发展（PD）研讨会的项目，该项目将为更大、更多样化的高中教师群体做好准备，以实施成功的计算机科学探索（ECS）课程，从而使ECS能够为更大、更多样化的学生群体所接受。目前，ECS PD要求在连续两个夏季的每个夏季进行为期一周的面对面培训，此外，在学年期间还需要四次面对面的ECS研讨会。许多教师，特别是农村地区的教师，无法参加这些讲习班。该项目——ECS PD Online——将为这四次季度面对面会议提供一个急需的替代方案，利用在线环境的力量创造丰富的学习体验，这与ECS的教学方法和扩大CS参与的承诺密切相关，同时为教师参加培训的时间和方式提供额外的灵活性。为了确保全国各地的ECS教师在教授ECS的第一年都能获得持续的专业发展，该项目将(1)建立并测试三个异步在线PD版本的季度面对面研讨会（第四个已在之前的资助下建立）；(2)开发和试点以ECS技术内容为重点的额外在线活动/资源；(3)开发和测试ECS在线引导者培训课程和系统；(4)开展研究，以了解在线PD支持ECS教师学习的有效性；(5)将ECS PD Online嵌入到全国教师可用的ECS专业发展服务组合中。该项目工作基于ECS学习领域的研究，有效的课程开发，以及在线专业发展的基本设计考虑。该领域公认的专家将为项目团队提供关于研究、产品和过程的频繁和持续的反馈，以确保项目的目标和目的得以实现。

The Education Development Center proposes a project to develop online professional development (PD) workshops that will prepare a larger and more diverse group of high school teachers to implement the successful Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum, thereby making ECS accessible to a larger and more diverse group of students. Currently ECS PD requires a week of face-to-face training in each of two consecutive summers, in addition, it requires four quarterly in-person ECS workshops during the academic year. Many teachers, particularly those in rural areas, are not able to attend those workshops. This project--ECS PD Online--will provide a much-needed alternative to these four quarterly in-person meetings, leveraging the power of the online environment to create rich learning experiences that are closely aligned with the ECS pedagogical approach and commitment to broadening participation in CS, while providing additional flexibility regarding when and how teachers take part in training.To ensure that ECS teachers across the nation have access to ongoing professional development during their first year of teaching ECS the project will (1) build and test three asynchronous online PD versions of the quarterly in-person workshops (a fourth having been built under previous funding); (2) develop and pilot additional online activities/resources focused on ECS technical content; (3) develop and test an ECS Online Facilitator training course and system; (4) conduct research in order to understand the promise of effectiveness of online PD for supporting ECS teacher learning; and (5) embed ECS PD Online into the portfolio of ongoing ECS professional development services available to teachers nationwide. The project work is grounded in research in the field of ECS learning, and effective curriculum development, as well as in essential design considerations for online professional development. Recognized experts in the field will provide the project team with frequent and ongoing feedback on research, products, and processes to ensure that the project's goals and objectives are achieved.