Summer Resource Roundup: Computer Science and Professional Learning
Professional development — it rarely inspires excitement. But if PD is relevant, fun, and hands-on, it can spark creativity and remind educators just why they started teaching in the first place! With that in mind, we’ve been exploring the intersection of CS and good PD on our blog all summer, researching and writing about Why Game Design Is an Awesome Introduction to Computer Science and Tools for Creating an Inclusive CS Classroom.
Through conversations we’ve had with teachers and experts, we’ve discovered a bunch of practical and fun resources. Below are some of our favorite articles, podcasts, books, and more:
Websites
- NCWIT Promising Practices: A compilation of research-based strategies for engaging women in tech. Each set of strategies revolves around a central research question such as, “How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way?” and “How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning?”

- CS Teaching Tips: Simple, readable tip sheets for all kinds of CS teaching practices, from “Reducing Bias” to “Pair Programming.”
Podcasts
- The Teach Better Podcast, Podcast Episode 52 “Teams and Game Design with Walker White”: An interview with the director of Cornell’s Game Design Initiative. This episode delves into building student teams and feedback loops.
- Zulama Podcast on Equity in Computer Science Education: An interview with Leigh Ann DeLyser, a former CS teacher and current director of Education and Research at CSNYC.
Books
- Connected Gaming: What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy by Yasmin Kafai and Quinn Burke: An exploration into how making video games, as well as playing them, can help us develop core competencies like creativity and collaboration.
- Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Ageby Kurt Squire: This book looks at how students who are used to playing video games can participate in digital media through learning to make original video games.
Videos
- Twelve-year-old app developer Thomas Suarez’s Ted Talk: Find out Thomas’s approach to teaching himself and his peers to become programmers.
- Linda Liukas’s Ted Talk: Liukas, founder of Rails Girls, provides insightful ideas about how code is a universal language for creativity and self-expression.
Twitter Edchats
- #EthicalCS: Spearheaded by Kara Chesal, senior director of strategic partnerships at #CS4ALLNYC, and Ed Saber, a CS educator, this edchat takes place Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST. Educators, computer scientists, and education policy experts come together to discuss how to make the field of CS more ethical.
- #InfyEdChat: InfosysFoundationUSA invites education thought leaders to host these bi-monthly edchats. Topics range from “How to Start a Makerspace in the New School Year” to “Teaching CS Away From the Computer.”Here’s a guide to getting started with edchats if you haven’t tried it before!

Newsletters
- CSTA Newsletter: Connect with fellow educators who teach computer science, and hear from innovators in CS curriculum, tools, and professional learning.
- EdSurge Newsletter: Find out what’s new in edtech.
Want more resources like these? Sign up for Zulama’s Newsletter, too!

Originally published at zulama.com on July 27, 2017.
