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Technology can assist instructional designers and teachers in meeting the needs of learners in traditional classrooms and virtual course environments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers and instructional designers began looking for resources they could use for hybrid and online course delivery. Many found that the cost of some technology tools was well outside of their financial means to assist them in meeting student learning outcomes. However, some digital tools provide free access for educators and are beneficial to students. In this article, the authors shared five tools they have used in developing and teaching online and traditional technology courses at the college level. They share how they used a learning management system tool, a collaboration tool, a search engine tool, a content creation tool, and a content sharing tool to engage students in their courses. As teachers look for alternatives to use as they move content from classroom teaching to online instruction, this article can help them consider the recommended tools for instruction. Teachers, instructors, and instructional designers may explore the free digital tools in this article and do further research on other digital tools to support student learning in their disciplines.
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Exclusive versus Mixed, General versus CTE: Building a New Taxonomy of STEMM High School Teachers
There has been a recent expansion of high school course offerings in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical/health (STEMM) fields. The large span of courses now offered in STEMM are delineated across STEMM-general courses (i.e., chemistry) and STEMM-CTE courses (i.e., information technology). Little is known, however, about who are the teachers in these courses. This brief addresses this void by developing a taxonomy of the STEMM teaching workforce using statewide data from Maryland. Through this taxonomy, we examine the number of STEMM teachers by whether they teach general versus CTE STEMM courses, and whether they do so exclusively or across both types. We then examine what teaching courseloads look like across these groupings, as well as by qualifications and demographics. The aim of this brief is to understand not only the landscape of who teaches which STEMM courses, but also to identify disparities. This can help inform research on STEMM courses and teachers as well as policy, practice, and professional development.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2101163
- PAR ID:
- 10424430
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Education Human Resources
- ISSN:
- 2562-783X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This research WIP paper describes computer science undergraduate students’ perceptions of career pathways and becoming K-12 computer science teachers. Computer science (CS) education has become critical with the rapid pace of technological development to better prepare students for national technology and economic competitiveness and security. According to Code.org, 57.5% of U.S. public high schools offer foundational computer science courses in 2023; unfortunately, access to the courses remains unequal and maintains wide disparities by race/ethnicity and social class. For instance, Hispanics are 1.4 times less likely to take foundational CS courses compared to their white and Asian peers, and students with low socio-economic status are underrepresented in the overall population. The shortage of CS teachers is one of the significant barriers to why minoritized groups of students do not have equal access to learning CS. Various programmatic efforts have been implemented to address the gap, including the recruitment of undergraduate students who will earn bachelor’s degrees in computing. This approach has been considered innovative in building a new pipeline for producing highly qualified CS teachers with the ability to transform computing education and the CS teacher community rather than training in-service teachers certified in other disciplines to receive credentials to teach CS. Studies report that CS degree recipients opt for industry roles and exhibit disinterest in alternative career pathways, such as teaching because they perceive this profession as having lower salaries and unfavorable aspects associated with the job. However, we need a more prosperous and in-depth understanding of why CS degree holders consider industry jobs of greater importance rather than teaching, which would reduce the disparity in K-12 computing education. As a first attempt to better understand the perceptions of computer science undergraduate students at an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), we collected qualitative data (i.e., student artifacts) in a course offered in the computer science department. Driven by social cognitive career and FIT-choice theory, our findings from the preliminary analysis indicate that CS undergraduate students at an HSI acknowledged the importance of K-12 CS teachers in their communities, but at the same time, they have more concerns about the underpayment and undervaluation of the job. They have shown a conflict between their perceptions of teaching CS and their own career aspirations as CS teachers. These preliminary findings draw attention to the importance of uncovering common career plans among CS undergraduate students.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2022-0006
