Less than two weeks until the annual Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Conference. As far as I am concerned this is the most important professional development conference for computer science educators in K-12. SIGCSE is great for university CS educators and it’s valuable for K-12 as well but the focus is really higher education. ISTE, going on now in Orlando, is huge and there are valuable sessions for CS educators but it it really a more general technology in education conference. CSTA is all about K-12 computer science education.
After missing it last year, the first CSTA Annual Conference I have missed, I am looking forward to being in New Orleans in two weeks. I have been looking through the conference program. There are a lot of sessions!
As you might expect, there are a lot of sessions involving artificial intelligence. I’m hoping to have some conversations about AI with attendees. While some of the people I hope to talk with are actively promoting AI in CS education I am even more looking forward to talking to AI skeptics. I wonder what the worries and concerns are among active teachers. I hope people will find me in the hallways but I will be looking people out as well.
There are also a number of session on ethics (happy to see that), cyber security (surprised not to see sessions on the new AP Cybersecurity course), and physical computing. Aside, I love physical computing and wish I had used it more in my own teaching.
I saw several sessions particularly related to rural schools and students. That’s huge and very exciting. Rural areas don’t get as much attention as they need.
I don’t know what sessions I will attend. As a retired teacher I don’t have particular needs beyond personal growth. I will be sharing what I see and learn both on this blog and on BlueSky. (I don’t use Twitter/X these days). If you want to follow I am at Alfred Thompson (@alfredtwo.bsky.social) — Bluesky
If you at CSTA I hope you will say hello. People are the main reason I am attending this year.
1 comment:
We're in the same boat and I also plan on blogging. Looking forward to seeing you there.
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