One of the standards in the ISTE Standards for Educators is about how educators and students can use collaborative tools to expand students’ authentic, real-world learning experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams and students, locally and globally. One way that computer science educators and students can collaborate is by using software sharing sites like GitLab and GitHub. These sites provide ways for anybody – not just students and educators – to share software. Although these sites are useful in the classroom, I am more interested in tools that enable computer science educators to share their best practices for learning experiences with their students.
I came across a site specifically focused on connecting computer science educators – the Computer Science Teachers Association. The main CSTA site provides resources for computer science K-12 educators and students. However, I am looking for resources at the college level. In navigating through the CSTA site, I found a Puget Sound chapter (PSCSTA) that includes educators from universities and community colleges. A useful resource that I discovered in one of the PCSTA Google groups mentioned free professional development from Oracle Academy.
The Oracle Academy site provides resources for college level teachers and students to learn about a variety of data science topics. I am particularly interested in how I can use Oracle Academy resources for my Database Modeling and Design course. The Oracle Academy site requires approval from somebody with signing authority at my institution to get access to all of the resources found on the site. I contacted my dean about having our institution join Oracle Academy and my dean turned my request around in 24-hours. I am now the lead instructor for my institution on the Oracle Academy account!
Armed with the Oracle Academy account, I have now gone deeper into resources available at Oracle Academy website. Here are some of the resources I have discovered so far (all of which require an institution account):
- Comprehensive curriculum
- Online platform using the Oracle cloud platform
- Data Science bootcamps – with 6 independent lessons
- Education bytes – short-format, flexible learning modules on database technologies
- Workshops in a box – everything needed for big data work on the cloud
I have only explored a small percentage of the resources available at Oracle Academy, but I have found a treasure trove of learning material, as well as forums to communicate with a worldwide community of computer science educators specializing on database technology. A wonderful find for my database courses!
References
- ISTE Standards for Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
- Juliani, A. (2014, January 23). 10 Commandments of Innovative Teaching – A.J. Juliani. Retrieved from http://ajjuliani.com/10-commandments-innovative-teaching/
- Office of Educational Technology. Future Ready: Establishing a Professional Learning Ecosystem. (2016, April 05). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TMbeqn7NlyI
- Requard, A. (2018, February 12). #ObserveMe: Improving Our Practice as Professionals. Retrieved from https://appsolutelyapril.com/2018/02/12/observeme-improving-our-practice-as-professionals/
- Trust, T., Carpenter, J. P., & Krutka, D. G. (2017). Moving beyond silos: Professional learning networks in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education,35, 1-11. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2017.06.001
Nat, Oracle sounds like it has some awesome resources for you as a CS educator. I am also grateful that you shared the CSTA resource. I was just talking with other elementary teachers in my district and were talking about the need for a list of resources for teachers. This seems like a cool place to look for some ideas or resources to use in the classroom! Thanks for sharing!
Nat, what a great resource you found in Oracle Academy! It was interesting to hear about the lack of resources and learning network for college-level computer science teachers. I hope that both Oracle Academy and CSTA prove to be helpful to you. It seems like there is a lot of need (and opportunity!) in this space. Your students will undoubtedly benefit from your efforts to connect them to experts in the field and real life development scenarios.
Nat,
It is nice that you find the resources of Oracle Academy which can help both teachers and students to learn about science topics. I am so glad you start to get it working in your school. I think it will benefit you and your students on computer science learning by exploring more resources in the future.
Nat,
I loved the research you found on building a community for computer science educators! The video was inspiring and the statement, “They can use computer science and technology to create and expand their ideas; it opens up a new world for them.” was extremely powerful. You took initiative in your school and saw an opportunity to not only grow your own knowledge, but find a professional network of educators that can help you learn and give you strategies/ideas on different ways to enhance your students learning. Great work Nat and I am excited to hear more on what you find within Oracle Academy!