Maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resources for teacher and student use in technology-rich learning environments. (ISTE, 2011)
During my master’s work at SPU, I took the time to explore learning technologies offered outside of my institution for computer science instruction. My school librarian introduced me to the Open Education Resources (OER) available to any instructor. I found useful resources that I could leverage for my SQL, Java, and C# programming courses.
The Java resource was particularly useful in helping me solve a problem I had with my lesson plan for my CSD 230 mobile programming course. This course focuses on programming Android devices. My original lesson plan had me diving directly into Android Studio, the integrated development environment used to build Android applications. However, many of my students wanted to brush up on their Java programming skills before diving into specific classes and interfaces used to program Android devices. I had considered introducing another textbook that just focused on Java programming, but it did not seem a good use of student money to buy a textbook that would only be used in the first week of the course. The OER Commons web site let me to a W3Schools Java tutorial that provided me a digital resource that did not require students to buy another textbook.
The Java tutorial provided programming exercises that quickly brought my students up to speed on the Java programming skills they would need when using Android Studio. The tutorial also provided automated assessment that fed into the Canvas Learning management system. I was the first to adopt this technology at my institution, so I had to work with the IT staff on integrating the tool into Canvas. I am also responsible for updating and maintaining the tool as part of my CSD 230 course. I have now used this tool several times, fine-tuning the order and amount of exercises used for each course. I am exploring the use of other tutorials from OER Commons to use in all of my programming courses.
References
- International Society for Technology in Education. (ISTE; 2011). Standards for Coaches. https://id.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-C_PDF.pdf.