Thanks for viewing our video.  Working with this global community of CSEd PhD students has been one of the most interesting and rewarding experiences of my professional career.   In our effort to understand CS Ed grad student pathways, we have had the privilege of not only hearing their stories and passion behind wanting to be future leaders but also have been able to partner with many of these folks in doing the work of this project.  Over the course of the week, please share in our discussion about this community of future leaders and how they can best be supported.  Share with us your own experiences, observations and ideas and challenge us with your questions.  For more information visit our website at www.csedgrad.org.

Hi-

It’s wonderful to see projects that connect different people from all around the world like this. I don't know a lot about the CS Ed space: How many CS Education programs are there worldwide? And how many CS Ed grad students are there? And are the career paths for these students mostly academic, or are there opportunities in industry as well?

Patrick:  Thanks for joining the conversation. Those are three of the critical question our project is attempting to understand.

How many CSEd programs are there -- very very few.  CSEd-related PhDs are awarded primarily from CS and Education departments and schools.  Students and their advisors are often challenged to navigate a pathway made difficult due to the lack of dedicated programs.  

We have over 200 graduate students that have joined our CSEdGrad community.  What percent of graduate students that are focused on CS education research we don't know.

A current effort underway, as represented by the mind map that is being developed by an CSEdGrad international team of graduate students, is recognizing and documenting the breadth of opportunities and career pathways both within academics and beyond.

We would love to hear from others as they join this discussion as to their observations associated with this growing field.

Thanks for this inspiring work.  In what ways does your network connect with the crucial need to develop more K-12 CS teachers?  It is clearly a different problem than developing more computer scientists.  How many pre-service programs are there that specialize in developing K-12 CS educators?  In Georgia, large numbers of CS teachers are recruited from industry and enter the classroom with very little pedagogical knowledge.  Mark Guzdial was instrumental in working to increase the numbers of AP CS teachers in GA.  However, with the push to implement CS education in all schools, from elementary up, we need to find creative solutions to developing teachers at all levels who can effectively tackle the content, teach effectively and inspire the students.

Marion:  Thanks for your kind words.  A motivation for this project was an appreciation for future leaders that would lead pre- and in-service teacher training programs, do the research on efficacious and equitable computing curricula,  and generally support the scaling of computing education.  Mark Guzdial was influential in our recognition of this issue as we had the chance to work together for many years as part of ECEP.  As to the number of pre-service programs - I am not sure an exact number is known but it is limited and insufficient to support the growth of computing education.

QUESTION OF THE DAY - Does your university have a focused graduate program for Computing Education? If so what school is it in? If not, are there any plans for the future?

Love the global collaboration. I am curious to know the similarities and differences in CS education and how do teacher pathways differ in various countries. 

Khyati:  Thanks for the interesting question. We are beginning to see what is different and the same for CS education graduate programs but are not investigating how CS education and teacher pathways differ globally. Through our ECEP project   https://ecepalliance.org/   we are exploring the enormous variations among US states. I can only imagine that it gets more varied internationally.

Global collaboration is priceless throughout all levels of education. When global collaboration takes place, great learning also takes place. Powerful! Thank you for sharing!

Final Question:  CSEdGrad is a two year research project.  One of our findings is the value and interest in a sustained community.  What ideas do you have for the future of CSEdGrad?  This conversation will continue at a virtual meeting on July 14th.  For more information register on our website csedgrad.org    Thanks to everyone for viewing our video and joining the discussion.