The speakers Dr. Katrina and Mr. Bryan welcomed the attendees warmly before going deep to the topic. After that Mr. Bryan talked about some webinars tips. Also he mentioned that at the end of the webinar all attendees can have the opportunity to get their certificate. Mr. Bryan welcomed Dr. Katrina where she started to introduce her self. The first question they started by is "Why computer science?" It's an important question for Dr. Katrina because when she started to teach in college computer science she found that there is a huge gap between grade 12 and college and especially in computer science and from here Dr. Katrina wanted to talk about computer science and that it should be taught from school in order to prepare them. Dr. Katrina believed that its better to teach students when they are young because they are as sponges and it will be easy for them to take the skills of computer science. Students will get more engaged and they will be willing to study more and more by computer science. Teaching computer science is such as teaching them a new language where we begin teaching them from small ages because it will be more easy for them to learn a new skill. Mr. Bryan also reflected on the majority of the schools that don't teach computer science. In USA 40% of the schools don't teach computer science and 90% of the parents want their children to learn computer science, but this is in USA and not in all countries. Dr. Katrina talked about the STEM problem is in computer science and that 58% of all new jobs in STEM are in computing however 8% of STEM graduates come from computer science, so there is a huge need for the students to be educated with computer science but either they are not having the opportunity or they are not being interested. Dr. Katrina also talked about a topic that is interesting and that she likes which is what subjects do students like a lot? The studies showed that students like computer science and art the most. Mr. Bryan announced that every 21st century child should have a chance to learn about algorithms, how to make an app, or how the internet works. Just like they learn about the photosynthesis, digestive system and electricity, because for here our world is moving through. Children have been born in a world that is full of I Pads, that exist from the past 10 years. So these are things that children need to be comfortable with and understand it and not just be the consumers of this material. Also students need to know how to decide how to use it and to be creator in creating new applications.
Dr. Katrina re-explained why at the early ages with the young students, they engaged introducing young students with computer science because it's a foundational and we want to build this foundational. The instructors shed the light on, "Where Should We Start?"-Strategies, which are Identify key Curricular topics, Design activities that promote the skills acquired in CS through non-academic instruction, the SAMR MODEL OF INTEGRATION, and centers and hands on learning opportunities. The key curricular topics such as: Sequencing in Math can be substituted with CS activities. Designing activities that promote skills acquired in CS such as, opportunities that promote team work, offer puzzles and brain teaser and provide for them activites where they can express them selves with something creativity.
They talked about the SAMR MODEL OF INTEGRATION where it's divided into two categories which is transform that includes: radiation and modification ( MR) and enhancement that includes augmentation and substitution (AS).
At the end they presented examples about Literacy and encoding and it appeared that there isn't alot of them that are founded around.
