More opportunities for teacher training needed

By Phillip Snalune, Codio, CEO

Posted by Hannah Oakman | August 22, 2016 | Teaching

• #teacher-training
• #codio
• #professional-development
• #phillip-snalune

The emerging digital and computer science skills gap has been well documented. Microsoft UK recently quoted that the UK would need an 745,000 additional workers. Codio is already active in helping to extend access to CS education. We provide free access to teachers taking the British Computer Society CAS Certificate. 

There are many excellent computer science teachers in the UK, and the Computing at School organisation has led excellent work through a network of master teachers to support professional development. But more is needed. 

Professional Development around the world 

In the US, the CS4ALL initiative has pledged funds to support teachers to be trained or retrained in the next 10 years. Private dollars are supporting stipends for nearly 5,000 teachers and a training programme. It sees the provision of professional development opportunities to teachers as critical to the success of computer science education. 

How to use Codio for professional development 

If you are a CAS member, Codio is now free to use for professional development. Codio combines theory and instructional teaching resources with live code files to illustrate concepts. Miles Berry, principal lecturer in computing education at the University of Roehampton and a member of CAS’s board said: “CAS warmly welcomes Codio’s extension of this support to all our members, as well as their willingness to become a part of the community, not just a supplier of technology.”

Codio at over 100 schools and universities in the UK 

“Codio’s online IDE makes it easy for teachers to develop their coding skills in a wide range of languages, without the need to install or manage compilers or interpreters locally, whilst still having access to a full range of development tools. The integration of teaching resources and automatic unit testing tailored to assessing programming makes this particularly appealing in an education context,” continues Miles Berry.

Learn more on how to join for free: codio.com/blog/codio-free-cas