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Computer Science (CS) curricula are being adopted worldwide. However, the lack of prior teaching training within this area means that we have an urgent need to provide teacher professional development. Best practice teacher professional development motivates us to construct interactive and sustainable models of professional development. However, there are challenges in doing this at the scale that we need and with the resources that are available. In this paper, we describe an ecosystem-based approach to supporting teacher professional development, aligned with best practices and with teachers' and schools' needs. An ecosystem approach operates under the coordination of a governance model, features a central hub and conceptualises the relationships of the organisations as a network. Ecosystems are underpinned by value co-creation, shared logic and can be non-geographical. We believe an ecosystem view of a teacher professional development program supports sustainability, authenticity and flexibility in how teachers engage with professional development, positioning teachers as co-contributors.

Although teamwork has been identified as an essential skill for Computer Science (CS) graduates, these skills are identified as lacking by industry employers, which suggests a need for more proactive measures to teach and assess teamwork. In one CS course, students worked in teams to create a wiki solution to problem-based questions. Through a case-study approach, we test a developed teamwork framework, using manual content analysis and sentiment analysis, to determine if the framework can provide insight into students' teamwork behavior and to determine if the wiki task encouraged students to collaborate, share knowledge, and self-adopt teamwork roles. Analysis revealed the identification of both active and cohesive teams, disengaged students, and particular roles and behaviors that were lacking. Furthermore, sentiment analysis revealed that teams moved through positive and negative emotions over the course of developing their solution, toward satisfaction. The findings demonstrate the value of the detailed analysis of online teamwork. However, we propose the need for automated measures that provide real-time feedback to assist educators in the fair and efficient assessment of teamwork. We present a prototype system and recommendations, based on our analysis, for automated teamwork analysis tools.

To support teachers to implement Computer Science curricula into classrooms from the very first year of school, teachers, schools and organisations seek quality curriculum resources to support implementation and teacher professional development. Until now, many Computer Science resources and outreach initiatives have targeted K-12 school-age children, with the intention to engage children and increase interest, rather than to formally teach concepts and skills. What is the educational quality of existing Computer Science resources and to what extent are they suitable for classroom learning and teaching? In this paper, an assessment framework is presented to evaluate the quality of online Computer Science resources. Further, a semi-systematic review of available online Computer Science resources was conducted to evaluate resources available for classroom learning and teaching and to identify gaps in resource availability, using the Australian curriculum as a case study analysis. The findings reveal a predominance of quality resources, however, a number of critical gaps were identified. This paper provides recommendations and guidance for the development of new and supplementary resources and future research.

This paper reports on an observation of 70 university students' use of their personal social network site (SNS), Facebook, over a 22-week university study period. The study sought to determine the extent that university students use their personal SNSs to support learning by exploring frequencies of academic-related content and topics being discussed. The findings reported in the paper reveal that students used their personal SNSs to discuss academic-related topics, particularly to share experiences about doing work or procrastinating, course content and grades. Mapping academic-related activity frequencies over the 22 weeks illustrated that around certain points in the academic calendar, particularly times when students' assignments or exams were nearing, academic activity increased, suggesting that SNSs may play an important role in a students' academic experience. The findings suggest that many students today may be leaving traces of their academic journey online and that academics should be aware that these interactions may also exist in their own students' online social spaces. This study offers opportunities for future research, particularly research which seeks to determine differences between individuals' academic activity, the extent that intensive SNSs use supports or distracts students from learning, as well as the extent to which universities should or can harness SNSs to improve the student experience.

England and Australia have introduced new learning areas, teaching computer science to children from the first year of school. This is a significant milestone that also raises a number of big challenges: the preparation of teachers and the development of resources" at a national scale." Curriculum change is not easy for teachers, in any context, and to ensure teachers are supported, scaled solutions are required. One educational approach that has gained traction for delivering content to large-scale audiences are massively open online courses (MOOCs); however, little is known about what constitutes effective MOOC design, particularly within professional development contexts. To prepare teachers in Australia, we decided to ride the wave of MOOCs, developing a MOOC to deliver free computing content and pedagogy to teachers with the integration of social media to support knowledge exchange and resource building. The MOOC was designed to meet teacher needs, allowing for flexibility, ad-hoc interactions, support and the open sharing of resources. In this paper, we describe the process of developing our initiative, participant engagement and experiences, so that others encountering similar changes and reforms may learn from our experience.