Prior work has shown a lack of quality professional development (PD) programs specifically targeted for early elementary teachers to improve their knowledge and self-efficacy around teaching coding in their classrooms. Whereas traditional PD programs in this area have relied upon in-person workshops, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the need to…

Despite the growing popularity of digital teaching portfolios, research has remained focused on outcomes associated with "creating" digital teaching portfolios instead of examining how they can be used to effectively "assess" what teachers know, especially when it comes to educational technology. One barrier to using portfolios…

Broadly speaking, the maker movement is characterized by people who engage in the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of physical artifacts, and who share both the process of making and their physical products with the broader community of makers. There is growing sentiment that elements of the maker movement have the capability of…

While social media use has become nearly ubiquitous, there have been few efforts to study how teacher educators prepare their students to responsibly use and teach about social media. This study analyzes 71 students' survey data, reflections, and class activities from education courses across three universities to better understand the successes…

Computational thinking (CT) is a process and skill set that is being expected of our students after their K-12 education. The issue is that most teachers do not know how to build CT expertise within their students. To address this challenge, we discuss two separate course designs within an initial teacher licensure course on educational…

Nearly one in three students in the United States today is negatively impacted by bullying. Teachers can play a critical role in stopping bullying-related violence, but many struggle with how to engage students in difficult conversations. Traditional classroom-based pedagogy used to teach communication skills (e.g., modeling & role-play) is…