In this interview with Carter Zenke, we discuss Carter’s pedagogical approach that centers playfulness, creativity, and purpose; lessons learned teaching CS50 to over one million students; balancing free exploration with learning content; designing opportunities for getting into CS; the benefits of watching recordings of your own teaching; helping educators find their “why”; and so much more.

Click here for this episode’s show notes.

How to Get Started with Computer Science Education

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00:00 Intro

00:50 Carter introducing himself

01:27 How do you grade millions of students?

02:03 How Carter got into CS education

04:11 Playfulness, creativity, and purposefulness in education

06:01 How to center playfulness, creativity, and purposefulness

07:05 How does this compare/contrast with makerspaces?

09:20 Why does these concepts resonate with Carter?

09:51 Why don't more educators focus on these concepts?

11:20 When wouldn't Carter use these foci?

13:26 How does Carter design introductory CS experiences?

14:54 Helping students find their "why" in education

17:56 How informal learning informed Carter's approach to formal learning

19:09 How Carter iterates on curricula

20:44 Are there available archives of course content?

21:48 How Carter iterates on his own abilities

25:04 What has surprised Carter about his work?

25:56 Curiosity in the classroom

27:32 How Carter prevents burnout

28:14 Recommendations for improving equity and inclusion

28:49 What Carter wishes there was more research on

30:19 Something a listener could help with

31:11 What is a good educator?

32:37 How to connect with Carter and CS50

32:52 Outro