The Virtual Pivot: Transitioning Computational Thinking PD for Middle and High School Content Area Teachers

In 2018 and 2019, Infusing Computing offered face-to-face summer PD workshops to support middle and high school teachers in integrating computational thinking into their classrooms through week-long summer PD workshops and academic-year support. Due to COVID-19, 151 teachers attended the Summer 2020 PD workshops in a week-long virtual conference format. In this paper, we describe Virtual Pivot: Infusing Computing, which employed emerging technology tools, pre-PD training, synchronous and asynchronous sessions, Snap! pair programming, live support, and live networking. Drawing on findings from participant interviews and post-PD surveys, we argue that three categories of changes (digital tools, formats, and supports for teacher engagement and collaboration) were effective in increasing participants' self-efficacy in teaching CT, supporting collaboration, and enabling participants to design CT-infused content-area lessons. We conclude by discussing how elements of this virtual PD can be replicated to increase teacher and student access to CT practices in middle and high school classrooms