Wyoming Innovations in Learning

Session description: NWCCD (Sheridan and Gillette Colleges) is in the third year of revamping its computer science department with dual emphasis on the IT and web development tracks. The focus is on helping students build enduring job skills while also developing the life-long learning skills needed to stay current in the fast-paced computer industry. Attendees will be briefed on the “low friction” approach NWCCD uses to reduce cost and time barriers for entry-level programming students. Students learn using free cloud-based tools that impose minimal hardware requirements. All classes can be completed with a modest laptop and a good internet connection. No IT resources or  instruction time are required to install/update software. “The hard drive crash ate my homework” disasters are eliminated.   Attendees will also receive an overview of the unique Sheridan public/private partnership that is driving classroom innovation and teacher professional development for K-14 CSS education.

Session Outcomes: Upon completion of this session, attendees will be able to:
1. Understand and articulate the differences between the traditional high school or college computer science teaching environment (hardware and software) and NWCCD’s low-friction environment.
2.  Understand and appreciate why we focus much of our programming instruction on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, “the languages of the web”.
3. Understand some of the risks and rewards of moving student work to a cloud-based learning environment.