Despite repeated warnings from K-12 online learning scholars, media, and U.S. government bodies about the need for teacher readiness in the face of school disruptions like COVID-19, teacher education programs have largely fallen short in preparing educators for effective online and blended teaching during extended school closures. In this paper,…

With the growth of blended teaching comes a need to support teachers that are shifting their instruction to this mode of teaching. Coaching is a form of professional development that is growing in K-12 institutions. However, research of coaching specifically intended to support blended teaching practices is lacking. This phenomenological…

If there was a bright side to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly related to education, it was the massive and rapid introduction of educational technologies to scaffold teaching and learning. Most notably, within teacher education, this included extended reality (XR) technologies to supplement or replace face-to-face field experiences. With the…

Cybersecurity educational efforts are urgently needed to introduce young people to the profession and give students and teachers cybersecurity knowledge to protect themselves from increasing cybercrime. In this study, 56 elementary preservice teachers participated in a 3-hour intervention within a technology integration course that introduced them…

K-12 teachers and students are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and mostly ill-prepared to deal with them. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased these risks because of the reliance on digital technology in education and increased free time young children and adolescents spend online. Simultaneously, the U.S. is facing an extreme shortage of…

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, some teacher education programs started maker education initiatives to integrate the tools, practices, and mindset of the maker movement into their curricula. These efforts came to a grinding halt at the beginning of the pandemic due to the sudden transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Post-ERT, educators have…

Computational thinking (CT) involves breaking a problem into smaller components and solving it using algorithmic thinking and abstraction. CT is no longer exclusively for computer scientists but for everyone. While CT does not necessarily require programming, learning programming to enhance CT skills at a young age can help shape the next…

This paper describes a collaborative project between a district curriculum specialist and university-based researchers to provide on-going support to social studies teachers as they transitioned to digital learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. We developed an asynchronous, on-line and self-guided professional learning project to support teachers…