Infusing Computing: Moving a Service Oriented Internship Program Online
Amy Isvik, Veronica Cateté, Dave Bell, Isabella Gransbury, Tiffany M. Barnes · 2021
As virtual conferencing technology becomes more common and situations make in-person experiences difficult or unsafe to host, the need for online internships to support sustained participation in computing increases. We investigate the problem of how to provide a meaningful experiential education program in a virtual environment and serve geographically dispersed participants through our experience with moving a service oriented internship program online. Our computer science internship program leverages high school interns' programming skills and classroom experience to assist teachers in developing computing-infused lessons for their classrooms. Using a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities, we trained our interns in how to make these lessons and helped interns build community amongst themselves. Our interns created over 90 lessons during the summer and helped over 50 teachers create their own lessons at an infusing computing professional development.