Developing the centre
We have been making progress towards establishing the centre over the last nine months or so. In October I was appointed director, and in December we were awarded funding by Google for a one-year research project on culturally relevant computing teaching, following on from a project at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. We are uniquely positioned in that the research team for the centre straddles both organisations. They complement each other well: the University of Cambridge is one of the highest-ranking universities in the world, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation has a compelling mission around empowering all young people with the computing skills and knowledge they need in today’s world.
We are officially launching!
On 20 July 2022 we held an in-person afternoon event in Cambridge, UK, to celebrate the establishment of this research centre, and to support our long-term goal of creating a community with fellow researchers, teachers, and other education practitioners. We are thrilled that Professor Mark Guzdial, who many readers will be familiar with, was there to cut the ribbon!
Research and you
In the busy lives that teachers live, the word ‘research’ may conjure up an image of out-of-touch academics buried in books in stuffy libraries. Teachers will probably not have time to read long research articles or engage with new theories, which is one reason this magazine always includes some accessible insights into emerging research. In our research in the centre, we want to make sure that firstly, we work with teachers and schools directly when implementing and evaluating research projects, but also that we publish results in a number of different formats as promptly as we can, without a paywall. We look forward to working with a large community of teachers; even if you can’t attend the launch, do sign up to be part of our mailing list at computingeducationresearch.org.
