Person behind ThirtyTwo Training

Dr. Marja-Ilona Koski completed her MSc degree in Theoretical Computer Science and Pedagogy at the Univeristy of Helsinki and defended her PhD thesis in Science and Technology Education at the Technical University of Delft.

Marja-Ilona has been teaching Computer Science (CS) and Technology in many different settings and formats for more than 10 years. She is an experienced trainer and coach; specialised in adult education in general, as well as training teachers, in-service and pre-service.

In her work, Marja-Ilona focuses on finding the connections between CS and Technology education and the other subjects; the more traditional ones. She designs, produces, tests, and improves learning content for in class, blended and online education with this in mind. Her heart beats for developing CS and Technology learning activities to be used in any classroom, regardless the technology available. She advocates for creating teaching resources which don’t use laptops or tablets to start technology learning in the preschool and early childhood education, and including no-tech and screenless activities into technology classes for the older students as well. This doesn’t mean that she is against technology, quite the opposite, frankly.

When she is not behind her desk creating new ways to teach, she can be found giving trainings, presentations or workshops on Computational Thinking, Computer Science and Technology Innovation content and instructional design methodologies as well as 21st skills development education. Or presenting her latest work in Technology/Design & Technology education conferences.

Marja-Ilona is always up for a chat about CS curriculum development and how to improve technology education in general. To connect, please click one of the icons on the sidebar or use the Contact form.

Cheers, Dr. MI

Lecturing, lecturing, lecturing…

P.S. If you are interested in reading more academic publications, here are two to get started:

2014 PhD

Concept learning in primary Science and Technology education.

• Qualitative studies focused on concept knowledge of in-service teachers, student teachers and students.
• Designed a model to improve teachers’ Science and Technology instructional design and methods used in teaching.

2008 MSc

Why using robots to teach Computer Science can be successful.

• Theoretical reflection to Andragogy and Minimalism.
• Qualitative studies focused on teaching Computer Science to univeristy students using Robots.