Joanne Roberts

Joanne Roberts has established herself as a transformative educator at the University of Canterbury Computer Science Education Research Group, where she combines her passion for programming with culturally responsive teaching methods. As a Content Writer and educator, she dedicates 2-3 days per week teaching programming in te reo Māori at Māori immersion schools, making computer science education more accessible and culturally relevant. Her work includes developing educational resources and teaching materials for the CS Unplugged project, which helps introduce computational thinking concepts to young learners. After discovering coding and computer science by chance, she has made it her mission to demystify programming for young people, showing them that computer science is an accessible and viable career path. Her approach focuses on making programming fun and engaging while breaking down stereotypes about who can succeed in the field. Through her work with the Teaching Computational Thinking course at the University of Canterbury, she helps demonstrate how to teach computational concepts using simple, readily available tools in classrooms and homes.