CS Ed Week

I've been away from this blog for a while.  Actually, I have been working on another blog for my latest masters program technology integration class. Although that blog is for class assignments and discussions, there are a lot of good ideas and discussions from the class.  If you'd like to check it out, it's here. The blog roll on that one is a list of my classmate's blogs. 

But big happenings last week, in addition to finishing up my latest grad course, it was CS Ed Week  which coincided with the week of the birthday of former navy rear admiral and one of the first female programmers, Grace Hopper.  "Amazing Grace" was credited with coining the phrase "debugging a program" after having to literally remove a moth from a computer she was programming.  She worked on the original Cobol programming language release and is also credited with the quote, "It's easier to beg for forgiveness, than to ask for permission."  Computer science educators realize that girls shy away from technology fields, especially programming, and Grace could be an inspiration to them.  Here she is at 80 years old on Letterman:

Video of Grace Hopper on Letterman

Scratch Interactive Card 

Anyway, CS Ed Week, part of Code.org, sponsored the Hour of Code project.  It was their goal to get 1 billion kids to participate in an hour of coding tutorials.  The school I work in is strictly for special needs kids, some severely delayed, so a lot of them wouldn't be able to participate in the computer tutorials, although some did with assistance and alternative technology.  I do teach a programming class to a few of the students, currently using Scratch, but will be exploring some others later. But I wanted all of the students to at least have an understanding of how coding works and what makes their electronics work.  

Binary Mosaics

So I put together a "Programming Faire" which was held on December 13th (as part of our Fun {but educational} Friday program) which lasted for the 2 hours after lunch, with many activities for the kids to participate in. In addition to the Hour of Code tutorials, we did a lot of "unplugged" activities (some which were from csunplugged.org), as the pictures show.  I also have a Makey Makey which was used to demonstrate how we program the banana piano and the Playdough controller using Scratch.  

Nxt Robot

We also used our iPads to play games that walk them through the programming process, like LightBot, Daisy the Dinosaur and Fix the Factory and we created interactive Scratch holiday cards using the IWB.  In addition, I had a Lego Mindstorms NxT robot programming demonstration and we had a visit from the Nao Robots, which was probably the most attended activity, thanks to our communications disorders department, after they saw the video I shared with them, because of its asknao program for autistic kids.  

MakeyMakey Playdough
Controller

All in all it was very well attended and it was great that our kids could participate in a program that was worldwide.  I put it all together, but also had help from a few teachers, our library media specialist and a former technology integrator who volunteered her time to come help run the activities.  I am very grateful for their help.  It was a lot of work, but it was fun, and I hope we can do it again next year!

Secret Codes

Piktochart

Want to create your own infographic?  Check out Piktochart.

Here's an infographic I made today for my class on technology integration. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but once I got the idea, it was pretty easy.  I am using the free account, so the themes are limited, but I think it would be just as easy to start with a blank canvas.  

This is also a good alternative to other presentation tools. Click on tools and chart and enter your data, then choose the chart type, then add text and images if desired.  Click and drag to move charts around, but be careful of overlapping charts.  I would recommend grouping all elements of a graphic once they are organized, then you can move them simultaneously.  To do this just highlight all of the elements and click the group icon, which is to the left of the delete icon in the top toolbar.  There are tutorial videos under resources, or go to /piktochart.com/demo/.

After your Piktochart is saved and published, it can be viewed as a presentation, printed, embedded on an HTML website or shared on social media sites.  Here's the link to my infographic to view it online. Note this is best viewed on Chrome or Firefox.

Time Toast

I am taking another technology integration class and this week I had to create a timeline using TimeToast.com.  This is a really cool tool for creating animated, interactive timelines.  This would be a great tool to use for history class or even tracking the plot of a novel that spans time.

It is pretty easy to get started. There is a free account or you can sign up for one of the two paid plans for a few dollars a month if you want to have a classroom account.  Teacher moderation is included in the paid plans.

Once you create a timeline, by entering the name and a category if you choose, you click on Add Event, enter a date and name of the event.  Then you can also add more info and a link as well as a photo all on the same form.  You must have photos saved on your computer ahead of time so you can upload it to your gallery, however. Then click create event and the form will close and a tag will be posted on your timeline.  Just repeat for as many events as you have and then your timeline will be done.  It is automatically saved to your dashboard.

Your visually enhanced timeline can be viewed in full screen.  Just click on any event and a page will open with the additional information about the event.  It can also be viewed in text view, just by clicking on Text View at the top of the page.  You will see a table with all of the information in chronological order.

Here is an example of a timeline, the one I created for my technology class on the history of communication technology devices. It can be embedded in your HTML sites as well! Enjoy.

Scratch Halloween Cards

Happy Halloween from Scratchers!

I haven't been posting as much here because I am posting on my other blog which is for another grad class, but thought I'd share this one. I love Scratch.  Here are some multimedia Halloween "cards" made by some of my students using Scratch.  Scratch is a program that teaches kids how to code using blocks or puzzle pieces to string together commands to create a script.   It was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Project at MIT.

You may have to click on the flag to start the script. But it should start by itself.






 Happy Halloween!

My First Maker Faire

What is MakerFaire?  Basically it's a grassroots movement where DIY aficionados get together to display their projects and inventions.  It consists of both low tech and high tech projects.  I discovered the MakerFaire and MakerCamp concepts recently. After having learned programming with Scratch and Makey Makey, I started seeing other uses for this programming language.  One was Raspberry Pi, which is a mini computer used to teach computer science to kids.

I saw that there was going to be a mini MakerFaire on August 24th, about an hour and a half away in Dover, NH, so I decided to go.   I was interested to learn more about Raspberry Pi and robotics projects, but there were a lot of other interesting exhibits, like felting, jewelry making, and old fashioned ice cream maker and digital music. One of the exhibits at the Dover Mini Faire was a demonstration of the Raspberry Pi.  A professor of programming at SNHU, Don Norris, was demonstrating how Pi could be used to program a robot.  I was excited to learn about his book Raspberry Pi for the Evil Genius.  It has a lot of good information and programs to get you started.

But I also enjoyed seeing a new invention by a young man which can be used to type with one hand.  It's called Jester Type and here is a video of it in action.

I was also interested to see demos of 3D printers.  This one was built from a kit by an Exeter, NH high school student:

All in all it was a great Faire.  They plan to do it again next year, so I'm hoping it's even bigger and better!  Check out the MakerFaire site to find one near you!

Teaching Kids "Real Math", and Writing and Social Studies and...

Conrad Wolfram's TED Talk addresses the problems with decreasing math proficiency in schools today and suggests that the cure to the problem is to use computers to teach math.  He claims that schools put too much emphasis on calculating by hand.  He says that computers were created to do calculations and that doing hand calculations is an ancient subject.  His argument is that in the real world engineers and others use computers to do mathematical calculations.

We should be teaching students to do things they way they are done in real life. They need to learn skills that they will utilize in their future. As Wolfram says, the best way to solve a problem is to use the right tool for the job.  I think what he says about math can apply to any subject.  When teaching writing, whether it be creative or persuasive writing, why make kids use paper and pen instead of using a computer.  When they get out of school, if they get a job working in an environment where communication is done by computer, they are going to need to be able to communicate electronically, and I don't mean via texting.  Computers can do the menial tasks, like spell checking, so that the students can focus on the task of formulating their ideas and getting their point across to the reader.  With applications like Dragon, Kurzweil, or Text Help, students can work on getting to the point of their writing, rather than the mechanics of spelling the words. Most mobile devices have built in spelling and reading assistance as well.

Yes, these are assistive technologies, but some people need assistance.  I like to compare the use of technology to assist people with difficulties to wearing glasses to see.  Would you say that the person wearing glasses has an advantage or is cheating?  Maybe in Ben Franklin's day that might have been the discussion, but we are living in the 21st century now.

The same could be said for social studies, or science or economics.  Why learn about other countries from a book, when you could connect and collaborate with students from another country via Skype?  There are lots of sites with economics information (like the US Debt Clock) or science simulations. This is authentic learning!

My Geek Summer

It all started with a workshop this past June on teaching (and learning to use) Scratch, a programming language for teaching kids to code.  Scratch was designed by MIT and, in conjunction with Harvard School of Education, they have a website for teachers called ScratchEd.  I had heard about this application and was planning to look into it, having dabbled in game programming with some of my students a couple of years ago, using GameMaker, as well as many years ago when I worked for a computer company.  I received a message somewhere about this 6 week workshop, so I signed up.  The workshop was all online, using Google+, Google Groups and Hangouts.  So I not only learned Scratch, but finally started using Google+ and Hangouts.

The workshop culminated in a day long symposium at Harvard, where we learned more about Scratch, got to collaborate in person with other teachers from all over the country as well as from a few foreign countries. We also got to see and play with Makey Makey and Lego WeDo, additional products that can be used with Scratch.  I was so taken with the Makey Makey, which is a sort of controller board that can be used to make anything into a computer key, as long as it conducts electricity, that I bought one.  I had already started using Scratch with some of my students who wanted to learn to program games.  I brought in the Makey Makey too and had my programming students play with it.  But I think it has great potential as an alternative technology, for people who cannot use the keyboard keys, but could use objects to control the computer.

I also did a little research online on Maker camps.  I watched an episode where they were talking about making alternative music. I collaborated with the music teacher to have the students think about different ways they could make music and showed them the Makey Makey banana piano too.

I also had the chance to try on Google Glass, attending a Meetup of a group devoted to developing applications for Glass.  It was held at an electronics company called Dyn, after work, but the energy of development as well as a few employees were still there. It looked like a great place to work, in a renovated mill building in the historic Millyard of Manchester, NH, with great open spaces and multi-levels and even equipped with a game room! It made me long for the days when I was working in "high tech" and we were building 8MB workstations and the excitement of being a part of creating these new products which would change the world.

Next I went to an edcamp for my first time. Not that they are specifically about technology, but they use technology to organize the schedule and it was a common topic.  I learned how to make a trailer using iMovie.  Then one of the sessions was about Raspberry Pi, the mini computer board, that costs $35, which you can use to teach electronics and programming. That was the topic of discussion, how can Raspberry Pi be used in schools?  I had seen an article on it a couple of years ago, but didn't think too much about it. But now that I knew that Scratch can be used with the Pi, I decided to get one.

I was reading about the Maker Faires and located one in a town not too far away.  I went to it, and having seen the schedule, knew there was an exhibit on Raspberry Pi there, so I set out to find it.  It was informative, especially meeting the author of the book "Raspberry Pi for the Evil Genius" (Don Norris, a programming professor at Southern NH University).  Of course I bought the book, which I am reading now, and it appears to be very informative and easy to understand. It has sample projects with instructions to complete them too. I also saw some other interesting inventions, including a one handed typing machine and several 3D printers that could be made from kits.

So now I am collecting stuff to stock my Hacker Space in my classroom. I would like to get some Lego kits for building robots to use to program with the Pi too. It will be a learning experience for myself as well as the students.