Group items tagged

"Computer Science for All reflects the Obama administration's concerns that an economy based mostly on high-tech industries will exacerbate wage and income inequality unless a more diverse talent pipeline can be created. Here are the reasons why the initiative is about more than simply teaching more people how to code:"

"The Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 5-11, is an annual initiative that mobilizes educators, parents, nonprofits and the industry to inspire all young people to learn computer science and open the door to a promising future. With our rising digital economy and the nonstop pace of technological change, we have an imperative to prepare young people to pursue careers that are in demand. Computer science refers to the academic discipline of studying what can be done using a computer and how to do so. At the foundation of this is computational thinking, a mental process that allows one to formulate problems so as to design possible solutions that a computer or human can easily understand. Coding is one way that computational thinking can be expressed. It is simply writing a list of step-by-step instructions for computers to perform what we want to do. More importantly, it provides everyone a platform to unleash our creativity to create software websites, games, and apps. More than half of today's jobs require some technology skills, and this will increase to 77 percent in the next decade, according to IDC. With youth unemployment in Southeast Asia alone almost three times that of total unemployment rate, coding and computer science serve as the gateway for youth to secure a more fulfilling career or even venture into entrepreneurship. In the Philippines for instance, an entry-level tech position pays 38 percent more than the minimum wage.   I strongly encourage everyone to try coding-and here's why:"

"2006 wasn't just the year of the world's most famous TED Talk. It's also the year that Ignite Talks-a rapid-fire presentation style-originated. These bite-sized presentations take up no more than 5 minutes each, and are starting to show up in more and more education venues-spreading virally like EdCamps, and popping up at conferences like ISTE and EdSurge's own Tech for Schools Summits. The movement has grown steadily to a total of 350+ Ignite organizing teams since the first event debuted in Seattle in 2006. Speak with educators and entrepreneurs, and there's talk of applying the Ignite Talk model to professional development, student projects, or investor pitches. Why? According to Ignite Talk co-founder Brady Forrest, it's an easily-approachable format that forces people to talk succinctly and hone their public speaking-a skill that just about anyone who presents to groups of people or students should work to develop. EdSurge caught up with Forrest and a number of Ignite Talkers to learn more."

"This paper captures the evolution of the Mozilla Web Literacy Map to reach and meet the growing number of diverse audiences using the web. The paper represents the thinking, research findings, and next iteration of the Web Literacy Map that embraces 21st Century Skills (21C Skills) as key to leadership development. As technology becomes more ubiquitous, and more people come online, Mozilla continues to refine its strategies to support and champion the web as an open and public resource. To help people become good citizens of the web, Mozilla focuses on the following goals: 1) develop more educators, advocates, and community leaders who can leverage and advance the web as an open and public resource, and 2) impact policies and practices to ensure the web remains a healthy open and public resource for all. In order to accomplish this, we need to provide people with open access to the skills and know-how needed to use the web to improve their lives, careers, and organizations. Knowing how to read, write, and participate in the digital world has become the 4th basic foundational skill next to the three Rs-reading, writing, and arithmetic-in a rapidly evolving, networked world. Having these skills on the web expands access and opportunity for more people to learn anytime, anywhere, at any pace. Combined with 21C leadership Skills (i.e. critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, creativity, communication), these digital-age skills help us live and work in today's world. Whether you're a first time smartphone user, an educator, an experienced programmer, or an internet activist, the degree to which you can read, write, and participate on the web while producing, synthesizing, evaluating, and communicating information shapes what you can imagine-and what you can do. follows:"

"Human beings learn in lots of different ways. They can learn by reading a book or by sitting in a classroom or by taking an online class. Some ways of learning are more tedious and stressful than others, though. When I was an engineering student in college, I sat in lectures for nine hours straight on Wednesdays, with no lunch break. After those nine hours of lectures, I'd study several hours to prepare for the next day. Is it any wonder I ditched engineering as my college major? There's got to be a more humane way of learning. Learning by making is that more humane way."

"Boundless is making education more accessible and affordable. Boundless is building an innovative learning platform that curates the world's best open educational content in more than 20 subjects and delivers interactive learning tools to college students. Students at thousands of colleges are ditching expensive textbooks and discovering Boundless Learning Technologies that go way beyond traditional books. Boundless textbooks are available for free and premium across multiple channels, including mobile, website and iBooks. Learn more at www.boundless.com. Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1442597#ixzz2dXlFPIUR "

"As tablets move from novelty items to staples in the classroom, teachers are finding new ways to make them more than just another screen for students to look at. One way to make the devices more interactive and collaborative is to extend their reach by connecting them with external sensors or robots. According to Sam Patterson, a technology integration specialist at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, a K-8 school in Palo Alto, CA, "What we are seeing is technology becoming more and more transparent." Years ago, if you had a computer for every student in the class it would look like a computer lab. And then each student had a laptop, and it was a classroom full of screens, he noted. "Now students have the ability to connect to other things in the room, so that when we are collecting data we can do it directly and do observations," he said. "It is amazing that in a seventh-grade science class, you can import data and it is in a spreadsheet already. You can start to work with that data without having to teach the students how to build a spreadsheet.""

I am a huge proponent of using hands-on, interactive learning activities to explore ill-defined problems as a way of teaching for all age groups. Given the spontaneity and uncertainty of these types of active learning environments, I believe educators should observe, reflect on, and analyze how learners interact with the materials, the content, the educator, and the other learners. This practice is in line with the teacher as ethnographer. In my role as a teacher as ethnographer, I made some initial observations during my first two weeks of teaching maker education for elementary age students. With half the kids under 7, I learned a bunch about young makers. Young makers are more capable than what people typically believe. Young makers need to be given more time, resources, strategies to learn how to solve more ambiguous and ill-defined problems (i.e., ones that don't have THE correct answer). Too many don't know how to approach such problems. If a project doesn't "work" during the first trial, they way too often say "I can't do this." They have a low tolerance for frustration; for not getting the answer quickly. Young makers often celebrate loudly and with extreme joy when making something work. Young makers like to work together but lack skills or desire to peer tutor one another. Young makers usually like to stand while working. Young makers are more capable than what people (adults) typically believe. During our maker education summer camp, the young makers made LED projects, circuit crafts, and simple robotics. Looking at the instructions for similar activities, the recommended ages were usually 8 and above. Yet, my group of 14 kids contained half under that age. The kids of all ages struggled a bit - as is common with making type activities but all were successful to some degree with all of the activities.

"Security-it's on our minds more than ever before.  It seems like there isn't a week that goes by where we don't hear about some new exploit that allows someone to hack your most personal information.  With our mobile devices containing more of this  information with each new iteration, we need to stand up, take notice and do something about it.  Through our own due diligence we can monitor some of this information.  But what about our devices?  What can we do to keep our iPads, and our data more secure?"

"As each part of the teaching task becomes more complex, and as we as educators seek to reach more specialized populations in more difficult circumstances, the need to understand, and where necessary unbundle, the varied roles of the educator becomes more pressing. A narrow focus on the idea of the teacher as "the purveyor of an education" is unhelpful and misleading."

"By definition, you are reading this on an electronic device. More than likely a tablet or a phone. And if that's the case, then it's more than likely that you're hunched over a little, head forward. Did you just sit up straighter? Thought so… The noises from medical researchers are increasingly shrill on the damage done to us by technology  and the back pain it causes - slumped postures, 'text neck' caused by leaning over our devices is causing wear and tear from the extra pressure the unnatural postures put on our spines. The warnings are, more and more, that this is reaching 'epidemic' proportions, with 'significant' numbers looking like they will need corrective surgery. So are you going to give up your mobile and tablet? No, of course not, that would just be silly, wouldn't it? So instead, try some corrective actions:"

"According to a study conducted in the chemistry department of the Catholic University done by Diane M. Bunce, Elizabeth A. Flens, and Kelly Y. Neiles in Washington D.C., it was found that while the original belief of the 10-15 minute attention span may be true, it was not the whole truth. Here is the rest of the story. It is true that the first lapse of attention (or first break in attention) occurred at approximately the 10-18 minute mark, but after this initial break, the later attention lapses occurred more and more frequently. By the end of class, attention breaks were cycling every 3-4 minutes. In other words, in the last parts of class, students are only paying attention for 3-4 minutes at a time! So what does this mean for you? This means that introducing different elements into the routine may benefit both you and your students by helping them pay more attention so that you can be a more effective teacher. This is where the pomodoro method comes in."

"If you've been keeping up on edtech news in the past decade, you might have noticed that coding courses have been targeting younger and younger students every year. Starting in college? Lost cause. High school? Behind! Elementary school? Perfect. The younger and younger the lessons will start, until we learn how to pre-program babies to be tech geniuses. While this might seem like micromanagement of children's destinies to some, we must all face the truth: coding is the new writing. As computer programming skills become more and more crucial to future careers, coding will become more prevalent as a required skill for high school graduation. So, once we've faced the music about the need for students to start programming instruction young, where do we begin? Coding camps are all the rage right now, and well worth the expense, but not all parents can afford the additional cost of instruction. So, we took a look at a few of the more affordable coding games out there to see just what the worldwide web has to offer"

"It appears that confidence is still a major barrier that prevents some teachers from using EdTech to its full potential to really enhance both teaching and learning in their classrooms. I'm a fan of quotes and I feel this one is appropriate as it sums up the impact action can have on confidence: "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." Dale Carnegie It goes without saying that the he more often you do something, the quicker you will become more confident in doing it. Trialling something new can be daunting at first for many. However, the more often you do this, the less fearful you will be. In fact, you may even find trying new things more exciting, particularly when you see spectacular results! You may be able to place yourself in one of the following categories based on your confidence in using technology in the classroom:"

"EdTech is certainly becoming more and more popular in classrooms around the world. There are many different methods of implementation, including schemes like bring your own device (BYOD), bookable class sets or a set number of devices in each classroom. For greatest impact on both teaching and learning, more devices is better: 1:1 allows learning to be more personalised and provides opportunities for teachers to transform their teaching with the aid of technology. However, due to many factors, this is not possible in every school. If you as a teacher own a tablet, can it alone have an impact in the classroom? Here I'll look to share 10 simple, yet effective ways you can make the most of having just one iPad in your classroom."

"I am always curious to see the words and ideas that are growing.  It was from individual classrooms and schools that ideas around self-regulation, inquiry and digital access have exploded.  I have also written before about the growth of outdoor learning among other trends that are taking hold.  It is sometimes hard to track their growth - it comes from students, teachers, parents and the community and when they stick - they become the new normal. The two ideas this fall that I would add to the list and I think are just beginning to blossom are coding and robotics.  When I look at the growth plans of staff, or the inquiry questions of our Innovation teams, or listen to the interests of parents, these ideas are coming up more and more. Coding is not new, and it is part of the ICT 9-12 curriculum.  In part driven by the global Hour of Code initiative, there are efforts to expose all students to the possibilities around coding not just those who select it as a secondary school elective.  More and more we are hearing from students, teachers and parents that we want to engage younger learners with these skills.  Cari Wilson has done a wonderful job leading the Hour of Code initiative in our district - getting into elementary and secondary classrooms.  Given the Star Wars theme this year I am sure students in classrooms and at kitchen tables across our community will be engaging with coding."

"Teaching kids to code offers a lot of challenges that you don't run into when instructing adults. Kids don't have a ton of real world experience, so a lot of analogies fly over their heads. Abstract thinking can take a lot more effort, so you need to keep things more concrete. Many kids have extremely short attention spans, especially in groups. And if there isn't a cool payoff almost immediately, they are going to get bored and zone out. All the lecturing in the world won't get the lesson into their heads at that point. When teaching children programming, the goal is to empower them to understand the everyday systems they already use, and to know they have the skill to pick this kind of stuff up, both now and later in life. Not everyone wants to do software development for a living, no matter how smart of a career choice it is, but programming is creeping more and more into other fields every day."

"I was painfully bored during my K-12 education. I looked forward to college anticipating that it would be different - more engaging, more interesting, more innovative. I was wrong. My undergraduate education, except for a few bright spots, was just an extension of my K-12 education including more grill and drill with sages on the stages (literally since I went to such a large university); taking notes and taking lots of multiple choice tests. During my freshman year, I thought that if I had one wish, it would be to change the educational system (which has stayed with me ever since). One of those bright spots was being asked to read Carl Rogers, Freedom to Learn, which was published 1969 in an upper level Educational Psychology course. The big aha for me was that school systems should be focused on helping learners develop the skills for how to learn not what to learn, one that was sorely lacking in most of my K-graduate-level education and a concept and goal that as an educator I've held onto ever since."

Every year, Time magazine gets swamped with pitches from thousands of companies, all convinced their product deserves to be included in Time's "25 Best Inventions" list. This past December, the magazine reserved its cover for a Pixar-like, 11-inch armless robot named Jibo. Jibo - a so-called "social robot" - is just the latest example of a clear phenomenon: A new generation of exponentially more intelligent and capable robots is on the way. In fact, they're already everywhere we look: over our heads, in our cars and operating rooms, next to us on the assembly lines, in our military, and on the last mile. And the prospect of exponentially more robots, crunching exponentially more data, necessitates not just a lot more computing power but also an entirely new product architecture."

"As we move more and more toward a world filled with screens, those possessing coding skills have never been more in demand. If you're trying to break into the field, whether you want to program robots, design websites, or become a more desirable employee, learning Python is a good place to start."