News

Everyone around the world, come on!
1,000,000 more jobs …in computer sciences… than students by 2020 in the US alone.
“Learning to write programs stretches your mind and help you think better…”

Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft Our week is here! With over 72,000 events around the world, it’s time to celebrate #HourofCode and Computer Science Education Week. At my school we’ve been getting ready for our celebration kickoff for over a month. I found out two weeks ago that my Code.org grant was the North Carolina winner, great news and the kickoff got bigger.

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My STEM gift-giving guide continues. Part II focuses on coding for kids. Why focus on coding? Because everything that runs around us has computer programming, or code, making it function and run. Learning to code allows learners to stop consuming and begin creating. And there’s another really important reason to learn, coding is fun!

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Running a STEM- Coding, Robotics and MakersEd kids Camp I have the chance to try out the newest coolest tools, kits and programs.  My top picks don’t include toys exclusively although play is a critical foundation of any Science, Technology, Engineering and Math exploration.  I have included favorites from camp and new finds.  

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Students ages five through twelve came together for a week of hands-on learning experiences   resulting in amazing kid feedback.  A rising third-grader whose brother had to miss the first two days said, “I hope he’s better tomorrow and can get here.  This is the best time I’ve ever had.”

When asked what was so special about Camp EdTech Green www.campedtechgreen.com campers said over and over again, we’re learning things we never get to do in school… like coding…and how to make iMovies…and how to use real tools [when Making larger than life insects to represent the beetles and leaf bugs and butterfly they’d observed in their outside hikes]…and how to add circuitry to robots…and the list goes on.

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Somewhere early on really young kids turn a corner on excitement for STEM, science, technology, engineering and math, activities. Most young kids begin school excited about anything and everything involving STEM. And yet…far too soon kids are divided, kids begin to fail or to see themselves as failures. STEM becomes a club they just don’t belong in and are not smart enough for or don’t have high enough grades for. And this happens for many kids before they even leave elementary school!

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For EdTechies around the country, around the world, “Conference” week has finally arrived.  Conference, otherwise known as ISTE is one of the largest annual international education technology conferences available for us.  There are many others, a dozen large, fifty smaller, but ISTE is the conference most can’t wait for each summer.

Getting ready… My new Mobile Learning Network shirts are packed.  The prizes and SWAG from vendors sent to the house for sessions and for Mobile MegaShare http://bit.ly/mobilemegashare14 are packed.  My mobile devices are semi-packed.  Chargers and power strip are ready for packing Thursday morning but will wait for that last charging.  

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It’s time to get ready for summer camp. Afterschool camp ended only weeks ago but summer camp is different. We have a stretch of time to explore without boundaries and borders.

For that preparation takes longer. Many hours later materials and tools and supplies are sorted and a long list is up on the Camp Ed Tech Green Facebook site. That list stuck to building and hands-on challenges – Lincoln Logs, check…Duplos, check…Marble maze, check…Kapla blocks, check…Indoor croquet, check…Legos, check… It only began to scratch the surface of what’s available for kids to explore.

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Local organizations announce a free Mini-Workshop to support and celebrate a “Nation of Makers”.  On June 18, the President is hosting the first-ever White House Maker Faire.  In addition the White House has named June 18 to be a nationwide Day of Making with communities across America sharing and celebrating their involvement in the Makers movement.

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This one is for parents, certainly for summer camps too.  First remember my last post was about iMovies and documenting lots of time outdoors.  So, beginning there and remembering that the title of this post begins with the word — summer–  I absolutely recommend getting outside and moving around a lot!  But sometimes we’ll be inside.  And sometimes we’ll be in the car.  And sometimes coding will just be great fun.  So for those times I want to recommend some terrific apps.  In this post I’ll introduce a favorite, Lightbot.

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Kids come together to work after school.  The buses arrive at 5:30 pm two hours after their school day is over and they ask to please just give them five more minutes to finish this line of code.

http://www.campedtechgreen.com/1/post/2014/04/kids-code-kids-make-kids-create.html 

Seriously.  This is real folks.  Our youngest students working on the web, working with apps, writing code.  They get it.  At these very early ages coding is a puzzle, a game, a challenge.  A chance to create a new path.  The very best part is this.  The more tools kids use the more they say to their fellow coders, “oh yeah , this is just like… and, we’ve done this before on the other program it just looks a little different…, and, here, I’ll show you.”  Talk about standards at high levels and Bloom’s Taxonomy.  This is analysis, evaluation and creation repeated and shared.  Planning for 2014-15 is on.  Before school, during the day, or in after school program, no excuses please for not including coding in the elementary day.  The benefits are real.  Your kids will thank you.