Information Technology Education

We are more than halfway through the week for Hour of Code.  Virtually every class in my school has signed on to participate - including our principal.  My students have been helping out kindergarten classes throughout the week to help them navigate through the levels, distinguish between right and left, and manipulate their mouse.  It was amazing to listen to some of the strategies they were using with the kindergarten students.  I heard modeling (pretended to be the 'Angry Bird'), use of visualization (pointing to the screen), questioning, mnemonic devices (how to remember left and right), scaffolding (providing the first one or two blocks to help get them started), providing a familiar point of reference (likening Blockly to Scratch), and use of non-examples to show them the 'right' way to go.  Wow!  They also expressed how difficult my job must be and appreciate the difference between knowing how to do something yourself vs. helping someone else do it.

As we begin the kickoff to Computer Science EdWeek, I took some time to look back in time at the history of computer science.  Today's Google doodle focuses on her and so did we - Admiral Grace Hopper.   We read the following article and watched the "60 minutes Overtime" segment on Grace Hopper. Great way to integrate non-fiction text, a bit of history, math, and making connections to coding and technology today.  Followed up with students weaving in writing skills as they summarized what they learned about Grace Hopper in a well-organized paragraph.

Hour of Code kicked off today and my class is on the video here shouting out "hour of code."  Code.org has tutorials and step-by-step videos, instructions and hints to guide even the youngest coder through navigating mazes and other challenges. "I like the hour of code because it is challenging, but once you get the hang of it, it gets easier.  You not only have to get the correct blocks, you have to put them in the right order.  It gets tricky when you go to the last levels because then you have to use more blocks." "Do you know about the Hour of Code?  There are 19 stages where you have an inventory of blocks.  You pass the levels and you move onto the next level.  For example, if you are on the artist, you can make colorful artwork with just blocks.  I love the hour of code!" "I like Hour of Code because you are guided through stuff and not just making things not knowing.  I learned that you need to have a lot of patience to make things."

I wanted to follow up on how computer science works together with different fields (in this case, earth science) to reshape our understanding of the world through the use of innovative technology that in turn leads to new ways of seeing, thinking, decision-making, and ultimately, acting. We started off with Greg Asner's TED talk about how technology has changed how we can view the earth. I then asked the students to reflect on this talk by identifying the science and engineering practices at work. "Computer science can change our view of nature.  It found out that male lions hunt at night in deep forest instead of what we thought that they sit around for food.  One main thing is that we have lot of rainforest species problems, fire, drought, goldmining and deforestation.  But we have hope.  We can help this by obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information that is important to park managers so they can make some important decisions like where to use fire. ...

Walk down the hall of any elementary school and you will see students decked out in "Rainbow Loom" bracelets - basically mini-rubber bands woven together on a plastic loom.  As you can see from the picture above, they come out looking like a rainbow and kids are making them into bracelets, necklaces, rings...you name it.  How are these like coding? "Coding:making a rainbow loom bracelet.  It is like that because in rainbow loom, if you put the rubber band in the wrong way, the bracelet will fall apart.  It's the same with coding.  Also, in programming you can make the computer do anything.  In rainbow loom, you can make any color bracelet.  In programming, you can make patterns and in rainbow loom you can make patterns.  That is how they are alike." Here's one more coding analogy based on her experience with Blockly and Scratch: "Coding is like reading the rules for a game.  Missing a rule in the game might ruin the entire game, just like mis...

Analogies are a great way to check for understanding of concepts.  We've been looking closely at all kinds of analogies in English Language Arts, so I thought to myself, "What a great way to see how deeply my students understand and view coding."  I wanted to see if they could apply coding principles outside of coding (decontextualize) to see how well they really "get" the thinking and process of coding itself.  In a nutshell, students were to come up with an analogy for coding along with three supporting examples. "Coding: A baby learning to take steps because when a baby learns to walk, it starts slow and small.  If it goes too fast or big, it will fall down.  The same with coding - if you start going fast, your program will fall apart because you're going too fast.  Also, if you take big steps, you will miss a step and starting big can you mess up.  Once a baby falls down and with programming, once your program falls, you can get up and try again....

We had a class discussion today about computer science and investigated answers to questions like: What is computer science? Why is computer science important? What do computer scientists do? How do computer scientists help us? How do they change the world around us? What science and engineering practices (NGSS) do computer scientists use in their job? With the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) recently released, we have been connecting the science and engineering practices to what we do in class. 1.  Asking questions and defining problems. 2.  Developing and using models. 3.  Planning and carrying out investigations. 4.  Analyzing and interpreting data. 5.  Using mathematics and computational thinking. 6.  Constructing explanations and designing solutions. 7.  Engaging in argument from evidence. 8.  Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Here are some responses from my third and fourth graders: "I learned about coding and co...