Information Technology Education

This week's video on America's Greatest Makers available  her e showcased three makers who are revolutionizing basketball, music and art. 1)   ShotTracker  allows basketball players to track their own shot/score stats from anywhere in the court.  Players use the bluetooth and sensor enabled app-integrated innovation to collect valuable real-time data. Before I even played the first part of this week's video to my students, we started with a class talk about how they track their basketball data.  They all said that their coaches or parents do it by tracking their shots and successful shots with paper and pencil on a clipboard. I then asked them to brainstorm answers to the following questions: What could you invent to track your basketball shots?  How could you integrate technology to come up with a way to track your basketball shooting data? It was amazing to hear their responses! As a class, they came up with the same idea as the ShotTracker.  One stu...

Virtual reality (VR) is on the verge of gaining a foothold in schools thanks to affordable viewers like Google Cardboard . And with more VR apps appearing every day, it’s likely that immersive VR expeditions will eventually become an engaging way for students to explore everything from historical landmarks, distant planets, oceanic locations to the human body. But VR can go beyond passive viewing. One way to take VR to the next level is to give students the opportunity to curate, produce and create their own expeditions. By doing so, students create primary source artifacts in the form of 360-degree views they can share with the world. After an amazing day of traveling all over the universe with Google Expeditions , I wanted my students to be able to do more than have these experiences. I wanted them to create these types of expeditions for themselves and others. Now, using the Google Street View app, they can create their own 360-degree panoramas of any location. 5 steps to creating a...

If you are one of the millions who tried the Hour of Code this year,  you know that one of the themes was Star Wars and that by the end of the hour, you could create your own Star Wars-themed game. Every student at my school completed the Hour of Code, but I got to thinking about the final puzzle where they had the opportunity to create their own Star Wars-themed game.  I decided to connect this with the game design and the design process itself with user feedback and all.  Here's how we did our galaxy walk in one class period: 1)  Students were placed in small group of 3 students who were then tasked with creating a Star Wars-themed game using the commands and events in the final stage of the Star Wars Hour of Code. They were given 20 minutes to brainstorm and create their games. 2)  Groups of students then did what I call a "galaxy walk" - really a modification of the gallery walk.  They rotated through all the other games created by their classmates. Dur...

Photo by Maggie Zehring Have you ever taught a science lesson on animal adaptations and wished you could show something more compelling than a photograph or labeled diagram in a textbook? Have you dreamed of teaching about fragile coral reef ecosystems by going for a dive and really looking closely at these amazing creatures? A few years ago, I never could have imagined that I would be able to show students closeup glimpses of Mars in 3D. But all of this and more is  now possible through the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program.   Available at no cost to schools, the program visits schools around the U.S. and provides everything needed to run virtual reality (VR) expeditions for the day, including cellphones and Google Cardboard, which are VR viewers. They also include a short training to guide teachers in leading a virtual trip for their own students. To get started, submit an interest form to find out if the Expeditions Pioneer Program will be coming to your area. Instant en...

As a way to understand how my students view computer scientists, I asked them to draw a picture of a computer scientist or an image to represent computer science.  It was fascinating to see their perceptions and understandings come alive through a drawing. I love how this student addressed misconceptions about what people think of when they think of computer scientists and then addressed those myths by including images of "tech women" and "tech man." I love this drawing with the message that "anyone can do it!" and that computer scientists always have their "thinking cap" on.  Then there is the message that computer scientists are "always using their knowledge to think of new innovations." Last, but not least, computer scientists are today's superheroes! Here's another representation with the message of iteration and perseverance.  "Computer scientists iterate until the achieve what they wanted to achieve!"

Exciting news is that I just found out that my team was awarded Best in State in the Verizon App Challenge 2016  for 6th-8th grade.  I love this particular competition because it really provides the opportunity for my students to dream big and dream local at the same time.  Big in that they have the room to be creative with the app concept they propose and local in that they use their app-concept design to solve and address a local problem.  I am so inspired by all the entries found here - the students from all over are so incredibly creative, yet practical.  They are finding ways to solve real problems - an app that helps inform students about the various clubs on campus, one that will "protect our parks" and another that helps educate kids on managing money.  The ideas are as varied as the problems that exist.  No matter what the problem, though, it's clear that there's an innovative app-concept for that! Here's a short video infomercial about ...

With 2015 now behind me and already in 2016, I've had some time to reflect on my past 15 years of teaching.  The word that kept coming to me was the word 'urgent.'  There is an urgent need for me to continue to teach like I have never taught before.  An urgent need for me to continue to learn and develop professionally for my students who will be the next generation of innovators, inventors, problem-solvers.  Why this and why now?  Well, it all started with a parade, the Fiesta Bowl parade.  I was invited to be in the parade along with 9 other teachers.  As we were waving from on board our AZ historic vehicle, a red shiny fire engine, a parade volunteer shouted out to us while giving a thumbs-up - "Teachers have the most important job in America.  Go teachers!"  So, for all the teachers out there reading this - this is for you too!  Go you! I was also given a gift in December - one that hearkens back to my very first class when my 4th gr...