#ISTE 2016 Startup Pavilion

Dave and I spent most of yesterday in the ISTE exhibit hall. He also wore his favorite t-shirt to wear to edtech events. I can not count the number of times he was stopped and told that people loved his shirt and others that asked to take a picture of his shirt. It should be noted he did get some very funny looks when he walked in the Google booth though.

Our favorite part of the exhibit hall is the startup pavilion. The startup pavilion consist of 32 unique startups that have a small space to market their product. Many times in this area you get to meet the creator of the product or someone who has worked very closely on the design of the product. The passion they have for their product is absolutely contagious. Here are some of my favorite startups.

Chibitronics - This product created by Jie Qi, an MIT student (pictured on the far right). Chibitornics combines is a STEAM tool that combines electronics, coding, and arts without all the wires because it uses stickers for the circuits. One of the projects that can be created is a book that tells a story. A startup pack is reasonably price at $30.

AR Flashcards have been around a couple of years but just released a new app call AR Flashcards Addition. The AR Flashcard Apps require you to print the physical card then scan them from within the app. The activity then jumps off the card.  I had a chance to talk with 2 of the developers and they showed me a product they are working on for future release. Lets just say this product is really going to make history come alive. AR Flashcard Apps may be found in the Apple App Store. AR Flashcards ios only AR FlashCards Addition $3.99 Other Apps in the AR Flashcard Company AR Flashcard Alphabet - Free, AR Flashcards Space - $2.99, and AR Flashcards Shapes and Colors $2.99

Easyblog.org Is a blogging platform created by teachers in the UK. Easyblog is a very intuitive platform that even very young students are being successful. The platform has easy navigation and may be accessed through the web or an app. The app makes it especially easy to add images and video. Price is free but parents are given the opportunity to download their child’s blog at the end of the school year for $9.99.

Reading Log Cabin is an app is an easy digital reading log that not only can keep track of the progress of the student reading but also allows the student to create notes and take images. The log can then be shared to the teacher via email or social media. The Reading Log Cabin app is $2.99 and available App Store, Google Play Market and the Amazon App Store.

Books That Grow is a tool that may be used for differentiation by providing text on various reading levels. For example Rip Van Winkle is available in the reading levels of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The current niche market is middle grades ELA but the company has plans to expand.  According to their website the library contains a mix of classic fiction, primary source documents, myths and folktales, biographies, original science and history books. Each text may be assigned to a whole class on a specific reading level or individually assigned based on the student’s needs. Books That Grow offers a 14 day free trial and various pricing models for individual, classroom, and full school account.

Walkabouts are catered to Pre K-2 and built on a ton of research about kinesthetic learning.  To put it simply classes actively watch a video and while they are learning students are walking or doing other active movements to represent the skill they are learning.

Technology Timeline

Badges - Best Kept Secret in Professional Learning

I’ve learned over the past 8 years working in professional learning it is often difficult to get adults to complete activities in a professional learning setting. The hands on practice is very important to solidify the knowledge in our minds. Practice during a professional learning session is formative and shows the facilitator if there are gaps in participant understanding of the concepts shared. In my experience educators who know and use learning theory regularly subconsciously demonstrate that the same theory they use with students does not apply to them. Many times they side step hand on practice and activities.  

Badges have been one motivational tool I have used in the past 2 years in my professional learning sessions to get adults to complete activities. During the recent GenCyber Teacher Camp at Augusta University camp participants earned badges upon completion of activities. Some badges were for completion of an activity while some badges were for exceptional quality work. I created the badges in Google Drawings using shapes from drawings and images from pixabay. For this camp I used Staples Sticker Paper and uploaded my badges to Cricut Print then Cut to create the badges.

In the past I have used Avery circle and square  labels for my badges. I have found the design and print features on Avery.com work very well.

For the GenCyber Teacher Camp participants were provided a badge poster on the first day of the camp. The badge poster was simply a design created in Google Slides and printed on cardstock. The badge poster was placed in their camp notebook. Each time a badge was earned participants added the badge to their poster.  

In shorter professional learning sessions I do not provide a badge poster. When badges are passed out participants sometimes place them on their notes or proudly wear them on their shirt.

In closing, it is amazing what you can get adults to do for a sticker. Don't just take my word for it try it yourself!

Here are some links to the badges and badge poster from the GenCyber Teacher Camp.

Badge Poster

Camp Badges

Introducing Coding with the CRA Model

Jennifer had the privilege in early June to be camp director and lead instructor for the first ever #GenCyber Middle Grades Teacher Camp at Augusta University. The camp was funded by grant from the NSA. Dave was also able to participate as a lead learner during the camp and the beta tester of all the curriculum. During the course of writing the grant and curriculum we learned a TON about cyber and plan to share a series of posts about the curriculum but the first is about Jennifer's approach to teaching coding.

As a former math teacher Jennifer utilized the Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA) Approach. When a concept is introduced in mathematics, it is recommended that the teacher first uses concrete or physical manipulatives. 

C - Concrete

During the camp, coding was introduced using concrete hands-on unplugged activity that were kinesthetic in nature. During the camp participants traveled through 5 stations.  Four of the stations were from Code.org unplugged (Move it! Move it!, Graph Paper Programming, Getting Loopy, and Conditionals with Cards). The 5th station was a "Simon Says" game of the Cyber First Principle Activity.  

R - Representational

In mathematics, after students have a basic understanding with concrete methods, instruction moves to representational or pictorial approach. During the camp, the second type of activity used involved pictographic blocks of code. For example, the use of Sphero Macro Lab App for Creating Art with Code, Osmo Coding, and Scratch with Google CS First High Seas. 

A - Abstract

In mathematics, the abstract or symbolic approach is the last thing introduced. This is the use of numbers signs and variables. During the camp our Google Script activity, which was the last of our coding activities, was the symbolic approach. At the writing of this report, we have not been able to find any research that suggests the CRA approach has been used to introduce coding. Based on our experiences with teachers during the camp we believe this instructional technique will help improve teaching methods for delivering cyber security content to K-12 particularly with math teachers who may already be familiar with the CRA strategy.

Opening Post - Long Overdue

This blog was created several months ago. Dave and I have talked for some time about needing to blog but something seems to always get in the way. Time is a big factor of course and of there are work responsibilities but there was also the underlying feelings of inadequacy. Do we really have something worth sharing? Would anyone even be slightly interested in the things that we are interested in? Should we have more than one blog? Making decisions like this just delays the creation or simply put gave me an excuse not to ever create the first post.

Today Dave and I had the opportunity to eat lunch with a very interesting lady we met on our shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Karen North a true education consultant and a super advocate for computer science education. She kept telling us she is retired but I think she keeps a busier schedule than me. Each time I shared something I had recently been working on she asked where is the blog post or do you have your resources linked on your website. Needless to say I felt conviction with a capital C. I have been recommending blogging and educators sharing your work. I have shared numerous times with the #showyourwork hashtag and statements like sharing is caring on twitter. I even taught a class 2 weeks ago on creating and maintaining your positive digital footprint. It is time we established our brand in the blog world.

So you have read our first blog post. It seems I had to fly to another city to actually start it but sometimes the first step is the hardest. Some post will be written by Jennifer and others written by Dave. The topics will be varied depending what we are working on at the time. Topics may include ideas on marketing, educational technology, and our work with Sunday School promotion. The first several post will be about our experiences in the #GenCyber Middle Grades Teacher Camp that was held at Augusta University.