Fun with Fabric and Technology

07. February 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I so want to comment on this post about problem solving, but I’m going to hold off until tomorrow at least.

Right now, I’m too excited about my plans for what we call Mini-Week, a three-day period just before spring break where we hold basically a three-day workshop on a topic, going on field trips, building projects, and having fun.  Last year, I worked with e-textiles and I plan to do so again this year. There are a lot more resources now, and I have a better idea of what’s involved so I’m doing a modified version this year.

We’re making a trip to the Franklin Institute to see a couple of exhibits related to design, art, and technology. Then we’ll start working on our own projects.  We’ll be visited (hopefully, still not solidified yet) by a UPenn student working in this area who is bringing some examples.  For those who finish sooner, we’ll have a playground with some other tools to play with, like arduinos and maybe a lilypad or two.

If you’re interested yourself in doing some of these things, here are some great resources:

Adafruit: link to their products related to e-textiles, but they also other cool electronic gadgets

Sparkfun electronics:  again, a selection of e-textile products.  They have some cool e-textile kits as well.

Aniomagic: Some very cool e-textile stuff, programmable through the browser!

Lilypond: ideas and instructions and links to more resources.

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Girls and Computing

01. February 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Teaching 8th grade has to be one of the hardest things ever.  I dare anyone who thinks they know what they’re doing in life to put themselves in front of a group of 8th graders (girls, even) and see if they can hold their own.  I’m betting most people won’t last 5 minutes.  I don’t claim to be good at it.  I struggle every day, but I’m determined to reach them.

I teach a required “technology” class in each grade level that meets once a week for 10 weeks.  In 6th and 7th grade, things are going swimmingly.  In 8th grade, things were not.  I teach Scratch in 8th grade.  My plan was to have the girls create 3 Scratch projects of increasing difficulty.  I usually end with having them create a video game.  That worked okay the first trimester, but this one, I got a lot more grumbling after we finished our first project.  I decided not to fight it.  I asked them what they wanted to do.  Tell me, I said, what technology/computing projects would you like to do?  Many wanted to do video projects.  I suggested social media of some kind.  And they jumped all over that.  So, now, I have two groups doing projects on Tumblr and two doing video projects.  I was a little unnerved about this.  What if they suck? What if they goof off?

Today, though, the two groups working on their Tumblr projects were doing awesome things.  One group was customizing their theme, creating tabs, even digging into some CSS.  At one point, one girl said, “This being techie thing is really hard.”  A girl responded, “Yeah, but it’s really fun.”  Girl one said, “You’re right it is.”  Later, someone in that group said something about how many details were involved in technology.  I just smiled.

The other group, which is really just one person, took a bunch of photos and opened them up in a photo editor and started manipulating them to make them more interesting and different.  She was playing with levels and saturation.  And that was pretty awesome.

Maybe they weren’t doing exactly what I’d had in mind at the beginning of the class, but I actually think they’re learning stuff, and for the most part, they’re doing it on their own.  They were Googling the answer to how to manipulate the html to make their tabs work.  They figured it out before I could even help them.  I think that’s pretty empowering.

I also got some feedback from my CS students this week, who are a great bunch of students, really fun to work with.  I wanted to know how they liked the class so far, what I could differently next year for the things already covered, and what they’d like to be sure to cover this year.  I also wanted to know how likely it would be for them to take another CS course in the future, whether with me or later in college.

Here are their thoughts, summarized:

1. They generally like the class and find it fun.  The projects we’re doing are varied and interesting to them.

2. They all hate it when the technology doesn’t work.  I would second that, and I’m working on fixing those issues.

3. They want to go on field trips.

4. They want the class to count for something toward graduation other than a basic elective.  Some suggested language. :)  I laughed because Mr. Geeky tried that same strategy in grad school in order to avoid taking another language.

5. On a scale of 10, with 10 being very likely, the likelihood of their taking another CS course ranges from 4-9.  I thought that was pretty good.  I can handle a moderate likelihood of taking a CS course.  Heck, after my own first course in college, I never wanted to see CS again. You can stop laughing now.

6. Lack of interest is certainly an issue, but lack of time to fit the course in is a bigger one.

7.  They all liked that the class was small (7 students).  I did too!  They emphasized that the small class size meant a lot of personal help, which is important to them.  If the class gets larger, and frankly, I hope it does, I’ll have to figure out a way to deal with that.  Pair programming or peer instruction.  Something.

It’s been fun to teach, for sure, and I hope to improve upon what I’m doing next year.

Educon 2.4: Connecting and Reconnecting

29. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I am, at this moment, the epitome of the blogger.  I’m in my pj’s.  I’m in Educon recovery mode.  Apparently, some of my Twitter friends are as well.  I’ve seen a number of people talking about being in pj’s or being exhausted, etc.  This was my 3rd Educon.  It’s my second as a K-12 educator.  I’m really starting to feel like I’m a part of this group of people.  Last year, I wrote about how a few people felt excluded or left out.  I didn’t see or feel any of that this year even though many of the same people were there.  Interestingly, I started off my conference yesterday with a discussion about being mainstream vs. being on the margins.

Educon always makes you think.  From the opening panel, which this year had the fabulous photographer Zoe Strauss on it, to the very last session, which for me was about implementing Chromebooks, the whole conference is all about forcing your brain to run on all cylinders.  Instead of saying what I learned, I’m going to pose some questions that have come up for me.

The theme of the conference was about sustaining innovation.  In the panel and in many sessions, we kept talking about how to define innovation.  I still don’t know what the answer is for our schools or for education, so that’s a looming question.

What does it mean to be mainstream? Is it a bad thing? What about being on the margins?  Do we need to bring those people into the mainstream or can they exist on the margins and we can just accept that?

What components of “traditional” education are worth keeping and what can go?  Do we have to get rid of some of those things in order to make room for innovation work?

How can K-12 institutions and Higher Ed work together? Can we/should we make more transparent our practices?  Where can we build partnerships that are authentic and useful and mutually beneficial?

When are we going to teach computing/computer science in a way that isn’t so “nerdy”?  And when are we going to see more women stepping up to be involved in CS education?

We are all agonizing over what the “next device” is, and so what we should invest our money in.  Are we selling out to Apple and Google by using their devices and apps? And should we be worried about that?  Should we have just one device in our schools? Or can we have multiple?

And just to point you to some resources and interesting things:

ds106–a course and a community, one way of bridging the gap between K-12 and Higher Ed

modkit–an online programming tool for microcontrollers like arduino

A keynote about Chromebooks

For more, search for Educon.

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Blogs vs. Term papers

24. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

A lot of people have been pointing me to this article on using blogs in writing classes instead of term papers.  For an extensive answer, see my dissertation from 2007.  Just sayin’.  But yeah, communication forms change.  That doesn’t mean we do away with argument and evidence and critical thinking.  I mean, we used to give speeches (without teleprompters) all the time.  We spoke poems.  Now we have radio, tv, print articles, books, web sites, youtube, all kinds of ways of conveying an argument.  We should teach all those.

Who are my students

23. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

For my How to Teach Webcraft and Programming class, we are supposed to describe our students.  So, below are some of my descriptions of students present and past as well as myself as a student.  I’ve had a wide range of students, but interestingly, they do sort of fit into categories.

The Artist

Painted StreetsI’ve had/have a lot of students who have tremendous artistic talent. They often know their way around Photoshop or Illustrator and are looking to take their talents to the web or into graphics through programming.  Many of these, maybe most, are quite independent, perhaps because they have worked independently on their art. They are often the kind of student I can give some key Google terms to or hand them a book and they’ll come back having figured out something cool.  Past students have created fabulous flash videos or beautiful-looking web sites.  Not all, but some, get confused by the logic of scripting and get frustrated when scripting “messes up” their work.

The Over-Achiever

Sanna Science FairTo me, this is the classic CS student in many ways.  These are the kids who enter the science fair without being told to, who read a lot, who take an overload of courses, and, of course, who hack their own computers at the age of 5.  Interestingly, my students often do everything but that last one.  So, I get students with the smarts and drive to accomplish anything, but who avoid the innards of computers.  These students usually pick up things fast, but not always.  Sometimes they get frustrated when they don’t because usually everything comes pretty easy to them.  But I do find them to be persistent, though sometimes not as independent as the artist-types above.

The Reluctant Learner

Frustration (was: threesixtyfive | day 244)I get these when I teach required classes or required training sessions.  These students have run the gamut from adults tasked with maintaining a web site to young adults and kids required to take a “computer” class.  In the case of required training, the students often really need to understand what I’m teaching.  Maybe they need to keep their jobs or they want to get a new one.  Whatever it is, the stakes are often high.  And yet, they’re not necessarily motivated to learn.  Or they don’t have the prerequisite knowledge to learn what I’m now teaching them.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ll have students who are required to take a class, but it’s not graded or doesn’t “count” or some such.  In other words, the stakes are really low.  Sometimes these actually turn out well, if I can find something that will tap into their interests.  However, if I can’t find a way to connect what I’m teaching with what these students want or need, then it’s often a lost cause.

Me

Laura Blankenship and laptopI’ve liked computers since I was about 12 when I got Pong.  I learned a little bit of BASIC in 7th grade, but mostly I play Haunted House (on a Tandy) and Lemonade Stand (on an Apple).  I took a CS class in college (BASIC again).  After years of pursuing an English degree, I landed in a tech job, having to learn most of what I needed to know on my own.  I’ve continued to move deeper into teaching computing and now teach CS.  I’ve run into people like myself teaching in K-12 schools.  We are what one might call tech gurus, but we were never formally trained programmers.  Some of us have worked as programmers or developers, but most of us have just learned from books or courses here and there.  I learn primarily through practice, trying to program nearly every day, often setting myself increasingly difficult tasks.  What I’m learning is that while those with full CS degrees can often tap into much of their past material, the field changes so quickly that everyone is almost always learning.

Things people ask the tech person

19. January 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
  • What kind of computer should I get for my (parent/kid/aunt/me)?
  • Should my kid learn to type? Do you teach typing in tech class?
  • Do you teach (name your basic office application)?

That’s about it.  Here’s what I wish people would ask:

  • What should I be doing to educate myself about the Internet?
  • What skills do you think kids should know to be prepare for jobs and college?
  • How young is too young to learn to program?
  • Is learning to program important?
  • Should my kid go online and if they do, what should they be doing (or not doing)?
  • My kid is interested in x technology field.  How should they prepare? What things can they do?

Just another parent night.  Not that the first few questions aren’t legitimate, but I wish that people would up the level of questions.  And it may be that a) they were all tired (it was late after all) or b) I covered the answers.  I do get some of those questions from parents of older kids, so maybe it’s just going to take them some time to realize they’re important.

Doing things that are hard

12. January 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Jackie and I have been having a bit of back and forth via our blogs and Twitter about keeping up with our resolutions.  She writes:

Newsflash: resolutions also often involve stopping doing things that are easy, and replacing with things that are hard.

Yep, yep, yep.  Decluttering has been hard but I’ve managed to keep it up so far.  The 15-minute limit helps.  And I have missed a couple of days–yesterday, for one–but I’ve just kept it up, imagining the end goal of a house filled with less stuff that I don’t like or don’t need and more stuff that I enjoy and use.  The thought of one day walking into my house and having it feel peaceful rather than crowded is keeping me going.

But walking . . . not so much.  One, it’s cold, and two, well, I don’t know what two is.  I just don’t want to do it.  Exercise is hard for me.  I can find forty million reasons I don’t like it and only one reason I do.  The one reason is that I know I’d look and feel better if I did it.  But unlike the thought of a clean house, that’s not enough to motivate me.  With the house, I feel somewhat sure that I will achieve that goal, if not completely, at least enough to feel like I accomplished something.  With my body, I just don’t trust that adding a small bit of exercise is going to help.  And did I mention I find it hard?

This whole idea got me to thinking about my students, specifically my middle school students.  Some of them give up when things get hard.  When it takes effort for them to wrap their head around something, they will often give up.  I wrote a little about this before.  Honestly, I know how they feel.  I mean, there are things I can’t motivate myself to do.  And I’ve been frustrated by many things in the past.  As an adult, when I’m learning new things, I know that perseverance usually pays off eventually.  But even as an adult, I know that it’s more fun to watch tv than walk, even if it’s only for a little while.

So I’m struggling to figure out ways to motivate my students.  Maybe a time-limit thing.  Maybe saying, “Okay, working on the robotic arm is hard, but work on it for x minutes and then take a break.”  I don’t know.  All I know is that some students just can’t find the fire in their bellies to forge ahead and I’m not entirely sure how to ignite it.  If I figure it out, maybe it will help me as well.

Making Technology > Using Technology

08. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

In a recent Georgetown University report on employment, one of the key findings is that those who invent and create technology do far better unemployment-wise and salary-wise.  This is something I’ve been touting for a long time and which organizations like CSTA and NCWIT try to emphasize.  Sure, it’s good to know the ins and outs of a spreadsheet program or word processor, but if you want real employability and a better salary, create something that solves a problem, whether that be software or hardware, an app or an entirely new system for managing energy.

Someone posted this to Twitter as well, emphasizing that despite indications that certain degrees fare better, students shouldn’t pick just based on that.  I agree, but I am also glad that I added technology to my own mix, making me much more employable than a standard English major.  And I’m glad I was an English major, focused on writing and communication as it made me better at what I currently do.  Most of the time, I translate technical issues for non-technical people and explain in technical terms what non-technical people want.  I love that aspect of my work, which has been present as part of my work for 10-15 years.

So, sure, do what you love, but find a way to add experience to your portfolio that makes your love of poetry relevant.  I added technology both through a CS class, and then as my work, building web sites and helping others use the technology at hand, which 20 years ago was a challenge.  Not everyone could use a spreadsheet or word processor well.  Now, that’s not enough to stand out.

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On (not) teaching applications

05. January 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

A discussion arose on an email list about teaching/using Google docs vs. Microsoft Word.  That discussion actually made it to Google+.  A teacher posted reasons why he teaches Google docs, the most important of which is about teaching concepts because applications change.  The conversation on Google+ is interesting and one I participate in at nearly every parent night.  The key point that comes up is that Office is used in the “business world” and won’t kids who use Google docs be at a disadvantage.  I’m in a slightly different situation in that all of our students are going to college.  I hardly think a lack of hard experience or a specific course in Word or the Office suite is going to keep them from a good job.  And using Word is not rocket science.  And, I always talk about and point out how similar docs is to Word.

Ten years ago, Google docs did not exist.  My students won’t be going on the job market for about ten years.  Who knows what will be around, what even Word will look like.  When I learned these things, you had to actually type in tags/codes to format documents.   Things have changed a lot, and I’ve adapted quite well, thank you.  So I teach kids to adapt.  I don’t focus on specifics of where functions are.  I encourage them to find it.  And I teach HTML and CSS and talk about how word processing used to be like that. And now, of course, you can make a web site (like this one) without even knowing those codes.  I still think it’s important to understand that there is code underneath all these programs, and that’s what I really try to emphasize in my classes, not how to italicize.

I’ve shifted my curriculum away from applications and toward Computer Science concepts as much as possible.  While there may be a group of students who would benefit from putting “proficient at Microsoft Word” on their resume, I’m guessing that “proficient at HTML/CSS” with an actual web site to show for it is going to put them a little more ahead.

Using the old to build new

04. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Yesterday in my intro to CS class, I introduced dictionaries.  My students started on some “simple” text-based game projects before the break and when I looked them over, I decided they could all use dictionaries even though that’s not something I had planned on teaching this year.  To explain dictionaries, I went back to lists.  The idea of both is that they serve as a place to store data and often, to pull data from.  Lists store all kinds of data, but there’s no way to associate the things in the list with each other.  For you non-CS people out there, a list looks like this:

["apples", "oranges", "pears"] – a list of fruits

[1, 5, "thirty", 25] – a list of numbers plus one number written as a string

A dictionary contains keys with associated values.  It looks like this:

{“apples”: 5, “oranges”: 2, “pears”: 3, “bananas”: 0} – a dictionary with keys as names of fruit and associated values, presumably the amount we have and yes, we have no bananas.

My students were writing games where they had questions (riddles or trivia) with associated answers.  I thought it a good idea to store those as a dictionary.  They had simply written out each question with a few following lines to check if the answer was right.

So, I reviewed lists, and especially iterating through a list, so that I could then show them how to iterate through a dictionary.  It was pretty interesting how difficult it was for them to remember how to iterate through a list.  You use a loop to repeat an action, which they’ve done before, but when they’d done it before, it was not in a context where you are using a loop to save time.  So, for example, we used a loop to repeat a series of movements on our robots.  Useful, but not the assembly-line kind of looping that one usually does with a list or dictionary.

I did find that once we went through that again, showing how to loop through a dictionary was pretty straightforward.  And though students had questions as they were implementing their dictionaries, they were less confused, I think, than they had been.  So I implemented a bit of my research-based teaching methods to review old material and connect it to new material.  And it seemed to work.  And, frankly, it was kind of fun.

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