July 2014 Reader on Coding in Education

I'm so glad that there's no shortage of new resources and articles on this critical subject!

NYC’s Flatiron School Raises $5.5 Million To Teach People To Code For A Living [TechCrunch]

Game Maven Teaches You How to Code While Making Games [Lifehacker]

Mozilla Webmaker Teaches You to Build Web Sites, Apps, and More [Lifehacker]

YC-Backed CodeCombat Wants You To Learn To Code By Playing Games [TechCrunch] - I sense a trend.

Roominate, Play-i, Robot Turtles and Littlebits Shake Up the Toy Industry [Inc magazine] - I'd love to see these toys in early education and elementary classrooms!

April 2014 Reader on Educational Games

Improving the World of Educational Gaming [Kotaku] - I agree wholeheartedly with the author here--the simplest improvement we can make is touting the educational aspects of everyday games while doing the opposite for educational games.

Trip Hawkins’s next act: If You Can, a startup for social emotional learning games. [Slate] - We have barely scratched the surface of the potential of these tools. Here's an example of a game taking a step in the right direction.

How a High School Teacher Is 'Gamifying' World News [Mashable] - Holy cow, I love this idea. If I was still in the social studies classroom, I would have loved this. It's important to note that educational gaming doesn't have to mean technology or video games; in this case, it's about gamifying the learning process of a While Side note: I experimented with fantasy sports in the math classroom years ago.

Immersive Video Games: The Future of Education? [Mental Floss] - Echoes a lot of what I wrote years ago for the Educational Games Research blog.

All the World's a Game: Interactive Map Gives Kids the Travel Bug [Mashable] - I always wanted to get that giant Hammacher Schlemmer world map, the one that would cover most if not all of one wall in your classroom, but this is way, way better.

New Online Learning Resources: March 2014

Whether you're using online learning for your students or yourself, the number of options is increasing by the day. Here are just a few:

10 OpenCourseWare Sites for a Free Education [Mashable]

Glean — Find the best videos in education for you [via Leilani Cohen] - A long time reader sent this educational video site to me, saying it could "eventually take the place of Khan Academy" in her classroom.

9 Dependable Destinations for Online Tutoring [Mashable]

Mindsy Wants To Be The Netflix Of E-Learning [TechCrunch]

This Free Course in Music Engineering Teaches You with Music You Love [Lifehacker] - It could be the start of a path to serious study or just for fun. Either way, this one intrigues me.

Spring Break 2014 Reader on Coding in Education

With 11K Pre-Orders, Play-i Lands $8M To Teach Kids To Code With Interactive Toy Robots [TechCrunch] - Coming soon! This is an exciting development. I heard a recent TED talk adapted for NPR about how robots change the way we react to technology, including how we end up personifying and thus engaging at a more meaningful level with them than other tech. What Play-i is aiming for rings true with that in mind.

3-Year-Olds Can Learn to Code — One Robot Turtle at a Time [Mashable] - The Logo programming (with its ubiquitous turtle) that I used to do on my Apple IIc had to have been part of the inspiration for this real world board game.

Why We Need Coding Clubs for Girls [GOOD]

Getting Girls Into Programming, One Children’s Book At A Time [TechCrunch]

Proof the Next Great App Could Come From a Kid [Mashable]

January Weekend Reader on Social Media and Education

They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets. [NYTimes.com] - This is one of the most important things we can ever teach our students about social media. They must understand what's public and what's not, how that's not always easy to figure out, and how that could potentially be viewed by potential colleges or employers.

Should Schools Teach Social Media Skills? [MindShift] - YES.

School District Starts Monitoring Students' Social Media Behavior [Mashable] - Not a fan of this.

Nickelodeon Vets Debut BatteryPOP, A Kid-Safe, Kid-Programmed Online Network [TechCrunch]

Survey: K-12 Teachers Unsure How To Use Social Media With Students and Parents [Business Wire] - Nothing that surprising here. Teachers cannot be afraid to use this as a tool in their vast arsenal.

Weekend Reader on Video Games in Education: January 2013

 

Video Games Make Your Brain Bigger, Study Says [Mashable] - This is why I keep focusing on this topic.

SimCityEDU: Gaming in the Classroom [Mental Floss] - It's no surprise to see the newest generation of one of my favorite video games being used as a learning tool. I learned to think creativity and solve problems from the earlier, less complex versions, and the skills involved in creating a city in this iterations is much more complex. Bravo to GlassLab and EA.

OpenEd: Free, Open Source EdTech Video and Games Resource for Teachers [The 21st Century Principal]

Video Games Are Teaching Our Kids to Succeed in the 21st Century | Catriona Wallis [HuffPo]

Five Ways that Games are More than Just Fun [GOOD]

Weekend Reader on Coding in Education: January 2013

CPS to make computer science a core subject [Chicago Tribune] - This is revolutionary, far more so than putting tablets or laptops in the hands of every child, and it's only the beginning.

Finland Eyes Programming Classes for Elementary School Students [Mashable] - I find this shift both wonderful and hilarious: in high school, Algebra 2 Honors students were required to take a computer science class as well (we were ahead of the curve) where we did programming in Pascal. At that time, most of my classmates wanted nothing to do with it. Nowadays, I think most students growing up in this digital generation would embrace coding courses.

Primo Is An Arduino Robot That Teaches Kids Programming Logic Through Play [TechCrunch]

For Low-Income Youth, Learning to Code's About More Than Jobs [GOOD]

Code Literacy Doesn’t Need To Come At The Expense Of Other Skills [TechCrunch]

Weekend Reader on Bullying

5th Grade Football Team Rallys Around Their 1st Grade Waterboy Who Was Being Bullied [Laughing Squid]

Bruno: Bullying Is Bad, But Do We Know How To Stop It? [This Week In Education]

Want to Squash Bullying? C'mon, Let Kids Play [GOOD]

Is Anonymous Social Media the Answer to Cyberbullying? [Mashable] - The headline of this article is both misleading and preposterous. It's actually a feature/review of a new app called Whisper, which sounds exactly like the scrapped PostSecret app (yet somehow this is never mentioned) in that people anonymously post secrets. In any case, let's think about that headline: social media is getting more personal and less private by the day. If anything, recent trends point to near transparency and the end of privacy as we once defined it. Facebook, Twitter, and other major networks are not going to make a huge left turn towards anonymity. Instead of posing pointless questions like this, let's ask questions that get us closer to real solutions.

Yes, Your School is Watching You - The Takeaway [via The Quick and the Ed] - A debate on monitoring social media as a way to prevent cyberbullying and other online harassment by students.

Weekend Reader on Large Scale Tablet Rollouts

L.A. school iPad program: Students should hack their tablets. [Slate] - A response to the news that L.A. Schools Now Taking Back iPads From Students Who Dare To Use Them For Purposes Of Fun (Consumerist).

EdTech: Chicago's Slow But Steady Tablet Rollout [This Week In Education]

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses [Wired] - This is the November 2013 cover story, and it's about a border town not too far from me (Matamoros, across the Rio Grande River from Brownsville, TX).

Valley becomes proving ground for innovation in educational programming [The Monitor (McAllen, TX)] - A local article on tech initiatives in my home of the Rio Grande Valley, including McAllen's iPad rollout (I was a part of the pilot group two years ago) and how our region is being looked at across the nation.

The iPad Goes to School: The Rise of Educational Tablets [Businessweek] - Across all of these articles, most educators will notice a central ongoing issue with schools and technology: schools and districts rush to buy the latest and greatest technology with the promise of better results, but rarely think about how to use it effectively until later.

I watched this happen over the past ten years with calculators, "clickers", laptops, software, the Internet, smartboards, and on and on and on. I'm not saying these devices aren't useful or important, but unless schools figure out ways to use them productively (and that doesn't mean using them as glorified textbooks), they'll just end up on the school tech garbage pile.

Weekend Reader on Coding and Education: November 2013

Teaching young kids algorithms. Wired, September 2013

Crushing South L.A.'s Digital Divide by Teaching Youth to Code [GOOD]

This Robot Can Teach Programming to Your 5-Year-Old [Mashable]

With Tynker’s New Service, Kids Can Learn To Code At Home [TechCrunch]

Schools Aren't Teaching Kids To Code; Here's Who Is Filling The Gap [ReadWrite]

Forget Foreign Languages and Music. Teach Our Kids to Code [Wired] - Appeared in the the October issue of the magazine.

Weekend Reader on the High School to College Transition

LinkedIn's New University Pages Help Teens Network Before College [Mashable]

Scholly Helps Students Find Their Ideal Scholarships On Their Smartphones [TechCrunch] - A useful app.

10 Differences Between Freshman Year in High School and College [Mashable]

How To Not Suck… At First Year College Budgets [Consumerist]

Closing the Financial Literacy Gap to Combat Student Debt [US News and World Report]

Colleges use FAFSA information to reject students and potentially lower financial aid packages [Inside Higher Ed]

Weekend Reader on Video Games and Education: November 2013

 

How gaming can help with your child's development [The Denver Post via The Quick and the Ed]

‘Funfair In Your Mouth’ Interactive Game Makes Kids Eat Their Greens [DesignTAXI.com] - A great proof-of-concept for using video games to influence real world behaviors.

MIT Unleashes New Online Game for Math and Science [KQED: MindShift]

Computer Games in the Classroom [Wall Street Journal]

What Games Are: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Videogames [TechCrunch]

Weekend Reader: New Ideas For The Arts In The Classroom

How To Introduce Kids To Tough Topics? Art And TV Can Help [NPR]

Integrating Arts and Tech Simultaneously: Four Lesson Ideas [The Inspired Classroom] - Great interdisciplinary ideas!

We Should Probably Turn Textbooks Into Comic Books [GOOD]

Powerful Opportunities for Content Creation & Publication in the Digital Classroom [The 21st Century Principal] - In short, let's use digital content creation as a ways to get kids engaged with the arts--writing, art, etc.

Stories aim to grow interest in math [ABQJournal Online]

Weekend Reader on Social Media & Education: September 2013

22 Simple Examples Of Social Media In The Classroom [TeachThought via Twitter]

Facebook Guide for Educators [Technology Enhanced Learning Blog via Twitter] - A free PDF on getting the most out of one of the world's most popular websites.

Broadcast Yourselfie: How teens use social media and why it matters to you [Brian Solis via Twitter]

7 Top Social Networks Among American Teens - Facebook is still there, although there's a huge debate raging over whether they're starting to turn away from it.

10 reasons we need social media in education [Life of an Educator by Justin Tarte]

New Apps For Educators: August 2013

Got a New iPhone? Here's 17 Starter Apps [The 21st Century Principal]

Teach with Your iPhone: Apps to Use in the Classroom [Edutopia]

Perfect Picnic [Partnership for Food Safety Education] - This iPhone/iPad game teaches food safety, aimed at kids ages 8-11.

Treehouse for iPad (via Lifehacker)

Treehouse for iPad Makes Learning to Code on the Go Simple [Lifehacker]

13 Apps to Keep Your Family Safe, Secure and Smart [National Fatherhood Initiative]

Weekend Reader on Community Service in Education

Let Students Design Their Own Social Change Projects [GOOD]

Blake Kernen: The Case for Community Service [HuffPo]

3 Ways to Use Microcredit to Invest Your Students [This blog]

The Complete Guide to Service Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum, & Social Action [Amazon] - A practical guidebook on how to incorporate service learning into your classroom.

What the Designated Drivers Campaign Can Teach Those in the Youth Service Movement [GOOD] - Finally, a reminder that we need to sell our students (and likely our schools and districts) on service learning to get them involved. It won't always happen organically.

Weekend Reader on Schools and Communities

I've been looking at recent articles with a broad lens recently, trying to tie together threads on community schools, Promise Neighborhoods and how every type of school can affect the whole community.

D.C. Non-Profit Program Develops "Cradle to Career" Pipeline [Ebony]

Linking home and classroom, Oakland bets on community schools [Hechinger Report]

A Philadelphia School's Big Bet on Nonviolence [The Atlantic] - This example follows part of the community school model, where the school broadening the support system in place to help students with problems that exist because of/within the community as a whole. Their amazingly positive results, especially in the face of such initial criticism, are an inspiration.

Luis Torres almost didn’t make it off the streets — and now he helps kids like him [NY Daily News] - A similar story to the turnaround discussed above.

Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family/school Partnerships [Amazon] - Finally, a book recommendation on forging better school and community relations, which I believe is just as beneficial for the community as a whole as it is for the school.

Weekend Reader on Social Media in Education: July 2013

How to Handle Students on Facebook [Educational Technology and Mobile Learning]

Non-Profit Uses Social Media to Crush Bullying [GOOD]

Ten ideas for using Twitter in the classroom [TES Community via Twitter] - Bonus, for the skeptics: 3 things you should know about Twitter [Learning with 'e's, via Twitter].

Educators learning to evolve as technology, social media changes teaching [Globalnews.ca]

Not using social media should no longer be an option... [Life of an Educator by Justin Tarte]

Weekend Reader on Entrepreneurship in Schools

Fishtree Blog — The Skills of Tomorrow Public speaking. [Fishtree blog via GOOD] - The author discusses whether entrepreneurship should be taught in schools.

3 Ways Schools Can Encourage Student Entrepreneurship [Edudemic]

Teach Your Kids the Value of Money with a Job Board [Lifehacker] - Teaching kids the value of work (and money) is a great way to set them on an entrepreneurial path.

How to Educate Next Generation of Entrepreneurs? Start by Reviving Financial Literacy [GOOD]

KidLead - A leadership training curriculum for kids ages 6-9. Leadership and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.

Weekend Reader on Games, Gamification & Education

Can Digital Games Boost Students’ Test Scores? [MindShift] - The short answer is yes, but it's also important to note that simulations seemed to have an even stronger correlation with better test scores. "We shouldn’t frame games, or any other instructional support, as ‘the answer,’" says one Gates Foundation official, but says that the data can't be ignored. "We should be careful not to view learning technologies as a replacement for deep teacher and student interactions. We see effective technology supports as enabling the opposite."

Is Gamification Just a Fad? [Mashable] - Short answer: no.

Games to keep teenage girls enthralled with math, science [The Seattle Times]

Videogames and Learning [blogs.worldbank.org] - A look into the research on how games can be effective in the classroom.

The Game That Will Save Zynga (And Mathematics Education) [This blog] - A learning game idea I came up with last summer, which seems appropriate given the game publisher's business woes. I'm still willing to hear your offer, Zynga.

Coming Monday: my take on gamification and education.