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Use of Digital Learning tools in schools is expanding, with laptops, tablets and now STEM-based tools.  With this expansion the heavy charging carts purchased when schools started laptop programs no longer meet learning needs.  Likewise, STEM-based Makerspaces and Innovation Labs have gone beyond community-based programs to schools.  With this expansion, schools and students need solutions for powering and charging STEM-tools for collaborative use.  In this month’s District Administration news update, “Lockers give way to charging stations,” author Alison DeNisco writes about Albemarle County. These Virginia high schools are removing lockers and replacing them with charging stations and white boards.

It was a pleasure to have occasion to speak with Alison Dinisco about charging solutions that lend themselves to changing digital tool deployments.

And student devices are not the only tools that need power. The national STEM focus continues to grow, with digital learning tools such as robotics, virtual reality devices and 3D printers all needing to connect to an outlet, says Susan Wells, president-elect of the ISTE Mobile Learning Network.
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Retrofitting classroom electrical systems is prohibitively costly for most districts. Instead, Wells recommends deploying charging solutions that are mobile and that are able to work with different devices to prepare for future changes in technology.

In my TechTerraTM STEM training I use Copernicus Tech Tubs  for a digital charge, store and secure solution.  I am able to customize the Tech Tubs and transport iPads, laptops, tablets, robots, drones, digital cameras and my 3D Printer.  As schools examine ways to provide power to their digital tools, decision-makers must first consider flexibility so that changing program objectives are met.

Getting ready for my career change I’ve spent a great deal of time reading about effective educational professional development or PD. As a public speaker, consultant and trainer I’ve given presentations to teachers all over the world.  As a principal I’ve provided in-house PD for many years.  As an educator I’ve taken more PD hours than is easy to count.
Research and best practice are agreed on some effective practices.  Based on this research and my own thirty years of experience in public education here are some things I know for sure about effective professional development:

#1 Honor individual interests and needs, in other wordsdifferentiate!
#2 Learning must be deep purposeful & relevant.
#3 Presenters are best as curators & coaches.
#4 Including the four C’s  … Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity … works for learners.
#5 Pre-teach/Flip/Don’t be a sage alone on the stage.
#6 Get active; experiment, create, integrate, play, reflect.
#7 Continue the conversation & the learning.

If you’re in a position to plan training for educators please consider these seven steps to effective PD.  It is a privilege to present content and pedagogy to adult learners. Please make it effective and yes, enjoyable too.  Our greatest responsibility as trainers is to personalize learning for each of our participants.
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Keep reading
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/14/its-no-secret-that-most-professional-development-for-teachers-is-awful-less-well-known-is-that-some-of-it-is-great/
* https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?article=A+PD+approach+that+educators+love+(and+learn+from!)&articleid=446&category=Professional-development
* http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/02/what-do-we-really-mean-when-we-say-personalized-learning/
* http://www.pammarketingnut.com/2011/06/tweet-chats-101-41-success-tips-for-moderators-participants-guests/
* http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/21/what-a-student-learned-from-a-short-experiment-in-self-directed-learning/
* http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/12/13/5-best-practices-of-tech-leading-superintendents.aspx​

​What an amazing week it’s been! 23 hours of coding instruction. Every single student and staff member at E. K. Powe 
http://www.wncn.com/clip/10930574/ek-powe-elementary-is-todays-cool-school-for-dec-9-2014 
has had an hour or more of code. It’s been one of the most exciting weeks I can remember as a school administrator. Watching the thinking, collaborating and the “It worked!” moments of my students has been thrilling.


I started each coding lesson with a “human computer”, choosing a student to be the computer and walk a grid with commands. From there each group moved to the digital world of Lightbothttp://lightbot.com for collaborative coding. All the kids had an opportunity to work with multiple programs to learn that, as my 8 year ESL student stated,  “…the directions parallel each other!” What a great way to see that once you’ve coded directions indeed take a similar course.

So…what’s next? For our students at E.K. Powe we’ll be using our $10,000 Code.org grant http://code.org 
to expand our Makerspace with a 3DPrinter and Copernicus cart 
​http://www.copernicused.com/result_detail.aspx?group=3D-printer-cart&sku=TD5001  and two additional mobile labs of tablets, likely Dell Venues 
http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-tablets?#dell-venue&ST=dell%20venue%20tablets&dgc=ST&cid=270767&lid=4962884&acd=123098073120560
​or Samsung Galaxy http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab/ 
​These two tablets were named #2 and #3 best tablets of 2014 right behind the iPad Air. We’re working to get value for limited funds so we won’t purchase iPads for this round.
Finally with our existing and new labs I’ll be offering a Before-School Coding and Making Club for our kids. We’ll gather in our media center each week to continue coding and making too. Look for big news from Powe as our “Year of Code” continues!

My STEM gift-giving guide continues. Part II focuses on coding for kids. Why focus on coding? Because everything that runs around us has computer programming, or code, making it function and run. Learning to code allows learners to stop consuming and begin creating. And there’s another really important reason to learn, coding is fun! So take a look at my top coding app choices and grab a handful to include in your gifting this season. As you and your kids get started, head to Code.org http://code.org and sign the petition if you agree – “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science”. And then start learning with your first Hour of Code http://hourofcode.com/us during Computer Science Education Week December 8-14, 2014!

 1.  Lightbot and Lightbot Jr
Platform: iOS, Android, http://lightbot.com
Cost: Free to $2.99
Kids drag and drop basic commands including move, hop, light, and turn, into strings of instructions all led by a very cute programmable robot. This is a perfect starting place, begins with easy to attain success. As your child learns more the program gets more challenging.

2.  Tynker
Platform: iOS, Android, http://www.tynker.com/why-tynker
Cost: Free-$5.99
Tynker is one of my campers favorite coding apps. It provides games to teach programming. Kids engage with interactive learning modules, mini-games, coding projects and puzzles.
 
3.  Scratch Jr.
Platform: iOS, http://scratch.mit.edu
Cost: Free
Cost: Free
Designed by MIT students and staff in 2003, Scratch was one of the first programming languages created specifically for young people. Scratch uses a visual programming language made up of bricks to drag to the workspace and animate sprites. Various types of bricks trigger loops, create variables, initiate interactivity, play sounds, and more.
 
4.  Hopscotch
Platform: iOS, http://www.gethopscotch.com
Cost: Free
Kids make games, animations, stories, and other interactive programs by dragging and dropping colorful blocks of code. Use shaking, tilting, or even shouting at the iPad to control characters.

5.  Daisy the Dinosaur
Platform: iOS
Cost: Free
Daisy the Dinosaur is written by the makers of Hopscotch.   This game is written for the youngest coders. There is a dinosaur to move and basic functions to use.
 
6.  Cargo-Bot
Platform: iOS, Android, http://twolivesleft.com/CargoBot/
Cost: Free
Cargo-Bot teaches coding skills. The objective is to move colored crates from one place to another by programming a claw crane to move left or right, drop or pick up. Elementary students will learn the logical thinking required to eventually do text-based programming.

7.  Kodable
Platform: iOS, https://www.kodable.com
Cost: Free-$6.99
The free version includes the first level, Smeeborg, which introduces kids to the steps of programming, including if/then statements and loops. Additional levels include- Function Junction, which introduces functions, Bugs Below, to debug code; and Fuzzy Fun, playing with colors and letters.

8.  Bee-Bot and Bee-Bot Pyramid
Platform: iOS, http://www.bee-bot.us
Cost: Free-$0.99
Kids use a bee to move through easy puzzles with directional language, forwards, backwards commands and turns. This app can be a companion to the Bee Bot, programmable floor robot.

​9.  Cato’s Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey
Platform: iOS
Cost: $4.99
Takes kids on a story-based adventure through mazes to collect hearts and stars and find friends, using the logic of computer programming to guide their character.
 
10.  Move the Turtle. Programming for Kids
Platform: iOS, http://movetheturtle.com
Cost: $2.99
A friendly Turtle introduce kids to step-by-step basic concepts of programming in a fun graphic environment.

Somewhere early on really young kids turn a corner on excitement for STEM, science, technology, engineering and math, activities. Most young kids begin school excited about anything and everything involving STEM. And yet…far too soon kids are divided, kids begin to fail or to see themselves as failures. STEM becomes a club they just don’t belong in and are not smart enough for or don’t have high enough grades for. And this happens for many kids before they even leave elementary school!

UC Berkeley professor Martin Covington defines the Fear of failing –
If a person doesn’t believe he or she has the ability to succeed—or if repeated failures diminish that belief—then that person will begin, consciously or not, to engage in practices or make excuses in order to preserve his or her self-worth both in his or her own eyes and in the eyes of others.
 http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_help_kids_overcome_fear_of_failure

When we consider world-famous inventor Thomas Edison we might name him a grandfather of STEM education. Edison said some things that impact our thinking today regarding tinkering, experimenting, data collection and failure.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.” ― Thomas A. Edison
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“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
― Thomas A. Edison

As I have observed our youngest students, my own and so many others for 29 years in public education, I believe there are three ways we can help our elementary students avoid fear of failure in STEM education:

1.     Students participate, hang in there! Adults, find paths for accessible participation through collaborative cooperative hands-on learning environments! Try, persevere, once you’re in, you’ll be able to get an idea of the pieces and parts you enjoy and you’re great at. And they are there!

2.     Help students learn mindfulness and self-compassion in their own work as they succeed and as they fail. Young people, and all people with these skills, recover more quickly. They adapt to the ebb and flow of trial and error and the notion or experimenting.

3.     Build positive relationships. Caring is motivational. Attachment leads to motivation.
Let’s keep kids grounded in trying and tinkering instead of searching for the correct answer. Let’s help kids follow Edison’s lead to 10,000 experiments.
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For EdTechies around the country, around the world, “Conference” week has finally arrived.  Conference, otherwise known as ISTE is one of the largest annual international education technology conferences available for us.  There are many others, a dozen large, fifty smaller, but ISTE is the conference most can’t wait for each summer.

Getting ready… My new Mobile Learning Network shirts are packed.  The prizes and SWAG from vendors sent to the house for sessions and for Mobile MegaShare http://bit.ly/mobilemegashare14 are packed.  My mobile devices are semi-packed.  Chargers and power strip are ready for packing Thursday morning but will wait for that last charging.  My Makers supplies and hands-on materials for my Tuesday session are stowed and packed.  Next my back pack, no briefcase for me with so much to carry.  They’re packed light for now but will be too full…  Already have session notes and paper copies of slide shares, headphones, a pen, highlighter and notepad.  Finally snacks are packed.  Of course there’s plenty of great food in Atlanta but packing some healthy snacks in my briefcase works for me during the very full days.

Clothes are tricky.  Comfort is critical.  ISTE days are long days but every evening ends with opportunities for socializing.  This is really one of the best parts of ISTE.  There is no reason to sit in a hotel room or eat alone.  Check out the MLN and ISTE2014 Conference at a glance listings http://www.mobilelearningnetwork.org/?p=722 for evening opportunities.  Which comes back to the issue of clothes and packing.  Casual is absolutely fine but getting a bit dressed up in the evening happens for many.

Less than two days and close enough for a rather long drive this year, Atlanta here we come!  My sessions are listed below.  I’ll also be working the MLN Community Networking Fair on Saturday and the MLN Member Lounge Gathering on Sunday.  Stop by and introduce yourself.  I’d love to meet in person.  I promise to have great SWAG (Stuff We All Get) at every session!  Happy ISTE2014!

Mobile Mega Share
Friday, June 27, 2:00 pm–6:00 pm  GWCC A411
Join us for a MEGA opportunity to multiply mobile learning knowledge. Share, learn and collaborate! Recommended by ISTE’s Mobile Learning Network (formerly known as SIGML)
​ISTE PLN resources to help with your 1:1 implementation
Sunday, June 29, 4:15 pm–5:15 pm   GWCC B312
PLN leaders (1to1, Mobile Learning, Early Learning, Independent School Educator networks) share resources and information about 1:1 programs from their PLN activities and members. Recommended by ISTE’s Independent School Educators Network (formerly known as SIGIS), Mobile Learning Network (formerly known as SIGML)
Build your world: Mobile makerspace at the Mobile Learning Playground
Monday, June 30, 9:30 am–1:00 pm GWCC Building B, Level 3 (near Room B313)
Recommended by ISTE’s Mobile Learning Network (formerly known as SIGML)
Merging mobile, makers, and science education – Birds of a Feather
Monday, June 30, 5:15 pm–6:30 pm  GWCC B405
Explore and share resources for incorporating mobile learning, makerspaces and science. Spark interest using PBL, discovery, coding and building activities for collaboration and creative thinking.
ISTE Mobile Learning Network: Merging mobile with the maker movement
Tuesday, July 1, 11:45 am–12:45 pm GWCC Murphy Ballroom 1/2
Participate in hands-on making, explore mobile environments, and immerse students in nature, engineering and experiential learning. Bring innovation and fun to your STEM program! Recommended by ISTE’s Mobile Learning Network (formerly known as SIGML), Science and Technology Network (formerly known as SIGSci)

It’s time to get ready for summer camp. Afterschool camp ended only weeks ago but summer camp is different. We have a stretch of time to explore without boundaries and borders.

For that preparation takes longer. Many hours later materials and tools and supplies are sorted and a long list is up on the Camp Ed Tech Green Facebook site. That list stuck to building and hands-on challenges – Lincoln Logs, check…Duplos, check…Marble maze, check…Kapla blocks, check…Indoor croquet, check…Legos, check… It only began to scratch the surface of what’s available for kids to explore.

Another list needed to include Making supplies, recycled found items of cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, paper, cloth and tapes and glues and paint and tool kits to construct with, check…MaKey MaKey micro-processors to experiment with, check…BirdBrain Tech Finch Robot to program, check!

And of course Mobile devices to talk to the robot and the micro-processors and capture the incredible creativity and invention of the campers in video. And have a chance to learn an hour of code and then try out web-based and app-based code for fun! So MacBooks, iPads, Samsung Galaxy, Kindle Fire, Nook, Dell Venue…check! (cross-platform because it is never about the device it about the work that one imagines)

This past week the White House hosted the first Maker Faire and declared June 18th the first National Day of Making.  President Obama said, We invited you here because today is “D.I.Y.” Today’s D.I.Y. is tomorrow’s “Made in America.” Your projects are examples of a revolution that’s taking place in American manufacturing — a revolution that can help us create new jobs and industries for decades to come. …But what’s happening is, is that the young people now are able to learn by doing. So math, science all gets incorporated into the task of actually making something, which the students tell me makes the subject matter that much more interesting. 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/18/remarks-president-white-house-maker-faire

Summer and afterschool camps cannot be the only opportunities kids have to explore without boundaries and borders. We must give all students the best of education beginning immediately with this revolution. Merge mobile and makers, allow student imagination, interest and excitement to drive learning. Join the Mobile Making revolution!

​This one is for parents, certainly for summer camps too.  First remember my last post was about iMovies and documenting lots of time outdoors.  So, beginning there and remembering that the title of this post begins with the word -- summer--  I absolutely recommend getting outside and moving around a lot!  But sometimes we’ll be inside.  And sometimes we’ll be in the car.  And sometimes coding will just be great fun.  So for those times I want to recommend some terrific apps.  In this post I’ll introduce a favorite, Lightbot.

I’ve talked about Lightbot http://light-bot.com CEO Danny Yaroslavski here before.  My Camp EdTech Green kids had the opportunity to Skype with him this spring.  He was gracious, patient, instructive and kind with these young students.  His coding program Lightbot was available web-based through http://code.org which was my where students began their coding work.  Lightbot became a great favorite.

Danny, as he introduced himself promised the kids he’d have cross-platform apps available and he has met his promise.  Lightbot Jr Ages 4-8 and Lightbot Ages 9+ are out!  The kids are thrilled.  They are sure they heard it first, and directly of course from Danny the CEO.  They’re thrilled too because they can keep playing one of their favorite computer coding games.  My kids understood with Lightbot that they were in charge of telling the robot what to do, that they were writing the procedures and debugging the problems.

Lightbot is a win for summer fun.  A group of after school students from first grade through fifth have already chosen it as one of their top coding programs, for learning sure, but for a really good time absolutely!

​TECH SOLUTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

This year my teachers are working with iPads as personal tools each day.  We’d love to provide students with these tools in a 1:1 configuration, just not there yet with funding.  In the meantime we have mobile learning labs for students…iPads, iPod touches, NetBooks and MacBooks.  Digital Cameras too.  Tech integration is alive and well and getting better all the time.

Using iPads, making iPads your go-to tool when they’re new to your toolbox is challenging. Thank you to Richard Wells for the illustration above and for breaking this down into small parts.

At Mobile Learning Equity we’ve actually been talking about this, recommending it since iOS began.  The iOS platform is incredibly powerful and can be amazingly simple taken in small bites.  To begin, for teachers and students, we’ve recommended four tools.  Working with the power of a search engine [Safari], notes [Notes], photos and videos [Camera] that can be saved, organized and sent and a reference tool [Merriam-Webster Free Dictionary] that speaks and listens we believe is a terrific start.  See the app icons below.

Teachers have plates that were already full before the year began.  As November approaches don’t feel guilty if you’re not using fifty apps.  Or if your iPad sits unused under piles of work to be graded and and displayed and prepared.  Instead give yourself permission to try just four tools for the next weeks ahead.  And then just enjoy for a bit.  You’ll get to fifty or maybe… you don’t actually need fifty…

Safari                                      Camera                          Notes                                Dictionary

SIGML Mobile MEGAShare is an opportunity to collaborate with other mobile educators from across the country for a pre-conference free event June 22nd from 2-6 pm. Mobile learning is exploding around the country and around the world. No one person, school, district and/or organization knows everything in this emerging field.  MEGA Share provides a forum where mobile learning educators can sit together, share and learn from each other. There will be experts facilatating collaborative share sessions with rotations, so you can attend the topics that you find most interesting.  There is no charge for MEGA Share.  Instead an incredible opportunity to learn from experts in the field and share your own expertise!

With MEGA Share ISTE SIGML is leading “Mobile Share!”

With this event we’ll also begin a week of “Mobile Share” asking conference attendees to bring with them to conference all mobile devices they’re no longer using and donate them for redistribution to Not-For-Profit schools and organizations identified by ISTE SIGML.  We’re accepting all tablets and handhelds including eReaders, iPads, iPodtouches, and even laptops.  For this project we’re partnering with the Kramden Institute to refurbish the equipment for us prior to redistribution.  Attendees who would prefer not to travel with the extra weight of devices can ship directly to the Kramden Institute marking their donation “Mobile Share”.  All donations are tax exempt.

SIGML MEGA Share Registration link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oEaOQzG-f-ruSng-Nsi9mKt6lvh0W8OCsyFHmHA2rI4/viewform
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For Additional information email [email protected] or see:
http://kramden.org
http://www.isteconference.org/2013/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=81651111&selection_id=82644976&rownumber=13&max=20&gopage=
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