Do You Wanna Build a Robot?

Guiding Today's Learning with the Tools of Tomorrow

We have all heard the saying about “...preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.” While that may be true, the best preparation for a future yet to materialize is to let go of the idea that we, the educators, are responsible for preparing them for the future, at least in the way traditionally thought. It is more necessary for educators to step out of the way and to let the students take control of their own learning in order to foster engagement, authentic growth, and innovation.

Rob Austin & Lee Devin, the authors of Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about how Artists Work, describe innovation as a process where managers need to forget about the traditional destination and journey mindset. The idea that someone has to have a crystal clear objective in order to justify movement toward a goal, at least as we know it, is becoming obsolete. In truly innovative environments, collaboration, flexibility, creativity, and growth mindsets can lead to the discovery of new paths rather than a predictable route to success. When we work with our students to facilitate the realization of their creative ideas, our students can develop necessary skills for the modern workplace while becoming leaders that guide their own success. Setting students free to create and innovate is interesting in theory, but how does this look in today’s classroom? 

At Eaton High School, William Gilbert’s Computer Programming students investigated possible uses for innovations in virtual reality technology prior to being tasked with coding and creating their own tools, geared for the same purpose. Students were given the freedom to imagine other applications and uses for this type of technology and began inventing their own VR programs designed to meet real needs predicted for future learners and workers. After learning about the educational benefits or virtual reality, many students began working on utilizing VR technologies in the workplace and school settings and have even begun testing their work in the context of their existing classrooms.

Business Academy students in Tabatha Everett’s Entrepreneurship course were given the challenge of studying and determining future viability of an up and coming technological business model in their Pokemon Go AR Challenge. These students used a case study of Niantic's Pokemon Go app, from a previous Virtual Enterprise International Competition, as a model for mobile augmented reality use in business. They studied usage trends, obstacles for expansion, effects of the app on user quality of life, modifications and additions to the game, as well as the company’s efforts to meet user demand. 

The student led part of this project allowed them to critically explore real questions surrounding the game, the technology used, and future opportunities for AR revealed by Niantic’s venture. Students then created a proposal of their own for marketing with augmented reality integration in other business areas. Some of these proposals explored the potential for business partnerships through integration of AR, virtual dressing rooms for purchasing clothing, and virtual showrooms where consumers experience product features of items like furniture, cars, or appliances. One group even outlined the potential for online AR marketing events with real rewards for consumers. The students exploration of this innovative platform allowed them the ability to dream about untapped ways this technology can be used to impact the future lives of consumers.

Another group of students in Donny Pharr’s Introduction to Aircraft Technology courses researched commercial drone use and considered business models, laws restricting flight areas, and other logistical factors related to commercial drone aviation. After completing the initial research process, students were given the task of creating their own plan to re-purpose drone technology for the benefit of school district sponsored events. They were given the freedom to invent ways this technology could enhance experiences at high school sporting events. The process resulted in groups outlining utilization of drones for concession stand food delivery at NISD football games. They mapped out geofencing boundaries around the NISD stadium as a foundation for designing their delivery service, via drone technology. This real world scenario was conceptualized by allowing students to creatively think about solutions for the problem of crowded venues and long concession lines at NISD events. They met various obstacles and limitations while working their way through the learning process, which resulted in them constructing their own ideas for innovative and practical use of existing technology while visualizing the potential for drones to breed entirely new careers. 

While these classes are just small examples of student exploration and innovation, they are prime instances of the ways learners can begin to dream about the future and how their own educational journey can forge a new path that previously did not exist. Of course, just removing all classroom guidance and parameters for students is not what is being suggested. Whether your students are part of specialized areas such as these, or whether they are searching to connect existing content and skills to real life, giving them the freedom to explore possibilities for applying skills beyond the classroom is what will open up their imaginations to new ideas. Simply put, if we present problems for our students to solve and then step out of their way in order to let them dream, fail, learn, and innovate, we can facilitate results that outshine anything previously imagined and students can forge incredible new paths for their futures.

Giving Students the "Keys" to Engage

Many adults falsely assume that the current generation of students is lacking any sort of work ethic, loyalty, or desire for learning independence. Some mistakenly stereotype an entire generation of students as full of apathy and an inability to think critically or engage with a world outside of social media. What many fail to see is that we are educating a generation of individuals who may have more intrinsic motivation than we realize. The challenge we face is not how to teach students these qualities but to find ways to bring them out in our students and give them opportunities to apply the necessary thinking to content as they learn to grow and develop the skills we desire to see.

In her 2011 BarnardCollege commencement address, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, encouraged graduates to, “…find something that stirs your passion, a job that matters to you and matters to others. It is the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. It's also a very clear path to happiness.” The students we work with each and every day have a real desire to do just that. A 2017Harvard Business Review article quoted one student as saying, “I would rather make nothing and love going to work every day than make a ton of money and hate going to work every day.” This mentality seems more common among current students and when classroom teachers create purposeful opportunities for those students to help guide them through curriculum, we allow for true “student-driven” instruction that puts the learner behind the wheel and dials into passions, in turn, fueling that intrinsic motivation for learning. Many times, observing the work of academy students at Northwest ISD is the ultimate example of student-driven instruction and is an incredible opportunity for students to spark passions and develop innovative ideas that they are encouraged to pursue as part of academic course work.

In his first year at Eaton High School, Canaan, a Business Management and Entrepreneurship Academy student, was brainstorming for a Junior Achievement Company idea and had a desire to do something that had a “real effect on the world” or solved a real-world problem. He also happened to read an article about human sugar intake and how it was linked to diabetes, cancer, and other health problems. As Canaan continued his research, he watched a documentary on the topic, which spurred him to begin tracking his own sugar intake for about a week. He started tracking it on paper and saw that his own sugar intake far exceeded the amount recommended. His research supported that this was not uncommon and Canaan's very startling discovery prompted him to think about how important is was for people to understand and be aware of this issue. Through his research and continued tracking, Canaan’s interest in this area grew and he wondered if there was an easier way for people to track their own sugar intake. He found few apps and tools online to help and even researched some of the major personal health trackers. While looking at some of the more widely used digital trackers, he found that their primary function was to count calories and fat and that most of them grossly underestimated grams of sugar in foods he consumed. Canaan knew there must be a way to create something to meet this increasing need and started looking for courses at school that would help him pursue this new found interest.

Canaan eventually signed up for William Gilbert’s web applications course where he could acquire basic knowledge for coding and building apps on his own. Mr. Gilbert recalled Canaan approaching him about one of the course assignments and asking to incorporate his ideas for sugar tracking. Mr. Gilbert said that “He changed the assignment when he came to me about his research and asked me to allow him to do something different and more complicated.” Gilbert allowed Canaan the opportunity to pursue his area of interest and Canaan turned it into Bloom, an app for sugar intake tracking. 

Canaan has since continued to update and work on his app and has an entire notebook, or journal, for ideas he plans to incorporate. He did say that he was a bit disappointed that there were only so many courses he could fit into his schedule to advance his desire to code and develop apps. However, Canaan continues to record suggestions from classmates and gathers outside feedback to help him continue developing ideas for evolving his app. He plans to develop this web based application that can also be accessed from a computer or a smart phone and wants to incorporate a variety of convenient features in the future to help with more accurate tracking of sugar intake.

Without the opportunity provided in our BME academy to creatively think about societal needs and possible business ventures and without the willingness of Mr. Gilbert to hand over the “keys” to learning to his students, Canaan’s idea would not have come to fruition. It’s his personal drive to make a difference and the willingness of Canaan's teachers to facilitate and open up this opportunity that drove Canaan to conceptualize his "passion project" while also learning useful and relevant academic skills.

Mr. Gilbert’s web applications course also allowed three other innovative students an opportunity to develop tools that not only met a course requirement, but also addressed a need in the Eaton UIL community. Nate and two of his peers, Devon and Nate, are part of the Eaton UIL computer science team. While at competitions, they noticed that results were usually printed on a single 8½ x 11 sheet of paper and posted on a wall in the school cafeteria for a bunch of students to crowd around and try to decipher. They felt that this method of sharing competition results was much “more difficult than it should be” and they worked together to develop an app that works with current University InterscholasticLeague (UIL) event tabulation procedures for electronically communicating competition results. 

The app was deployed at an Eaton UIL competition last year and worked incredibly well for electronic dissemination of news updates and scores and efficiently communicated rounds and results to all students and coaches. Nate said that he liked how the app “alleviated a disconnect between scorers and competitors.” It worked so well that these students decided to add in speech event tabulation to the app for the 2018 Eaton UIL tournament. The feedback from their endeavor was all positive and noted how well these students served a legitimate need in the school community.

Another group of students who utilize passions and skills acquired through academic course study can be found in Eaton High School’s Book Club, sponsored by the EHS Library Media Center. Crystal and Jasmine are prominent book club members and say they joined book club because they school helped them to acquire a love for reading and they wanted to connect with friends who also loved to read. Jasmine, specifically, appreciated that Mrs. Sarah Thomasson took an interest in her, as a new student who was previously home-schooled, and showed her that she could reach out to others in the group by joining book club and getting involved with the YouTube channel, called "ISBN Thinking," produced by its members.

The channel was started after members students, who had an interest in other online book reviews, realized that they had all the skills and resources necessary to produce something similar, and according to Crystal, “We knew we could do it better.” The students worked with Mrs. Thomasson to utilize library resources for recording of online book talks and originally used a back room in the EHS library for producing and editing of their videos, which they learned to do with the knowledge gained in several of their classes and with the help of Mrs. Thomasson. The EHS Book Club meets during lunch shifts or Eagle Time to film and they have produced video reviews of books available through the Eaton High School Library. These students also make an effort to cover all of the North Texas “Battle of the Books” texts and involve all twenty-two members of book club in reviewing books and filming talks.

The group is currently not posting new videos because they are in need of a new location for filming and hope to find a suitable and accessible location at EHS very soon as they have plans to increase filming on a more regular basis and to organize the group with a set schedule and structure that they believe will provide added online and library traffic. These students love being able to share their own passions for reading, critical analysis, and video production through this very relevant educational outlet that is meant to strike a love for reading in other EHS students.

Obviously, there are an innumerable amount of opportunities for students at NISD to find and pursue individual passions through academic study. Allowing students to take control of those opportunities and push themselves forward are what will empower and motivate them to positively engage with and change their community. These students are part of a generation described by many adjectives but apathetic, disengaged, and lazy should not be part of them. This generation is motivated to go above and beyond in pursuit of things that are important to improving the world around them if educators will only help them to engage in content in ways that interest them. With an amazing wealth of tools to help students access those opportunities and fuel the desire to do more than consume technology and resources they can create in ways that will permanently benefit the world.

Kinder CAN Code: Exploring Computer Science Week With Our Youngest Learners

The 2017 Computer Science Education Week took place this year December 4th - 10th. Originally the Hour of Code was designed as an introduction to computer science and to reveal that anybody can learn the basics of coding. Computer Science Education Week is held each year in December to celebrate the birthday of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).

Library Media Specialist, Kelley Valdez, at Roanoke Elementary recently led her campus through a month-long exploration of Computer Science. When planning for kindergarten Hour of Code, Mrs. Valdez said she wanted to make sure that the exploration not only hit on aspects of computer science education but also incorporated kindergarten specific TEKS. The lesson had a hands-on Robotics component where students had to collaborate, problem-solve, and communicate with a team to move their robot mouse through an alphabet "maze" and then she provided an opportunity for "solo" time to put their hands-on learning to practice via the app Beebot and for some classes, the app The Foos.

Mrs. Valdez approached her library lesson with a few goals in mind for her youngest learners. She explained that she wanted students to understand that computers and robots do not work on their own. During the lesson, she shared with her learners that robots and computers need human interaction (programming) to give them the needed steps to perform the task. She also wanted students to have the opportunity to work with a team as well as working on their own.

Katelyn Cole is a Kindergarten teacher whose students experienced the coding lesson taught by Mrs. Valdez. Mrs. Cole explained that during the library lesson Mrs. Valdez talked about how computers don't speak English like us, they speak in a different way called code. Mrs. Cole explained that the kids were taught to program what they wanted the mouse to do with arrows and entry buttons. Mrs. Cole also shared that Mrs. Valdez taught her students that computers will remember all steps you tell it until you "clear their minds". The Foos and BeeBot were apps that carried over into the classroom and both incorporate programming and coding in order to make a character move to reach their destination.

Through the two activities, students were able to work on letter identification, observing and describing the location of an object and ways that object can move, as well as use terms to describe the location. Luckily for these kindergarteners, the learning did not stop in the library.

Mrs. Cole continued what her students had learned in the library into her own classroom Her Students were challenged to think more critically and collaborate with each other in order to reach a goal. Mrs. Cole believes that “not only is this a growing job for our future kids, but it is also an opportunity to use our Ranger Learner Actions- Listen, Think, Wonder, Connect, Persevere, Collaborate, and Reflect. These are skills that are crucial to the development of young learners! At Roanoke Elementary we believe in instilling all of these learner actions early, to help develop well-rounded and problem- solving students.”

While working with the hands-on robot, Mrs. Valdez set her kids up for success by skillfully designing her lesson with great management and instructional strategies One key point that made the experience powerful was her use of color-coded jobs to allow everyone to participate in the activity. One student (color) might be the programmer, while others are in charge of positioning objects in the maze and providing feedback to the programmer as they work to figure out the program to get their robot to complete the assigned task. When Mrs. Valdez reflected on her coding lessons she shared, “It is always heart-warming to see how students really pull together during the Hour of Code to help each other out of the "pit" or a struggle."

For the learners at Roanoke Elementary their experiences with coding do not stop in Kindergarten Mrs. Valdez explains that she makes plans to build upon each grade level experiences during the Hour of Code to increases the rigor from year to year. All grade levels have a hands-on robotics component and a solo app/program based component. Each year students graduate to a more complex robot or a more rigorous task that increases the level of coding required to complete the task.

Mrs. Cole’s class practices coding during small group days in math and in the mornings before school starts. Mrs. Cole’s students look forward to their time working on The Foos and BeeBot. This has been a positive reinforcement tool she has used to help students stay focused on other jobs and complete work. It's also been a great tool to practice teamwork and collaboration. Mrs. Cole believes coding has been wonderful for emphasizing that talking about ideas solves the problem faster than arguing or trying to solve the problem alone. Mrs. Cole will be submitting this experience to Expo 2018, she said: “she hopes that she can share with a larger audience what our experiences have been as young programmers.”

According to Mrs. Valdez, the Kindergarten students at Roanoke Elementary were actively engaged in problem-solving throughout the hour and put their Ranger Learner Actions into practice. They were able to make the connection between their thinking and action to the way that their robot or app bot moved. Mrs. Valdez did a phenomenal job in December designing her lessons to use technology as a tool to enhance the learning experience for her students while building a bridge to what can happen in kindergarten classroom when we believe in the power of coding.

Don't Put Away Your Fidget Spinner Just Yet

Fidgets spinners are supposed to help students sit still and focus. On the contrary, many teachers are saying, it's having the exact opposite effect which causes students to loose focus.  But, students in Mrs. Fryar’s, 6th grade Tech Apps course at Wilson Middle School, are not losing focus.  They were challenged to create digital spinners all while strengthening critical thinking and problem solving skills.

So many spinners! pic.twitter.com/OleRynuEq9

— Karen Fryar (@KarenFryarArt) May 12, 2017

Students went right to work discovering how coding on Scratch worked.  They were able to question their understanding and take it deeper, by helping others find answers to the questions they still had. With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.  

Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century

 

ISTE Standards

4. Innovative Designer - Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

4a Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

4b Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.

4c Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.

4d Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

"Smart" Storytelling

Last summer Melissa Quisenberry, the Library Media Specialist at Seven Hills Elementary, discovered a few tools that encouraged students to learn emerging coding skills. She immediately began brainstorming ways to integrate coding to allow students to learn and problem solve while working on literacy skills.

"Derek is a wonderful writer and storyteller so I knew that he would be able to use those skills to create a dynamic piece. We started off with the app itself. Since this was new to both of us I urged him to create his Hopscotch code first. I showed him the different features such as changing the colors of the lines and changing the characters. We discussed angles and the commands to enter to make the characters move in different directions to create shapes. Then I let him work with the app and he created his design which became a school."

After he created his code, Derek began to write his story. His code became the illustration for his story and he used it for inspiration. He wrote a great story about monsters working together to build a school because monsters need to go to school, too, right?

He then used Screencast-o-matic to record him reading his story while his Hopscotch design played. "If we were to do this project again, now that we really know how to use the app, we would begin with writing the story first and then moving on to create the illustration."

Derek had an opportunity to share his "smart" story with an audience at the 2014 TechnoExpo.