Recent articles
Super-Awesome Sylvia's Arduino heartbeat pendant
02/13/2015
Topics: Makerspaces, STEM & STEAM, Video
Super-Awesome Sylvia started making and tinkering when she was 7, and like a lot of kids, she loves to try new things. One year after visiting a nearby Maker Faire, she and her dad were inspired to create a web show about making.
In " "…
Flipped classroom 101
02/05/2015
Topics: Flipped learning
There's a lot of talk about the flipped classroom in education circles these days, but what it boils down to is this: Flipped learning is a teaching technique that uses video assets as the primary means of delivering direct instruction to an individual — rather than lecturing to a group — so you…
Documenting science with music videos
01/30/2015
Topics: Digital storytelling, Video
It’s generally a problem when students are dancing in a creek during science class. But not for middle school science teacher Brian Ravizza. He encouraged his students to sing and dance as part of a lesson where students created a music video to document their understanding of arthropods.…
Sitka's Fab Lab gives students real-world skills
01/16/2015
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Literacies, Makerspaces, professional learning, STEM & STEAM
To what extent and in what ways should digital technologies change career and technical education (CTE) programs in manufacturing? CTE teachers and administrators have been dealing with this question for decades, but recent changes in 3D design software and modern tooling, such as 3D…
ISTE Standards: Preparing students for the digital age
01/09/2015
Topics: Standards
Students expect technology to be embedded in their learning process. Yet understanding what technology integration is and recognizing what it actually looks like are two different things. To truly prepare kids for success in a digital world, educators need a common language for sharing ideas…
Computational thinking boosts students' higher-order skills
12/05/2014
Topics: Computational Thinking
Technology has certainly made many tasks easier and more efficient. What once took hours or even months — capturing and analyzing data, typing documents, searching for information, and sending messages around the world, for instance — we can now accomplish in a fraction of the time with…
Make music videos with your students for deeper learning
11/25/2014
Topics: Tools
" "Never eat soggy waffles!" " I thought this mnemonic device for remembering the points on a compass would be enough for my second graders to learn cardinal directions. As it turns out, all it did was enable my students to mindlessly fill in north, east, south and west on the test I had…
The do's and don'ts of pair programming
11/19/2014
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, STEM & STEAM
Even when you're lucky enough to have a 1:1 or BYOD program at your school, if you're teaching coding, you should ask your students to work in pairs. It might seem counterintuitive, but experts recommend pair programming…
Bring the learning to your students with iBeacons
11/13/2014
Topics: Mobile learning, Tools
Earlier this year I decided to set up learning zones, or geographical positions located around our school, where students could explore online learning experiences. But instead of sending students to these locations and asking them to complete an activity, I flipped it.
Using Apple'…
What the E-Rate changes mean for your school
10/23/2014
Topics: Advocacy
Last summer, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved some of the most sweeping changes to the E-Rate program since its launch in 1998. The E-Rate program, enacted as part of the Telecommunications…