Recent articles
6 ways to help students manage their smartphones
09/11/2018
Topics: Assessment, BYOD, Computational Thinking, Curriculum, Digital Citizenship, Flipped learning, ISTE Standards for Educators, ISTE Standards for Students, Learning spaces, Mobile learning, Online learning, Parent engagement, professional learning, Technology infrastructure, Tools
Helping students manage smartphone use might not seem like the type of subject that schools should be teaching. But given how widespread cell phone use is among teens and how broadly devices…
5 things you can do to bring computer science to all your students
07/24/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking
There’s no doubt that in today’s world, computer science (CS) is foundational knowledge for all students and coding is a foundational skill — just like reading and writing. Yet many schools, especially those in low socioeconomic areas, don’t teach computer science because of a lack…
Embed computational thinking into PBL
07/17/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, ISTE Standards for Students, STEM & STEAM
Like many of my students, my daughter, Anisa, is very familiar with using electronic circuits to make designs …
4 ways to make CS for all a reality
05/24/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Literacies, Makerspaces, professional learning
Kimberly Lane believes that in the digital age, computer science (CS) should be right up there with reading and writing as a foundational skill.
Lane, blended learning specialist for Lancaster Independent School District near Dallas, walks the talk by helping educators…
Students build coding skills block by block
04/19/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Gaming, Robotics
New knowledge is constructed by building on what we already know, making connections by tinkering with new combinations of familiar blocks.
In the same way that a musician improvises new melodies, or a poet constructs new juxtapositions of sounds, words and images, students…
Students use computational thinking to analyze real problems
03/27/2018
Topics: Computational Thinking
The poster boards on display in an Oregon middle school gym illustrate a wide range of student concerns and passions. One features data on the incidence of breast cancer, another highlights the percentage of women versus men in Congress since 1970 and yet another illustrates the effects of…
Computer programming in 4 steps
03/20/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Robotics
At the secondary level, core computer science (CS) concepts and practices are taught in courses typically within the…
How to develop computational thinkers
02/22/2018
Topics: Computational Thinking
The demand for computer science (CS) in schools has many teachers wondering which components of CS they should implement first.
A couple of years ago, I asked myself the very same question, and I had to remind myself that creating a computer scientist could take up to…
4 ways to help students get workforce-ready
01/10/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Literacies, Makerspaces, professional learning, Project-based learning
Being a student should be a little like being an apprentice preparing for life in the real world. But when school is nothing like the future workplace, that goal is impossible to reach.
So what will the real world be like when students enter the workforce? We hear a lot about…
Weigh in on the ISTE Standards for Administrators
12/18/2017
Topics: Assistive and adaptive technologies, Augmented reality, Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Education leadership, Gamification, Gaming, Literacies, Makerspaces, Personalized Learning, professional learning, Project-based learning, Robotics, STEM & STEAM
“Leaders get people moving. They energize and mobilize. They take people and organizations to places they have never…