Technology helps fund projects

Teachers around the country are using technology to find additional funds for their classrooms. Some of those avenues to funding, such as Donors Choose, have been around for a couple of decades.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Oliver Hurst-Hiller and Kirk Smiley of Donors Choose (https://www.donorschoose.org/). Their organization supports teachers by inviting them to make modest proposals for such items such as specialized technology, books, alternative seating, and more. Using an interactive web site, potential donors review these proposals and select the ones they wish to fund in whole or in part. For the past 20 years, over 54 thousand of these projects have been fully funded.

Recently I was surprised with a gift of a card I could use to make a $100 donation through the Donors Choose page. By simply typing in Saline’s zip code, I found a number of proposals by teachers within fifty miles. One proposal, the only one for Saline, had been made by a teacher at Saline’s Alternative High School. After reading her proposal, it was a thrill to help one of Saline’s newest special education teachers, Ms. Courtney Brothers.

Her proposal, Flexible Learning for All!, had the goal of helping her young adult students by creating a classroom they felt comfortable in. Not only was her instruction differentiated, but she believed the classroom needed to be as well. Some of her students required physical assistance and a variety of sensory inputs so her plan was to add specialized furnishings to their classroom.

Within hours of donating the $100 to her project, I was delighted to see that others from around town were also donating various sums of money. Within three days, her project was fully funded, months ahead of schedule.

During my days as a teacher, there were several mini-grants I had applied for. Some I received and some I did not, but I think I certainly would have tried Donors Choose.

Courtney Brothers and her student, Dani.

Teacher Education Network Newsletter

ISTE Teacher Education Network (TEN) publishes a monthly newsletter. I have been impressed by the scope of these newsletters for a couple of years now.

This month's newsletter covers the new alphabet of technology in teaching: AI, VR, AR, for example. If you don't know about those acronyms or are not sure, check out their January 2019 newsletter.

Image source: public domain and modifiable

Coding Fun

I am teaching an overview of Emerging Technologies for Teaching next semester and just wanted to share an excerpt from one of the modules.

My friend from New York just sent me a link (actually she tweeted it to all her many Twitter friends). Check it out and watch her robot (and a couple of sharks) dance to Cheap Thrills by Sia.

By clicking the "How it Works" button at the bottom, you will be able to create your own and join code.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. along with millions of teachers around the world who are bringing coding to children (and adults) of all ages.

Here is the code for this particular dancing robot show.

Of course, this is in Blockly, if you want to see the real JavaScript code behind the curtain, so to speak, it looks like this:

var dancer1;

whenSetup(function () {
  setBackgroundEffectWithPalette("sparkles", "rave");
  makeNewDanceSpriteGroup(2, "SHARK", "row");
  changeMoveEachLR("SHARK", MOVES.DoubleJam, -1);
  dancer1 = makeNewDanceSprite("ROBOT", dancer1, {x: 200, y: 200});
  changeMoveLR(dancer1, "rand", -1);
});

atTimestamp(6, "measures", function () {
  changeMoveEachLR(sprites, MOVES.Dab, -1);
});

atTimestamp(8, "measures", function () {
  changeMoveEachLR(sprites, MOVES.Roll, -1);
});

atTimestamp(10, "measures", function () {
  changeMoveEachLR(sprites, MOVES.Clown, -1);
});

atTimestamp(4, "measures", function () {
  changeMoveEachLR(sprites, MOVES.Drop, -1);
});

Once you click "ReMix" you will be prompted to join code.org. Please do so.

You will then be able to modify the code for the dance, change the song, change the characters, change the dance, and more. Be experimental and click the drop-down boxes to modify the types and numbers of characters. With a few clicks, I added 8 dancing dogs under a disco ball being led by a moose in a jacket. 

Play around with the code and SHARE your resulting dance with me. The level of complexity is up to you and, just remember, this is what students today are learning how to do. Blockly is the gateway to JavaScript.

Have fun.

Coding for Kids

I've been learning how to do simple programming using some of the devices students are using in classrooms today. Below, I learned how to create a thermometer using a little device called a Microbit.  

Here is a video I made when I finally got it to work. Next step, create something using the compass and the built-in accelerometer.

Alexa in the Classroom

Sometimes we get opportunities to help undergraduates examine topics in greater depth by guiding them through a research project. One of our undergraduates in Teacher Education, Zachary Wilson, wanted to figure out how teachers are using voice-activated assistants in their classrooms. You might know the Amazon Echo better as Alexa and that is what the students in Ms. Bell’s third-grade class call her.

When they talk about her, they refer to Alexa as “Miss A.” so as not to confuse her. They know she is always listening.

The following video is just a taste of how these voice assistants are being used in two classrooms in Saline Area Schools. Over the summer, Zachary and I hope to develop an interview protocol and put our survey in the field.

We love the Woo Hoo, Technology dance at the end.

360-Degree Cameras

360-degree cameras are falling in price, slightly. The EMU Library recently purchased a number of them for use by faculty. The Special Interest Group allows them to explore how they might work in their own teaching.

Today, the first of 13 faculty teams took a training provided by LTEC Professor Michael McVey. In two weeks, the team of Jones and Copeland will get theirs and put it to use in their teaching.

One of the faculty members in the session today considered ways of attaching one to one of her drones. Another thought it would work well in the Point of View (POV) mode to capture a shopkeeper’s exchange during a study abroad. Imagine watching from start to finish a patron ordering a croissant and a cafe au lait, in Paris, to get a sense of the rhythm of the language.

Those were just two of the ideas that came up in the first few minutes with these cameras. I’m looking forward to many more.