Everyone loves Raspberry Pi(e) - right?

Raspberry Pi

This weeks tech toolkit is going to go down a different path than my previous ones. This week I am going to talk about a relatively new product called the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is a barebones, cost effective computer system that can run on very little power, and do very basic computer operations. It’s possible to build a camera, an alarm clock, a jukebox and more.

This is a little different in that I actually would be teaching the technology itself - however the takeaways for the students would be much more than that. As I dive deeper and deeper into the world of technology I’ve learned that coding is a very interesting way of solving problems. To code you first start with the idea of what you want to do, and then you dissect it into steps. Once you  know what steps and functions your idea needs you start creating, step by step, the code needed to do it.

A really basic example would be if you wanted to write a code that lit an LED up with red. First you have to tell the LED light to turn on. Next you need to tell it to turn red.  Two simple steps - but the point is to dissect every goal into manageable bite sized steps.

I think creating a jukebox or even alarm clock would be a bit too difficult and steep for any young student to take on by themselves, so I would implement this as a classwide collaborative project.  We would, as a class, decide what it is that we want to create. Do we want to create a button that plays a specific song? An alarm bell that goes off at lunch?

The idea behind this 'ideation phase' would be to allow the children to get creative. I can't even imagine what different things they would come up with that they'll want to create!  Once we dissect the ideas and land on an appropriate project (with a little teacher guidance, so we don't end up building a giant ninja robot) we'll move on to the next step.

The second phase would be the breakdown of the functions. If we are building an alarm clock what does that mean? It will need to know what time it is. How will it get that information? It will need to know what to display. It will need to know when to change. And it will need to know when to ring.

I would then separate the children into groups to do some research (these would be instructions that I provide) on how to write the code that will give them the result that they want. It's important to note that these pieces of code would be very simple and basic. I don't actually know anything about how to code yet, but I found this script online that would accomplish the 'alarm clock' task, and for the most part it's easy to intuitively get a sense of what code does what :

import time

import os

showhh = str(time.localtime().tm_hour)

showmm = str(time.localtime().tm_hour)

name = raw_input("Enter your name:")

print "Hello, " + name + "\n" + "Current Time:" + showhh + ":" + showmm

alarm_HH = raw_input("Enter the hour you want to wake up at:")

alarm_MM = raw_input("Enter the minute you want to wake up at:")

print "You want to wake up at " + alarm_HH + ":" + alarm_MM

def alarm():

   hh = time.localtime().tm_hour

   mm = time.localtime().tm_hour

   if hh == alarm_HH and mm == alarm_MM:

      print "ALARM NOW!"

       #os.system("mpg321 /home/pi/voltage.mp3")

   else:

       pass

  

def main():

   while True:

       alarm()

if __name__ == '__main__': main()

A lot of this code I wouldn't actually make the students write, because the actual code writing is not the most important part of the project.  By the end of the project the kids will have been exposed to the world of computer coding - hopefully enough for them to get a sense of if it intrigues them or not. I also hope that they get some valuable experience in a new kind of thinking, collaborating, and problem solving.

I think this kind of project is important because although it is highly technological and although it IS teaching the students 'how to use the technology', it also teaches them and exposes them to a whole new subject matter that they might not otherwise get to learn about or check out. I think we need to embrace and dive into technology as a teaching tool without being afraid of getting 'too technical' because I think that fear becomes evident to the students, and I certainly don't want to discourage them from diving into the subject just because it's intimidating and new to me!

Tech Tool Kit # 2

Tech Tool Kit #2 9/17/15

Cloud based communication has been growing exponentially throughout the years. From Dropbox, to Google, to Amazon, to Apple, there are many different ways for information to live on the cloud, and countless ways to access that information.

I envision the adoption of cloud based technology as something that will revolutionize education. The benefits of making information instantly available to everyone who could benefit from it are obvious, but the implementation is much more tricky. Identifying the ways that cloud based communication can increase classroom efficiency are tricky, and even trickier is figuring out the ‘how’ of that implementation.  

One current example of this is an app called ClassDojo (https://www.classdojo.com/) ClassDojo is an instagram-like service that allows teachers to share students work with their parents. According to teacher reviews, this app does a great job at encouraging active participation between school and home life. It also motivates the students to be more active because students know their parents will see their work. You can also push messages out to parents, and the app will notify you when a parent has read your message, or viewed your post.

Because this app is a mostly one way communication tool, it is very important for the teacher to use it consistently. Parents can show their appreciation with ‘hearts’, which are essentially the ClassDojo equivalent of Facebook’s ‘Like’ button, however they cannot write anything that other parents will see. This is a very important thing to consider, as ‘collaborative social media’ such as Instagram or Twitter invites everybody into the conversation - which would be important to me if I am dealing with a disgruntled or unstable parent.

For this technology to be beneficial there would be a crucial step at the beginning of every year to engage parents and convince them to download the app. It’s tough to anticipate how difficult this would be at first, but I believe with a positive history, good word of mouth, and consistent use, it would become easier to convince parents over time. It would be important for me to convince parents to download the app and participate, otherwise the technology becomes useless.

One plan for rolling out this app that I think is best for everybody is to take a ‘strength in numbers’ approach. If an entire school system uses a technology like this, and a parent is able to get updates on all of their children’s classes, including reminders for field trips, a communication channel to the instructors, and a direct feed of all classroom activities, then the value of the app to the parent grows exponentially as opposed to if it was just for one class.

With this in mind my first step would be to get the school board and other instructors on board to attempt a school-wide implementation, or at least create a plan for implementation over time.

This technology can be a great tool to benefit students in several ways, but again it only works if everyone is on board and puts forth the effort. I’m very interested in continuing to find ideas and ways for students to connect their school and home life for more immersive learning and more parental engagement, but the idea that the biggest obstacle will be teaching the other adults (parents and other instructors) is a bit daunting. It can be very difficult to change someone’s mind, or to convince them to try a new approach, especially if they are already doing what they perceive to be working well. The key here would be to convince them of the critical role that technology has in the classroom, and that adopting these changes will present challenges at first, but opens the door to a much better educational experience for everyone involved, and overall I think we can all agree that this is the number one priority.

Tech Tool Kit #1

Tech Tool Kit #1  9/3/15

If you haven't heard of Google Cardboard I would recommend looking into it. It's a simple device made from cardboard, a couple lenses and a magnet. You insert your smartphone and it becomes a virtual reality device that is both fun and engaging. We're talking about interactive 3D virtual reality! The thing I love about this technology is that you can take your students anywhere; an art museum, a historical site, into nature, or even underwater. A lot of the places that you're able to visit virtually are places that they've probably never been and might not ever visit, at least until they're much older. Google Cardboard could allow for a more engaging, more entertaining, way more memorable and immersive classroom! A major pro to google cardboard is that it's cost effective. A google Cardboard device only costs 15-23 dollars new, but it can easily be found used for much cheaper. However this does not include the cost of a smart phone that is required for the device. A con that still needs to be addressed is the issue of Google Cardboard requiring a smart phone. Where would I come up with smart phones for all of my students? Some students may have access to their own cell phones, however it would be supplemented to not exclude students who do not. Perhaps parents could send their student to school with their phone if possible, although this might be a challenge again if the family doesn't have a smart phone, or if they don't wish to part with their's for the day.

I would roll this out by introducing the technology to the students with a very exciting demo first to get them interested in using it. I think it could add immersion and activity to textbook lessons about history, geography, art etc. And let the children really see the scale of some of the places that are discussed. The technology is absolutely an integration tool, as the content is the same content you'd teach from a webpage or book, but with an amplified 3D, fully interactive experience. Of course some of the places to 'travel' to via Google Cardboard might not fit into lesson plans. Google Cardboard may not have a specific place or concept that I'll be teaching. I think Google Cardboard is more than just a teaching tool. I think it adds an interactive visual experience for restless students. I hope to one day teach 1st or 2nd graders, and I know that a lot of kids at that age have a lot of energy. I think Google Cardboard may act as a way for them to release some of that energy while learning. They can feel like thy are in a museum, aquarium or even outer space. They'll get to experience wonder IN the classroom.

 The device itself is extremely easy to use, and the set up and technical side of the technology is completely separate from the application. They aren't learning about 3D visual effects, accelerators in cell phones that track movement, or any other concepts of virtual reality, it is strictly an education based on the content that virtual reality provides.

So What? A reflection on growth directions

I've taken in a lot of new information and ideas this week, but nothing quite resonated with me as much as Ken Robinson's Ted Talk on changing education paradigms.  In class I saw  his talk that was edited down with very helpful illustrations, but once I got back home I went in search of the full video, and found this speech posing the question: "Does education kill creativity?"

Coincidentally I am taking a psychology course this semester as well, and there was a tiny tidbit that connected in a very disturbing way.  In learning about behavioral psychology we were assigned a video about Twin Studies that briefly mentioned the fact that we are growing ever closer to a future where parents can choose what genes to eliminate from their child, including the gene that creates a predisposition for bipolar personality disorder. I'll explain how the two are connected, but first a little on what I learned about the foundation of our academic system.

In Ken Robinson's speech he argues that as we grow older we are taught to live inside our heads, and slightly to one side. We have an educational system that doesn't treat creativity with the same status as literacy, although it is just as crucial.  Our education system is built on teaching people how to think vertically vs. laterally. This type of thinking works great for math and certain sciences, but completely ignoring lateral thinking leaves people unable to try different things, see different outcomes, and ultimately being afraid to fail.  Historically our school system is built with the premise that the very worst thing you can do is to make a mistake.

Public education systems were conceived in the intellectual culture of the enlightenment and the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century.
At this time, in the enlightenment period, certain types of deductive reasoning and knowledge were equated with intelligence. This established the traditional basis of what subjects we consider "Academic" (Such as literature, math, sciences, etc.)

As we get closer to present day we see these same values in place - importance placed on "Academic" Subjects and creativity and the arts being mostly ignored and left behind. When you hear about public school budgets being cut, those are usually the first to go.

The big issue is that, while this system does work really well for a few, it leaves many different types of people believing that their skills are not important, and that they are not good enough. We see certain traits of hyperactivity, or the inability to think without moving around, and we end up medicating our children.  We're holding children to standards set in an entirely different world - one that wasn't so constantly bright, interactive and stimulating. They are bombarded with billboards, tv ads, music, and laser focused media, and then we wonder why they can't focus on educational curriculum that were conceived 100 years ago, and that aren't engaging their personality types on any level.

It is not a radical or new idea that creativity and the arts are extraordinarily important in today's world, but regardless of the research, evidence and ideas being there, change can be really hard.  But it is important, right now, more than ever.  I mentioned earlier the video that described the not-so-distant future that will enable parents to selectively remove genes from their unborn child's DNA. The one example given was the gene that predisposes a person to bipolar personality disorder. This doesn't mean that if you eliminate the gene you eliminate the disorder, but it greatly reduces the risk of your child developing it. It seems like a clear cut win for science - until you learn that there is a link between the bipolar disorder and creativity. Suddenly you recognize the trade off. You eliminate the risk of the disorder, but at what cost?

For me, the scary take away is that we are at risk right now of losing creativity in our society. We're not educating people on the importance of the arts and creativeness, we aren't demonstrating personal and cultural value to those things in our school system, and consequently we are imparting the overall message that those things may be fun, but really aren't that important.

Now our students will grow up to be parents and have kids of their own - in the not-so-distant future where they may be given the option to reduce the risk of a personality disorder in exchange for giving up a trait that, unfortunately, they grew up being taught wasn't all that important. A trait that was medicated out of them, and a trait that they were told would "never land them a good job."

It's not that far fetched to say that creativity is at risk of becoming endangered. The world has many great artists that are revered and will be forever remembered, from ancient past to present day.  How many artists already have been victims of our current education  hierarchy?  How many will be victims of gene selection as an indirect result of the message we send about the importance of creativity?

The answer to those very important questions depends on one other - what are we going to do about it?

History of Education

9/16/15

 

After reading an overview on the history of education - from ancient Greece to near present day, I’ve found several things that completely took me off guard.

The first piece of information that I didn’t expect came from the system in Ancient Greece. I learned that females and slaves were not allowed to attend school, which wasn’t in itself surprising, but they could receive tutoring for the purpose of home-schooling the young children under their care. It’s extremely difficult to imagine that a society that holds debates in such high regard would maintain a system that seemingly acknowledges a woman’s ability to not only learn but also teach the same concepts as anyone else, yet denies them the rights to education. The denial of education makes sense when you’re talking about human slavery because information is power - and obviously these societies do not want their slaves to have power. Despite this, I can’t help but wonder how it was decided what was taught to women and slaves and what was restricted. Were they only allowed to learn basic concepts? Could they be educated to the same extent that a 5 year old would for example, but no further?  This is definitely a topic I would like to explore more, but my initial research is producing a lot of conflicting information. For now I’ll move on to the next topic.

The second fact, or maybe person, that surprised me most was Thomas Jefferson. I had no prior knowledge of his role on the shift of the school curriculum away from bibles, church theology, latin and greek, into more traditional academics such as science and math. There is a very persistent patriotic myth that America was “founded as a Christian country” and I often see posts on Facebook and other websites claiming that the government is extracting God from schools, and that their child should be allowed to pray because this was America.

So I was very surprised to learn, having only been exposed to the ‘patriotic’ idea put forth in Facebook memes and chain e-mails, that one of the founding fathers played a major role in shifting school curriculums away from religion.

Not only that, but Jefferson also believed that democracy works when all people have access to the same education. Since he believed that all people had the same potential for acquiring knowledge, making schooling accessible to everyone would create an educated population where representatives could be appointed (since everyone is, supposedly, of similar intellect) to run the country.

To me this means that our basic educational functions in America are flawed because the availability of quality education varies so greatly based on region, income class, race, and so many other factors. We are not providing equal education to all American citizens, whether it be students who are too poor to go to college or even urban schools that don’t get the funding they need. Students may have access to a paper that says they’ve completed high school, but even that does not necessarily mean education. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education and National Institute of Literacy that I found inline,19% of high school graduates graduate without the ability read.

With this new knowledge that at least one of our founding fathers drafted the constitution based on the idea that our country would provide it’s citizens with equal educational opportunities makes me realize what a critical role education is playing in the growth or decay of our country.  And it absolutely makes sense. For democracy to work the way it intended, there needs to be an educated and informed population.  

The most shocking thing of all was the realization that from Ancient Greece through to today, we still are not providing education equally to everybody. I haven’t found my answer yet as to exactly what the viewpoint was in Ancient Greece, but it is clear that for Modern America we’ve known quite literally since the beginning that one major component to a working and functioning society and government is equal access to education. We can look back at Ancient Greece and talk about how awful it was for them to deny education to a specific ‘lower’ class of people - but I’d hope that doing so would result in us looking at present day selves and recognizing that we are committing the same terrible act, only under different circumstances.

Teaching as Autobiography Reflection

My elementary school years were split evenly between two schools. The first school I attended was in Richfield, Minnesota, which is a suburb just outside of Minneapolis.

Last week in class we did an exercise where we had to write down the names of all the teachers we remember, and it got me thinking about one particular moment with my second grade teacher in Richfield. In class we had reading groups, and based on what group the teacher decided we were in, we had a different book assigned to us. I remember it felt like the different reading groups were ranked based on how well you could read. The kids that I thought were in the lower reading groups were assigned picture books, which they read in a small group with the teacher. The rest of the class did assignments at our desks. Each group would meet in a small group with the teacher during class, but it seemed well known among the class that the better readers were assigned harder books to read at home. I remember being in the top reading group, being assigned Mr. Poppers Penguins. I got home to do my reading of the book, but couldn't make it past past the first few pages. I kept getting stuck on the word vacuum. I would lose my place, have to restart, then get stuck on another word and forget what I read. Then I would repeat that process. Over the weeks I pretended as if I had read the assigned chapters, until we were required to have read the whole book. I hadn't even started it. The teacher kept asking if I finished the book over the course of a few days, reminding me that I was the only one in my group who hadn't finished the book. The rest of the group was ready to move onto the next book. One week the teacher seemed really upset with me for not having finished it, and I broke down crying in class. I Admitted that I couldn't finish the reading. I felt ashamed and not good enough, and I saw the look of shock on my teacher's face. I don't think she was aware of how much I struggling, that I hadn't read any of the book, and that I was so embarrassed. I was placed in a reading group below that one, which I did well in. But I remembered my teacher based on that memory. Why did she publicly call me out for not having finished the book? Was it right for her to put us in ranked reading groups that other students knew about? In the Teaching as Autobiography by Nieto we read last week, the author talks about inspiring or wounding a life as a teacher, and that it's important to confront your identity. I definitively felt wounded by the experience with my teacher, but I got over it. Now that I reflect on it from the perspective as a future teacher, I begin to wonder about how the teacher must of felt. She was clearly shocked when I burst out into tears in class and I can't help but wonder if that moment had as strong of an effect on her as it did on me.