Pics & notes from makerspace and inquiry classes at @Chadwick_Int! #d3CI #STEAM #elemedchat #MakerEd

I had such such a great day observing a couple of classes at Chadwick International School as a prequel to Design Do Discover CI (which begins later this afternoon). @AngiChau and colleagues at The Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA founded Design Do Discover (D3). At some point, the head of Castilleja was chatting with the head of The Marymount School in New York City, so @JaymesDec got involved in planning an NYC edition of D3. D3 evolved into an annual summer event which alternates between the West Coast and the East Coast. Separately, Jaymes met Andrew Carle (@tieandjeans)  and Gary Donahue (@GaryMDonahue), both of Chadwick, over the years at Constructing Modern Knowledge. This fall, Andrew approached Jaymes and Angi about launching a D3 in South Korea. I saw Jaymes tweet about #D3CI and jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this experience. Fortuitously, I planned on being in Asia anyway to visit my besties in Bangkok and help launch edcampBKK (the first edcamp in Thailand!), so it all worked out pretty perfectly. 🙂

Here are some snapshots from Gary’s class where students collaborated on Grade 4 Garden Design Challenges. I loved that the class teachers are in the classroom learning/facilitating as well:

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Here are scenes from Andrew’s awesome inquiry class exploring yurts as part of a Grade 3 study of Structures:

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And here are some random pics from around Chadwick International School’s campus.The school is massive and modern with lots of bright, airy learning spaces:

Pics from @BrynMawrSchool’s innovation lab. Thanks for the tour, @KennedyKristen! #edcampIS #MakerEd

A highlight of today’s @edcampIS at @BrynMawrSchool today was my awesome tour of the Innovation Lab from their Director of Innovation, Kristen Kennedy. Like many maker-educators I meet, Kristen taught herself most of what she knows, and she continues to learn constantly. The Upper School lab spaces were previously occupied by other departments (Art, languages, technology), and were revamped two years ago to be agile, flexible, and collaborative learning spaces for fabricating, making, and tinkering. Architects designed the spaces and Kristen’s colleagues (including Director of Technology, Justin Curtis) made choices for location, mobility, permanence, storage, and use of equipment.

Writeable surfaces abound:

Long flat storage areas and counters for work space (with tools mounted on the walls above) were important features to consider:

There is a HUGE Shopbot (under a fascinating ventilation system) and lots of other fun machines including a vacuum sealer, drill press, lathe, table saw, multiple 3D printers, laser printer, etching machine, and more. Larger items are often on wheels to make them mobile and allow for them to be easily moved out of the way and under counters when not in use:

The space also allows for many areas to showcase past and current projects:

As for classroom learning strategies, I learned a few from Kristen including why there was a container of mini ducks. I sometimes encourage students to “ask three then me” in order to get them to ask each other before continually seeking answers from just me. The duck takes it a step further; rather than ask the teacher or a classmate a question, they are encouraged to “ask the duck” — this made me laugh out loud.

I also learned that Kristen is a fan of Rocketbook Wave and the Rocketbook app. I’d only ever seen the Kickstarter campaign for the notebook that can be reused by heating it up in a microwave, whereupon the ink disappears and the papers are again free to be written upon. Kristen makes photocopies of Rocketbook pages, hands them out to students to write on, and then uses the free Rocketbook app to snap a pic of each page. Thus, she gathers and organizes PDFs of student notes into their class’s section (using the symbols at the bottom of the page and the QR code). From the Roketbook app’s download page:

The Rocketbook app works in conjunction with the Rocketbook Notebook. Rocketbook allows people to enjoy the pleasure of writing in a traditional paper and pen notebook, while digitizing all notes and sending them to the cloud, using your smartphone.

This student is working on an app. I blocked the child’s work to preserve her intellectual property. The kids at Bryn Mawr School are encouraged to be entrepreneurial and create products that will be purposeful and lucrative!

Kristen told me she’ll be offering a PD workshop for teachers this summer. Stay tuned!

Incomplete notes from Sunday’s @Arduino course led by @bbq_d at @PioneerWorks_

My friend Alex Steinberg (@EdTechAlex) from The Churchill School recommended an Intro to Arduino programming course led by his friend Dave Sheinkopf (@bbq_d), Director of Education at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. After having taken the 4-hour course this past weekend, I too can vouch for Dave’s expertise and enthusiasm. His next class is December 7, and like Alex, I totally recommend taking it: http://classes.pioneerworks.org/collections/classes/products/physical-computing-with-arduino-an-intro-to-interactive-electronics-may-session

Dave covered a ton of information in 4 hours. We wired analog and digital inputs and outputs and wrote some short yet powerful programs in the Arduino environment (similar to C++). My incomplete notes are here. The two pieces of software we installed for the course are here:
1. Arduino 1.0.5 http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
2. FTDI Virtual Com Port Driver http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Here’s a gallery of photos from the class below…

Education Think Tank hosted by @DellEdu today

Google Doc from Education Think Tank

Livestream/photos from Education Think Tank

Eventbrite description of Education Think Tank

#DoMoreEdu Twitter hashtag

So, it was a great experience to be at a roundtable with many people I know and respect from the education world. I felt conspicuous as one of the few teachers in the room (and from an independent school no less). I also felt like a rabble-rouser, as I stated early-ish that in my opinion technology is really about engineering and robotics and programming, whereas much of what we were discussing was social media usage and new media literacies. (Just last week, I presented about this at PNAIS, citing Henry Jenkins‘s new media literacy skills…)

However, everyone in the room understood that students need access to a plethora of devices and online resources, teachers need to be enabled to promote sound technology integration, and school leaders need to offer opportunities for collaboration and effective professional development while marketing their best practices/successes for a wider audience. Below are the topics touched upon today:

•  How can technology serve to transform teaching and learning? When we say “educational transformation”, what does that mean and how do we get there?
•  How do we increase access to technology and make it a priority in Districts to maximize learning?  Are 1:1 environments attainable?  If so how? Where does equity fit in?
• What does personalized learning look like and how can it be established? How do we move Districts, educators, and other stakeholders to embrace this concept both in and out of school?
• What is, or should be, the role of social media in education/the classroom and how can it be utilized for professional development?
• How do we engage school leaders in a conversation about the important role of technology and social media in education?  How do administrators support innovation in the age of accountability?
  

At the risk of leaving anyone out, present around the table today were: @NMHS_Principal (moderator), @tomwhitby, @InnovativeEdu, @adambellow, @Edu_Traveler (a parent at @The_School), @kenroyal, @drbpchinni, @erikendress, @timeoutdad, @agarry22, @kishizuka, @kjarrett, @MichLampinen, @teach2connect, @snowwhiteatdell, @paulallison, @susanmcp1 , @PMicheleGlaze, and @SpecialKRB (me).