8 Great Ideas to MAKE Back to School 2013 Memorable

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

Start the year off with hands on!
Think you need to wait for kids to settle down and learn the basics before you let them do projects and hands-on work? Not according to this expert teacher.

Making the Case for “Making” in the Classroom
Check out my new book - Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Educators can use the tools, technology, and “can-do” attitude of the global maker revolution to revitalize learner-centered education. A teacher PD book club read, perhaps?

Marketing your tech vision. What message will you share?
What message does your Acceptable Use Policy send when it goes home with students for them and their parents to sign? This year, change overly complex, negative language to language that celebrates the potential of technology - and students.

Games for collaboration and teamwork
Want to create a more collaborative, constructivist classroom? Instead of traditional icebreakers, try these games that encourage collaboration and teamwork.

What do students want from teachers?
Listen to what students say they really want from teachers. And no, it’s not “more recess.”

Student technology leadership teams for laptop and BYOT schools
Are you getting more devices this year? Laptops, iPads, iTouches, netbooks or going 1:1? Do you have enough tech support? Enough support for teachers using new technology? Enough support for students? No? Well then learn how students can be a great resource when to ease the burden on overworked teachers and IT staff - and mentor other students. Student run “Genius Bar”, anyone?

Ten commandments of tech support
Ten ideas for making technology support more learner-centered and less network-centered.

8 Big Ideas of the Constructionist Learning Lab
Last but by far not least, if you are looking for some inspiration to post on your wall, here are 8 Big Ideas of the Constructionist Learning Lab. These eight ideas give actionable advice to create opportunities for deep learning for all. (Also in Spanish)

Happy back to school! MAKE it a great one!

Sylvia

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Should we teach all kids to code?

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

This is a comment I put on the blog post: We’re Not Ready To Teach Kids To Code: Think Kids Should Learn To Code? Teach The Teachers First. It said, ”We need a paradigm shift in education before we even dream of making coding part of the curriculum.”

My response:

I don’t think we can wait. My answer to this is yes, you are right… but we have to do it anyway. We have to teach kids to code as a necessary part of that paradigm shift. Changes as big as this need to come both bottom up and top down, and we all have parts to play in making that happen.

We have to teach teachers to code so they know what it feels like to think that way. We have to change our institutions and curriculum to match our ideals. All of this sounds impossible, and yet, must be done.

I refuse to say it can’t be done and give anyone an excuse not to try. Are we completely, perfectly, ready? No. Must we do it anyway? Yes.

There will come a time when kids insist that the education they get at school at least meets the expectations they have developed for education outside of school, and parents like your mom will be there to make that case.

I’m not waiting - and from what I’ve read about The Estuary, you aren’t waiting either. So why say we aren’t ready?

In my new book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom, we make the case for programming as a necessary skill for students to understand the world around them, and tackle how teachers can learn to teach in this brave new world.

Sylvia

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Posted in Generation YES, professional development | 1 Comment

Tech support for students, by students - easier and better than ever!

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

Well, it’s been a quiet summer here on the Generation YES blog, but I can assure you, that’s because there’s been big things happening under the surface!

First and foremost - the GenYES tools and curriculum have undergone a MAJOR upgrade. That’s good news for all our veteran GenYES schools because they now have access to cool new tools for student tech support teams for FREE!

All GenYES schools have permanent licenses for the online tools and curriculum. We know the challenges of sustaining a good student program and we want to make this road as smooth as possible!

The new GenYES has a slick new interface that helps GenYES students plan classroom projects (called Technology Assistance Projects - TAPs) for any teacher in their school. GenYES teachers can easily manage their student tech team, assign students to projects, and monitor progress. As GenYES students become experts in school technology, their personal GenYES profile updates with their new tech skills.


Student Tech Leader Dashboard

The new GenYES system was designed with the help of the GenYES students at Shadow Mountain High School in Paradise Valley, Arizona. (More about that shortly!)

We try to walk the talk of student voice and student empowerment whenever possible!

Find out more about the new GenYES here.

Sylvia

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Q&A: How Students Can Help Teachers Use Technology for Learning

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

From Common Sense Media

A thirty-year veteran educator, technology trainer Lisa Hogan teaches students and faculty in Topsham, Maine to better use new digital media tools to transform learning as part of Maine’s innovative 1:1 laptop program. We talked with her about how technology is changing learning and her school’s student-led iTeam.

Common Sense Media: Tell me about your school’s iTeam. Who’s on the team and what do they do?

Lisa Hogan: They are a group of high school students that help me support teachers. They help with the deployment and collection of 900 laptops, which means they must come to school as early as 5:30 a.m. for deployment. They also attend professional development days and help me help teachers with projects they want to develop.

They’ve also created a video for faculty and students about caring for laptops, and have presented their work to international visitors from Sweden, Denmark, and Singapore. The kids actually give up their lunchtime to work on the iTeam. The iTeam includes everyone from athletes to musicians, and they aren’t even exactly what I would call tech-savvy kids, but they’re willing to learn. They keep me informed about what’s going on with the school network such as slow downs or blocked websites. They’re a good voice to have within the school.

Read more of the interview on Common Sense Media

Sylvia

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Did you know Google Reader is going away?

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

Google is a company that likes to release products in “beta” - meaning, “we’re just dating” not getting married to the app. They support lots of products for a while and then when they feel they’ve had their day, shut them down. Google Reader, although a particular favorite of many blog readers, is being shut down on July 1.

There are other alternatives for RSS readers (See Larry Ferlazzo’s post The Best Alternatives To Google Reader Now That It’s Being Shut Down).

Just click this link to automatically subscribe to the Generation YES Blog with a variety of readers, or even get the blog posts in your email!

But Google seems to be betting that RSS is not the way most people get their news. This blog is also available through email, Facebook, or by following me on Twitter or Linked In.

As they say, the only thing that never changes is that everything changes!

Sylvia

PS ISTE is coming up next week - the “big daddy” of all educational technology conferences. Check out our exciting lineup of sessions and events!

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Speak Up 2012 report: “From Chalkboards to Tablets: The Emergence of the K-12 Digital Learner”

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

“The results being released today show that we are indeed in a new world. And we as adults need to learn from kids in this instance. We need to learn from students about how they learn, where they learn, and how they seek information. I believe we must harness this information to give all students a 21st century skill set to prepare them for high-growth, high-demand jobs in the global economy.”-U.S. Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

Project Tomorrow has released the Speak Up 2012 report: “From Chalkboards to Tablets: The Emergence of the K-12 Digital Learner”

This report is the second in a two part series to document the key national findings from Speak Up 2012. In 2003, The Speak Up National Research Project was born to give K-12 students a voice in critical conversations, and to hopefully provide their parents, teachers and administrators with new insights about the expectations and aspirations of these newly minted digital learners. Now in its tenth year, the annual Speak Up National Research Project and the resulting trends analysis provides a birds’ eye view of the changing environment for digital learning, both in and out of school.

Why is this important?

If you are working in a school, district, or organization planning your educational technology vision, you need to know the latest data on technology usage from the real users of technology. Don’t be satisfied with what you think you know about technology - find out! In fact, poll your own students on these same questions. If you are one of the smart schools that participated in the Speak Up data survey, lucky you! You are getting your own customized set of data for your own use. If aren’t participating - make plans for next year now!

Key Findings from this year’s report

  • With smartphone usage dramatically on the rise - 65 percent of students in grades 6-8 and 80 percent of students in grades 9-12 are smartphone users – a main concern among today’s digital learners is how to leverage the unique features of different devices, from laptops to smartphones to tablets or digital readers, and use them for certain academic tasks.
  • While only 21% of teachers in middle and high schools are assigning Internet homework on a weekly basis, 69% of high school seniors, 61% of high school freshman and 47% of 6th graders are online at least weekly to find resources to support their homework.
  • In just one year, the number of middle school students with a personally acquired, digital reader more than doubled from 17 percent in 2011 to 39 percent in 2012.
  • In fall 2011, 26 percent of students in grades 6-8 said that they had a personal tablet computer. In one year’s time, the percentage of middle school students with tablets jumped to 52 percent, a doubling over the 2011 percentage.
  • Despite this increase of mobile devices in the hands of students, schools are still reluctant to allow them. Among high school students with smartphones, only half say they can use their device at school and only nine percent of students say they can use their personal tablets at school. With 73 percentage of high school seniors saying they have a laptop, only 18 percent of the Class of 2013 say they are allowed to use their personal laptop at school.

Download both reports!

Sylvia

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ISTE 2013 Roundup - Student Leadership, Hard Fun, and More!

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez
iste2012collegeyeskids

ISTE 2012 - GenYES students discuss education with the Malaysian Minister of Education

We are looking forward to another fantastic ISTE - the grandmother of all education technology conferences. This year ISTE will be in San Antonio, Texas June 23-26th, 2013. Generation YES will be there in force (meaning kids!) GenYES students from local San Antonio schools will be showcasing their teacher support projects in our booth on the exhibit floor, so please put booth 12226 in your schedule as a MUST VISIT!

A Big Announcement… Coming Soon We will be demoing our latest improvements to the GenYES suite of online tools and student leadership curriculum - more on that shortly.

Two MUST DO events to add to your schedule

Invent to Learn @ISTE 2013

Join me (Sylvia Martinez) and Gary Stager for an energizing day of “hard fun” as we invent, tinker, and learn how to incorporate hands-on project-based learning in the classroom. Participants will engage in a variety of projects using modern tools and technology – the perfect way to get ready for ISTE. Sunday, June 23rd from 9AM-3PM.

Breakfast, lunch, and drinks are all part of the day at a great location right on the Riverwalk with easy, walkable access from all the ISTE hotels.

Also included is your very own copy of our new book - Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Click here for details and registration information for Invent To Learn @ ISTE 2013.

Spotlight Session

Tinkering + Technology = Authentic Learning. Combine tinkering and technology and you have a time-honored tradition that allows imagination and creativity to lead the way to real-world problem-solving and learning. Sylvia Martinez

  • Tuesday, 6/25/2013, 2:00pm–3:00pm, SACC 001A
  • Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Problem Solving & Critical Thinking

Sylvia

 

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Announcing - Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

book coverSo some of you may have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet here lately. All my writing energy has been going to a good cause though! I’m happy to announce a new book: Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, authored jointly by yours truly, Sylvia Martinez, and Gary Stager.

This book has been cooking a long time, fueled by our belief that many schools are heading away from what real learning looks like - projects that are student-centered, hands-on, and authentic. But there is a technology revolution out there that has the potential to change that. New materials and technology can be game-changers: things like 3D printing, microcomputers like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, sensors and interfaces that connect the physical world to the digital, and programming. At the same time, a vibrant “maker movement” is spreading worldwide, encouraging people to make, tinker, and share technology and craft.

Invent To Learn is for educators who want to learn about these new technologies and how they can work in real classrooms. But it’s not just about “stuff” - we explore teaching, learning, and how to shape the learning environment. By combining the maker ethos with what we know about how children really learn, we can create classrooms that are alive with creativity and “objects to think with” that will permanently change education.

Student leadership
One chapter of Invent To Learn is about how learning by doing also gives students a chance to become leaders in their schools and communities. Giving students access to modern creativity tools and technology is not about “jobs of the future,” it’s about real learning NOW.

Making for every classroom budget
Even if you don’t have access to expensive (but increasingly affordable) hardware, every classroom can become a makerspace where kids and teachers learn together through direct experience with an assortment of high and low-tech materials. The potential range, breadth, power, complexity and beauty of projects has never been greater thanks to the amazing new tools, materials, ingenuity and playfulness you will encounter in this book.

Check the Invent To Learn website for information on getting the print or Kindle version of the book, and also about professional development for your district.

Sylvia

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Online Learning Ambassadors pave the way to blended learning success

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez

Generation YES has partnered with Oba - a global platform for online learning to create Oba Ambassadors, a curriculum to teach students how to support online and blended learning initiatives in their own school.

Find out more about Oba Ambassadors, or contact us to learn how you could have your own custom student Ambassador program to support your online or blended learning initiative!

Sylvia (email me at sylvia at genyes dot org)

 

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Can PBL Help Pave the Way to College Success? YES!

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Sylvia Martinez
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Alliance College-Ready Public School Student Technology Leaders collaborating to assess projects completed by their peers. Photo credit: Courtesy of Alliance College Ready Public Schools

Edutopia: Can PBL Help Pave the Way to College Success?

In this article by Suzie Boss, Edutopia explores research underway that asks if student leadership, technology, and project-based learning can better prepare students to stay in college.

In high-poverty neighborhoods of Los Angeles, students attending Alliance College-Ready Public Schools have good reason to be hopeful about life after high school. This network of 21 public charters has sent more than 95 percent of its graduates on to college since it was founded in 2004. But we all know that getting into college isn’t the finish line. “What does it take to stay in college? What does a student really need to know to be college-and-career ready?” asks Toria Williams, director of innovation and technology for the Alliance. “That’s an ongoing conversation here.”

Some of the answers about college readiness may soon emerge from an initiative called College YES. Funded by a five-year, Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, College YES emphasizes project-based learning, student leadership, STEM education, and technology integration as building blocks of student success. Generation YES, a nonprofit that encourages students to take a lead on improving their own education through technology, is partnering with the Alliance to implement College YES. To track results, Gen YES has introduced a technology platform that’s custom-made for PBL.

This custom platform, TechYES, is something that we have been working on for quite a while. It complements the way students and teachers really work on projects. This project-based learning environment includes lesson planning, customizable rubrics, student portfolio space, and a three phase assessment built in. It also allows teachers and students to align projects to the Common Core and ISTE NETs standards for technology.

>> Read more about College YES on Edutopia
>> Visit TechYES and explore what project-based learning looks like

Sylvia

 

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