Last week Apple launched a new laptop, the MacBook Air. This week in tech, the 6th grade split up into 3 groups and each team compared this new ultra-thin laptop to others on the market.
Students came up with some interesting comparisons - looking at price, size, features (webcams, peripheral ports, expansion capabilities, graphic cards, etc). They also made some surprising decisions when weighing all of the options. Ask your 6th grader for their opinion.
Last night PBS ran a Frontline episode called Growing Up Online: part documentary, part interview with experts. Some of the show focused on extreme cases of Internet addiction but there was also some insightful interviews with parents who share HOW they handle their child’s enmeshed relationship with computers and cell phones.
The entire episode is available online for viewing, along with message boards where you can begin or join conversations about children and technology.
In Graphic Arts we have been learning about video editing. David chose to record his ability to play Guitar Hero 3 on expert level. He added a transition and some credits and then learned to export his finished product for sharing. The video was then uploaded to YouTube and has received positive feedback from the worldwide community.
One week back to school and it is official - students love programming! Every break, every free moment in the tech lab involves one or more sessions of Scratch an open-source, totally free introduction to programming games and animations. So far students have used the program to create fractalized art work, tell stories and introduce characters, explore complex logic statements through game creation and are really pushing themselves and others to build the coolest and most imaginative products.
Students returned to tech energized and full of tales of tech usage over the winter break. We completed a quick email survey at the beginning of class and followed some of the latest OLPC updates.
Everyone turned in their final rough draft of the digital identity research paper. There is no homework this week, while Jac offers comments and suggestions on the papers before the final draft is turned in 2 weeks from now.
For the remainder of the period, we explored the new lab build that was installed over the break. Some new favorites include Synchroneyes (a lab management tool that allows students to participate in group chats and share their screen work with others) and Scratch (an open-source introduction to programming and animation).
The 6th grade returned to school full of excitement and stories of how they used technology over the winter break. Many used laptops and game systems, but others saw technology in interesting places - the computer that controls a ski lift or guides an airport ramp towards the plane.
In our first class back, quizzes taken the last December were returned and we briefly discussed the answers. We also talked about narrative comments. Students all felt that the comments written by teachers were accurate and mostly fair.
For the remainder of the period, we explored the new lab build that was installed over the break. Some new favorites include Synchroneyes (a lab management tool that allows students to participate in group chats and share their screen work with others) and Scratch (an open-source introduction to programming and animation).
One week back to school and it is official - students love programming! Every break, every free moment in the tech lab involves one or more sessions of