Creating, Collaborating, Sharing & Publishing
BLOG OF OUR TECH NINJA CLUB'S JOURNEY
Making a Jedi key chain is the reward for completing the Google Drive's The Force Missions. The Tech Ninjas will customize using a Thingiverse.com pattern & printing it on the 3D printer we purchased with the Follett Challenge winning.
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This is an example of a storyboard some of our Bluebonnet Tech Ninjas are creating. The Winter Session is built around movie making. Some of our Ninjas will be exploring Lego stop motion, others iMovie and some will be trying Green Screen. We will still be spotlighting technology tips and apps to assist in their classrooms. One that we are emphasizing is Google Drive login, uploading, sharing and logging off. We have been dreaming of starting a robot competition during the regular school day between our student bodies ever since our Tech Ninjas have piloted some robot competitions during our club meetings. So --we collaborated on a grant from our KISD Education Foundation to start one and we have been awarded our grant. YEAH!!! Here are some of the details of that grant: Project Title If You Give Elementary Schools Some Robots, Then... Project Description “Ready, Set, Solve, Program and Run” your robot. Let the Robot Competition begin at two elementary libraries. The competition will be held on our individual sites during school hours. We will post to a shared document our teams’ results and link it to our Destiny’s Weebly home pages. Each competition round will run for 2 weeks and the travelling robot trophy will go to the campus that wins that competition round. There will be 5-7 competition rounds held from March to May. The competition teams will be made up of 2 to 4 students in grade 2, 3, and 4. Each school can create as many teams as they want. Grade : 2, 3 & 4 What are the major goals of the project? What do you expect to accomplish from this grant? The major goals are: 1-To create a robot competition that will be comprised of 5 to 7 rounds. 2-To have students participate in a global gamification of a STEM activity that happens at two elementary schools in different feeder patterns. We expect to accomplish the following: 1-Our student teams will be challenged to communicate, think critically, collaborate and start to learn the initial steps of how to code (the 21st century computer language) in order to program and run their robot. 2-The competitors will be exposed to a beginning global experience by competing against teams at another location and by publishing their results on a shared digital document.
We are adding some new things this year. We will be having one session titled iRobot. Also, our robot competition will be using both the Bee-Bots and Sphero robots. Our Winter session will be focusing on producing videos using different programs. Our Spring session, will be a type of Technology Genius UChoose time. The Tech Ninja are becoming experts in uploading and sharing their digital projects. They are also assisting in their classrooms with Chromebooks and other technology items.
Case Study "Watch Out! Here Comes Our Tech Ninjas!" http://follettchallenge.uberflip.com/h/i/70985502-case-study-bluebonnet-park-glen-elementary-schools
Wow, our Tech Ninja received recognition for being an innovative program. We will be receiving $30,000 from Follett.
Our Tech Ninjas helped during the Hour of Code in December. They definitely help make it an successful event at both schools.
In January, we entered our Tech Ninja program into the Follett Challenge. We let the program speak for itself. We got our community involved in the voting portion of the Challenge. It was quite the experience! Picture us on the corner of our school driveways at drop off and pick up with a sign reminding our parents to vote. We just wanted to get into the top 20. (We did make it!) We started the Tech Ninja Club in September 2014,"Watch out here come our Tech Ninjas!" We wanted to develop a program to engage our 21st century students in technology, to create tech support in their classrooms/libraries, and to initiate connections outside each of our school buildings. With this in mind, we, the two Library Media Technology Specialists, started brainstorming ways to accomplish these goals with the support of our administrators. The Tech Ninja program was created to meet these goals. One of our goals was to provide our 3rd and 4th grade classrooms with student tech experts, who would provide support for teachers learning to implement new technology tools. The program allowed the participants time to explore, investigate, create, publish and collaborate within and outside our four walls, and build their confidence to assist others. Our Tech Ninja program used apps, websites, online polls, video conferencing, coding, programming robots, and iCentre (investigation stations) time as learning tools. In addition, we have embedded key components of digital citizenship throughout the program. The students met on their individual campus on Wednesdays after-school for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Our group time followed this basic outline: 1- Gathering activity (e.g., independent device use, video conferencing, digital conferencing etiquette game, media clips...) 2-Tips/Tricks to help their class (e.g., add favorites, Google search tips, save & upload…) 3-Featured App/Website (e.g., Chirp, Trading Cards, Thinglink, ScreenChomp, ChatterPix, Lego Movie…) 4-Spotlight Coding App (e.g., Bee-Bot, Kodable, Daisy the Dinosaur, Cargo-Bot…) 5-Robot (Bee-Bot) challenges and competitions. 6-”UCHOOSE” time (e.g., iCentre, work on digital projects, Bee-Bot challenges & competition...) The students were encouraged to post, take polls, and publish their projects onto our online (Edmodo) group. Our Tech Ninjas’ comments and published digital projects increased each week. These students have become our digital ambassadors as they learn and gain more confidence with different digital tools and knowledge of what it takes to be a good digital citizen as they interact within and outside their school's four walls. Our 21st century students are moving from “Digital Newbies” to “Digital Learners”. They are experiencing different technology activities needed to become our digital ambassadors to both their peers and teachers. When our schools participated in the “Hour of Code” in December, our Tech Ninjas assisted during the event. This is just one example of them stepping up to assist their peers, parents, and teachers with technology. They have demonstrated growth in the 4 C’s which is preparing them for successful interaction with their digital world. The Tech Ninjas have increased their digital aptitude. They are beginning to build their confidence to teach others, formulate multiple solutions, and are beginning to take charge of their technology learning and creations. “Watch out! Here come our Tech Ninjas!” |
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