Making History in Computer Science Education...on an iPad.

While the title of this post doesn't sound very humble, rest assured that the content will be steeped in meekness and weakness as I retrospeculate teaching 65 mostly-freshmen this past semester in one, yes one section of Exploring Computer Science (ECS1).

Last spring a good friend and chair of our Science Department suggested that I teach what was to be the largest section in the history of the school.  It's hard to say for certain if it is in fact thelargest ever, given that we've been around since the 1850's.  Several personality flaws led to me saying 'yes', including, but not limited to: habit - I say yes a lot, eternal optimism, arrogance, and a lustful sense of adventure. Whenever I'm in a high place I often get an uncontrollable urge to jump, because the thought of flying is seductive.  Being of the flightless mammal variety, I realize this is on the dumb side of stupid, but, there it is.

Adventure, excitement: a Jedi craves not these things.

The reason we opted to offer a class like this was simple: demand.  No less than 135 students tallied in for Exploring Computer Science 1.  Our ability to offer a class of this size meant we could accommodate a large number of students who were opting to forgo a free period in order to be in the class.  At any rate, taking this on presented a number of challenges and spin off topics that should provide fodder for loads of blog posts down the road.

Space:  There are really only a few viable "classroom" spaces (topic on what constitutes a good classroom space coming soon...) to use when you've got a classroom with 65 students.  The theater and...another smaller theater.  The second one, we'll call it Andrade (cause' that's what it's called), was superior but less available, and also inside a library(hold onto that one for later).  Se we'd meet there on most Mondays and then switch to the Sobrato theater.  Not to go to deeply on the topic of space, but the idea of literally becoming a sage on a stage made me throw up in my mouth a little.  It goes against most if not all of what I want to be about as a teacher, and ultimately led to some pretty sub-par experiences on those days when I did the traditional talk at students approach.  Our school is home to some brilliant lecturers - I don't consider myself to be one of them, so this space was clearly going to be a challenge.  We were a class in desperate need of modern space working within an ancient design.

Time: Given that I teach blended learning through the university down the street, the original intent was to walk the walk and create a blended learning-esque rotating schedule and meet with the whole group once per week, and rotate three groups through the lab for the remaining three class meetings per week.  As our schedule is already highly irregular, this concept wound up looking a lot better on paper than it did in reality.  I still believe that with the right time and resources it is the better option down the road.  The bottle neck here was really the time needed to curate or create the independent work to be done.  Really, this one came down to a lack of trust on my part that first semester freshmen would be OK on their own for that amount of instructional time.  I fell back on traditional models of teaching and I don't think that served the class well.  Also, I'm a shameless advocate for block scheduling, particularly at a college prep school, but more on that in another post.  This issue of time affects curriculum...

Curriculum: I have one semester to introduce students to the whole of Computer Science.  I did not major in Computer Science at Purdue; my degree is in Computer Graphics Technology from the School of Tech, and my Master's is in Educational Leadership.  The unversed might think: "CGT - close enough", but there's a pretty large separation between CGT and CS.  I did create a concentration course schedule in CS on my own while at Purdue, and in post-graduate studies through UCSC, but nonetheless, it is a point of anxiety in my own schooling that leads to many questions when it comes to curriculum design.  Insecurities aside, my teaching and coaching throughout the years has solidified a pedagogy rooted in student-centered learning, problem solving, creativity, and care for the student.  I didn't have to look too far for a good template.  A couple years back, I was pointed to Dan Garcia's work at UC Berkeley in his course The Beauty and Joy of Computing which has since contributed to a new AP CS Principles course that we might be offering in the future.  It's intentionally broad and not deep, with the hope of exposure and inspiration.  Once I had crafted a course outline from several sources, including content from the Exploring Computer Science curriculum itself,  the CSTA Standards, and Parson's Computer Concepts 2016, I then needed to figure out how to deliver the content and provide students the resources they needed to do their projects.

Resources: First and foremost things like this can't happen without the support of administration and dept. chairs, and anyone else crazy enough to trust me to get this right.  I am blessed to be in a school where I went forward with the faith and encouragement, and yes, the permission to fail a little.  It's really what kept me from going off the deep end, or really even approaching it.  If you told me that I'd have to teach 65 students how to do CS projects including programming on the iPad one year ago, I'd have laughed loud and hard in the general direction of your face.  I was back to the space issue - where do we have a computer lab on campus with 65 machines?  Nowhere, that's where.  So it was iPads or bust, although the blended learning tactic would have alleviated if not solved this issue - but again fear of the unknown got in my way. This need led me to a number of required apps in order to create a mobile platform programming workaround which would allow for the creation of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript content, and allow to students to upload via secure FTP to a web server in order to make their pages live and viewable...again, from the iPad.  It turns out Textastic for the iPad fits the bill in almost all regards, at a cost of $7.99.  But what about digital images?  Computer Graphics is a unit in the course - how would we get our hands on a PhotoShop-like experience to give students an applied sense of RBG/HEX colors, pixel dimensions, bit depth, and file types which relates to image compression?  Pixelmator to the rescue.  As of August, this app out Photo-shops Photoshop for the iPad.  Students can create images with exact pixel dimensions and save them in several different file types.  Great, but how do they upload those images to the FTP server?  Documents by Readdle is probably one of the most valuable free apps on the App Store.  Students can aggregate all their iPad content and push it to multiple cloud storage solutions.  Here's the full no-particular-order list of required apps for the course and why:

Notability - for taking notes on the iPad  

Page Studio (paid;supplied by school)  Ok app for creating and viewing HTML, CSS, and JS content, which had to be replaced by the more expensive...

Textastic - Excellent app for creating HTML CSS and JS content.  Their preview tool leaves a lot to be desired, but this can be overcome by uploading and testing.

Inkpad  - Vector drawing tool

Pixelmator (paid;supplied by school) - Raster image creator and editor

Documents by Readdle - amazing tool for moving documents from local iPad to cloud storage solutions.  Includes FTP for Web stuff.  

Lynda.com - great supplement for one teacher versus 65 students. We pay for a school license, which is expensive, but I believe worth it down the road. 

Chrome Browser - because Google.  Some pages render content better, even with the unified underbelly enforced by Apple.

Nearpod - the only teaching with technology tool you'll ever need.  If there was only one app to get, this is it.

Zaption - Awesome active learning tool for video content

Socrative - classroom response system

Quizlet - when you've got to read and regurgitate

Hopscotch - Programming Basics - made for kids, works great for teens too.

Flipboard - Newsfeed and RSS aggregator

Twitter - Free - Social Media  

Blogging tool of your choice (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) - Free - public web authoring tool.

Chronograph - for teaching binary
Lego Mindstorms Robot Commander - for driving Lego robots.

Lego Mindstorms Education - for programming Lego robots.

I was able to use most, but not all of these in order to facilitate my curriculum.  And all that curriculum was wrapped in a bow and placed on...

Canvas - our LMS: Canvas, our learning management system, on the iPad has been a mixed blessing.  When we started our 1:1 program, I'd argue that it was equally important to offer a learning management system where students and teachers could share files and other resources, assign homework, and do a slew of other things including quizzes, group work, and discussions.  Canvas is a great product.  Canvas on the iPad is not a great product.  There is a constant push and pull between using the iPad, which is the only real way to submit homework that's not an image from your camera roll on iPad, and using the mobile browser version, which does everything else - but only was well as a mobile browser can.  A mobile browser has limited functionality when compared to that of a full operating system.  This presented issues with tools including quizzes, group projects, peer evaluations in Canvas, and Prulu, which is a great app for creating a collaborative space in your LMS, when it works.  On the iPad it didn't work.  Prulu's issues aren't Canvas' issues directly, but illustrates what is probably my biggest and most timely point...

The Operating System: Every single woe and workaround with regard to technology and logistics in teaching this course could have been avoided had the students been working on a laptop or any mobile device with a fully-featured, non-mobile OS.  My students could have the used free equivalents of the paid apps, viewed source code through fully-functional browsers, and used the full features of our learning management system without issue, including non subject-specific features like group project spaces, peer reviews, submitting homework, quizzes, discussions, LTI tools like Prulu and others.  Three to four years ago, smaller laptop and tablet solutions with full operating systems and 8-10 hours of battery life were not viable.  They are now, and I'd argue that if a 1:1 program's purpose is to level the playing field for your students and eliminate the need to travel to computer labs with precious little class time, we should strongly consider fully-featured solutions for the benefit of our students.

Teaching Tools: This semester I've narrowed in on two active learning tools for the classroom.  If I were to recommend one tool for a teacher to work with to enhance their classroom with tech, apart from a sturdy Learning Management System, it would be either NearPod or Zaption.  Both cover my required bases when it comes to digital tools for teachers: easy to use, content sharing community if you'd rather curate than create, facilitates assessment and analysis, provides differentiated formats for assessment, integrates well with other resources like YouTube content, and they both have usable freemium formats, although you get what you pay for if you go paid versions.  (Full disclosure: I get zero kickback from these folks - I just love their work).

The Students:  Saving the best for last, this class consisted mostly of first-semester freshmen.  About 55 frosh and 10 of sophs through seniors.  Teaching any class presents challenges when it comes to the divide created by prior knowledge, level of interest, and other factors that lead to disparate starting points.  (Sidenote: Look up the strict definition of the word aptitude and think about the implications of calling a standardized assessment an "aptitude" test...).  With this class, the sheer size just exacerbated this challenge.  Couple that with the fact that it is an elective, and we're off to the races.  I differentiated instruction often, and differentiated learning and assessments even more in order in an attempt to accommodate.  Some students came in with extensive backgrounds in programming with a variety of languages.  Others had never touched an iota of computer code in their life.  One of my primary goals when working with ECS1 classes is to encourage collaboration early and often.  Traditional school models often stigmatize sharing sometime shortly after kindergarten and don't let up until students are released into the world outside academia and are then expected to "play well with others" again.  I usually spend most of the semester removing this notion like beating the dust from a rug.  Creative problem solving requires collaboration - and CS is nothing if not problem solving.  For the first month I fielded questions about how many points things were worth, and would this be on the test until we came to the mutual understanding that the class was about critical thinking and problem solving and not points and grades.  I'm still not convinced I got through, but I am convinced that distilling five months of learning about computer history, number systems, binary, the Internet, the Web, social media, algorithms, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, mobile web development, DNS, TCP/IP, and many other topics into the equivalent of a thumbs up or thumbs down (a letter grade) is ludicrous.  If feedback and formative assessments are proven elements of a quality learning environment, and our ABCDF system seems to serve everyone BESIDES the student, then, just, why...

The Bottom Line: What did they learn?  What did I learn?  I had a blast succeeding and failing this semester.  There seem to be no less than one thousand things I would do differently, and the good news is that I get the chance to do this all over again next semester.  We'll spend less time on the glorified book report that was the computer history project, more time in a PBL format for learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and provide more time to use the EV3 Lego Robots to learn about algorithms and problem-solving.  As I sit here grading their final portfolios, I'm encouraged by how well they synthesized concepts and the applied skills that we emphasized this semester.  I hope to be able to provide more regular feedback, i.e. do a better job grading in a timely manner.  In short, I'm grateful to have had the chance to make history with a great group of guys, so here's to making history again next semester...

Year 16, Week 1 - My Cup Runneth Over...

It's been a while, but I'm back to the blog!

It was a crazy first week back at school beginning my 16th year in Catholic secondary education - and by the end of the week I was the one who received a really important lesson through abject effing up.


Monday I frantically prepped last pieces of Freshmen iPad Orientation Curriculum while training many teachers on our new grade book system.  Sometimes the hardest part about the job is accepting that you just can't help everyone in short order when you're working with over 100 faculty.  It was also Donovan's 8th birthday, which took a backseat to the many duties looming before the big day.  It's OK though, having done the cake and dinner thing the night before!

Tuesday we handed out 420 iPads to the class of 2019 at said orientation.  I felt like it was the best run we've had yet, and there were many to thank for that - I feel blessed to have such a supportive and competent community helping to bring a collective mission-driven vision to life.

Wednesday I performed a vocal solo with some very talented musicians during mass for an awesome crowd of folks, then trotted off to teach a combined 2D and 3D Animation class, after which I went on to teach our first ever mega class with Exploring Computer Science numbering 66 students in one section, We'll be doing plenty of innovative learning there, with blended and PBL formats. Early afternoon I hammered out some final logistics in getting started back with coaching Cross Country at Presentation, after some thorough longitudinal convincing by my former assistant coach.  I then met for dinner with my other employer, Santa Clara University to go over schedule and curriculum for a new group of teachers I'll be working with this year.  Excited to get to know the new group!

Thursday I convinced myself that there was no first period, having seen something in the way of a schedule that convinced me so. It was a classic case of confirmation bias; now I had time to prep for the mega-class.  Consequently I was severely late to first period..., but thanks to some amazing friends who work in the same classroom​, a total loss was averted, and that's when it hit me - my cup had officially run over.  In 16 years of teaching, coaching, IT Direction, EdTech Direction, I'd never pulled anything like that.  And all at once it hit me, I'm not taking my own advice.  Pasted below is the message I gave in a closing speech to our freshmen after the Tuesday orientation about balance.  It refers to devices, but applies to all those things that prevent us from being our best, or the Magis, as we say in Jesuit education.  One must have balance for the Magis.

This orientation is intended to convey a message about balance.  Balance in your life will lend itself to another important skill we hope you'll develop here; discernment.

Our message is as much about putting technology down as it is about picking it up. We hope you heard your big brothers and homeroom teachers as they attempted to convey the lessons we've learned ourselves in our use of tech.

I know I've learned to:

Put it down to talk to a friend in the center

Put it down when it's time for dinner

When I’m on vacation

When it's time to be with family

When a teacher is conveying knowledge

When a coach is breaking down the game

When a priest is imparting wisdom

Put it down, when I stop playing that video game or social media app, and the app starts playing me…

When my teachers don't require the use of the iPad, leaving it in my bag might be the best option…

Pick it up to check email, but not all the time.

Pick it up to do research.

Pick it up to create movies and projects,

To record music,

To paint pictures.

And then remember to put it down and away to meditate,

to sleep.

As you know we don't block, why do you think that is?

We don't block because we trust you.  Not to always do the right thing, but to make mistakes and learn from them on your own.  And we hope today has helped you gain some perspective from what we’ve shared.  Remember to leave room to be disconnected, to digest, and process.  Because, while in today's society being a man for and with others will often mean being connected and tech savvy, you can't be your best version of that man if you're connected to technology all the time. 

The writing is on the wall, on the iPad, in electronic texts...

I was casually checking our Library Resources Canvas page today and clicked on the link that takes the user to our Follet/Destiny catalog page.  I found a link called "Destiny Quest", and so, like any good adventurer would, I strapped on my +2 scale-mail armor, my longbow of ignorance-slaying, and clicked on the link.  What I discovered lying beyond this gateway to adventure was a prophesy.  Destiny Quest has three major components, Top 10 Books, Resource Lists, and New Arrivals.  It took my brain a minute to adjust to the Top 10 list, because I was puzzled by the word USB in the text.  I thought to myself, "are students checking out books about USB technology?".  I mean, we cover the universal serial bus in my Exploring Computer Science class briefly, but not so much that it would warrant a #1 rating in the library.  I then realized it wasn't a book at all, but a resource placeholder for iPad chargers.  It all became clear - the most checked out thing in the library is a USB charger.  For the record, at 39 years of age and as a lover of language, literature, and leather, a good old fashioned tome is delightful.  But, as Peter DeVries wrote in The Tents of Wickedness, "nostalgia... ain't what it used to be".

The school where I am Director of Educational Technology is a one device per student (1:1) with iPads school, and thus has made the obligatory push to use electronic texts.  That said, I'm happy to be in a place where that push was in the context of choosing the right text first, then determining if a more effective and/or less expensive version was available electronically.  This has moved us to between 60 and 70% electronic text use in classrooms.  The biggest challenge for educators is navigating all this disruption in good conscience.  Most teachers realize that this genie is out of the bottle, but their three wishes might be: Make sure this is what's best for the kids, help me understand how to use this tool to improve student learning and engagement, and prevent my students from succumbing to distraction while reading important content.  Articles like this one from Scientific American rightfully make us think about the trade-offs.  The problem with a lot of the research I encounter, like that cited in the aforementioned article, is that they often don't address what is sitting on the other side of the scale, and many readers either take for granted or don't consider the upsides when reading these articles.

Paper versus eText is ultimately a trade-off between tactile physical media that requires no batteries, and a power-dependent media that provides an instantaneous dictionary, highlighting and annotation that is automatically organized for you, text to speech for challenged learners, and the ability to fit one thousand books on one small device.  To be clear, I believe that more research should be devoted to determining the health and wellness trade-offs of reading electronic text, as well as any potential issues with retention or comprehension.  But if video games can improve our eyesight, then I think these are issues that will take a while to untangle given all the variables in play.  You'd think given the obvious tilt in the direction of eText the argument would be over, but we've forgotten one small detail that schools have to be very conscientious of: price.

And so I leave you with an archived email from our pre-iPad one to one days, when I was just discovering the shhugar-show that is the textbook industry.  Maybe they think they're too big to fail?  People often compare the disruption of tech in the textbook industry to that of Napster and iTunes to the RIA, but there are different forces in play.  Music listeners are individuals, and students are members of classes, with teachers, in schools, that are members of districts, that are beholden to publishers.  Beholden in that they've developed curriculum for texts that have assessments aligned with that curriculum, and shifting away represents a monumental amount work if they're looking to do the same thing over again in the classroom.  And there's the rub.  What dreams may come if teachers let go of the convention which dictates the use of traditional texts, electronic or otherwise? (thanks Shakespeare)

Email to our Science Chair from 2012:

"Pardon the following ascendance to the snowy peaks of my soapbox, but I was positively inspired by my meeting with the science department yesterday afternoon as we discussed digital texts and more.

It seems to me as though there are three models in play here:

The first is old publishing, who believe, either through naïveté, or sheer arrogance and bullheadedness, that they can continue to charge people for instantly-dated information, and are, like Tolkien's race of men, doomed to die

The second is the "old" tech (Apple, Google, Pearson), who think, through innovative reinvention of certain business models, they can continue to charge people through attractive platforms, with one click purchases.

The third and most promising to me, is free information through publishers like CK12 and Wikipedia, who offer very competitive products at fraction of the cost, and a very small fraction at that!

Textbooks as we know them, digital or otherwise, represent a mode of control that teachers no longer need to adhere to.  With a little motivation, elbow grease, and provisioning, the scope and sequence of every subject is already out there waiting be assembled -novels, closely-guarded obscurities and curios notwithstanding.

What's more, the teachers don't always have to carry the burden of assembling, or even teaching that information.  Several motivated students in my course have been contributing as much, if not more outside content than I have, as I've been busy creating personalized lectures and tutorials to address their specific instructional needs.  This all comes together through a free socially-geared content or learning management system.

I see a future, which is revealed in some schools already, where teachers stop trying to compete with the Web as dispensaries of information, and accept a more meaningful role as a mentor and guide.

There's my two cents to the nth!"

Welcome!

Welcome dear readers from beyond (this workstation), to my blog about education (and technology).  This blog will have a guaranteed quantity of spot on and spot off spoutings about the state of education as it is affected by the outside forces of technology and society and the inside forces of tradition and culture.  Also, there will definitely be some stuff about elves and dragons.  The long and short of it: I've worked in the field of "Educational Technology" for over 15 years, at many different schools.  Through the successes and failures that come from a reach often exceeding or falling short of my grasp, I've learnt a thing or two about what works and what doesn't.  I'll share observations, insights, wild guestimations, and general dreamery about the positive potential of vision and execution at sites that seek to embrace information and communication technologies as tools for cognitive enhancement. So sit back, relax, and prepare to be inspired and/or incensed by a tasty blend of armchair philosophy, hard core research and data, and good old fashioned experience.