BLOG 7: Getting Started. Using Coding in the Classroom

I’ve been impressed by the research I’ve done on coding and robotics to build students’ confidence, collaboration skills, creativity and problem-solving ability for mathematics in a fun way.  I plan to develop 5 lesson using the Sphero Mini for my 9^th grade Algebra 1 students.  Initially, students will have the opportunity (lesson 1) to practice “driving” the Mini along a path.  This background building will be important to later steps.  As the lessons increase in difficulty, students will use the coding (embedded in the App) to compete in a race through a pre-designed course with the final lesson involving color changing, rotations, and other fun specifics. 

>> Some sites I found that use other coding possibilities that would be fun to try are:
http://www.allyouneediscode.eu/lesson-plans  This site provides lessons for students of all ages.

https://www.letsstartcoding.com/coding-lesson-plans/ As above, this site provides coding
opportunities for students at all levels.  Teachers need to sign in and provide some basic information.

https://www.edutopia.org/topic/coding-classroom  This site is supported by the George Lucas Educational Foundation.  This site has links to a lot of different information about coding.

Quote of the day:  Teachers are willing to try new things if they know they will have help and support when they need it!

Have fun coding!

BLOG 6...Examining a Case Study on Coding and Robotics in the Classroom

The case study, Challenging Elementary Learners with Programmable Robots during Free Play and Direct Instruction, (https://scholarworks.uni.edu/journal-stem-arts/vol2/iss2/6/) begins with the premise, “Computer programming skills are important to many current careers; teaching robot coding to elementary students can start a positive foundation for technological careers, develop problem-solving skills, and growth mindsets.”  This study focused on 2 programmable robots, Dot and Dash.  It followed 1^st and 5^th graders in 2, 2-week experiences with the robots over an 8-week period.  A robot performance, scored for technical and creative skills, was presented by students at the end of each two-week period.  Included in the results, “The hands-on learning involved in creating the unique performances (of the robots) for peers during the condition rotations engaged students in authentic learning, higher level thinking skills and problem solving.”  

To borrow a quotation from a second article, Robots, Programming and Coding, Oh My!, (http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.1080/00094056.2016.1208008 ) “Today's children need learning opportunities from cradle to career that build the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in our interconnected and constantly changing world. This means putting 21st century skills, including creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem solving, at the center of learning, both in and out of school.”  This article provides a strong argument for the use of robots and programming in the classroom.  There are a wealth of quotations I could use, but this article makes reference to the work of Papert (“Mindstorms, Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas”) and the significant connections between constructivist learning and students’ ability to work together to creatively solve problems; key skills for the 21^st century learner.

I am excited to implement coding in my classroom this year. I plan to use Sphero Mini's with my Algebra 1 students.  Though my students are older, I think the experience of collaboratively using basic coding with the robots will be a fun, valuable problem-solving activity!

BLOG 5: What would Seymour Papert think about coding?

This summer I will begin the process of learning how to use a Sphero.  This is a little plastic robotic ball that can be directed to move, change colors, make noises…  I don’t know what all is possible.  As I explained in an earlier BLOG, I am not a coder.  This is a new journey for me.  I am going to take much of what I have read in “Mindstorms” to heart, as I break my learning into doable pieces, and pick myself up after inevitable mistakes. 

I think Seymour Papert would support me in my explorations of coding.  I think he would be pleased that I am planning to not only use this learning with my students, but also develop what I know so it can be used by others with their students.  This is just a baby step, but I think Papert would be interested to hear about my attempts and how it effects my students and their future learning experiences.

LOGO was just the beginning...

Book Review Part III: Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert. Final Thoughts

Summarizing the last chapters of his book, Papert first connects the creation of LOGO with Piaget’s thinking about learning and how children learn, and the development of Artificial Intelligence and the need for breaking knowledge into bite-sized, communicable chunks (making computers capable of “learning”, as well as students).   LOGO’s creation was about making learning meaningful and accessible to students.

Papert goes on to discuss potential impacts of the computer on our future learning society, including an Afterward offering some final insights.  There are many, many thoughts developed in these sections, but I will choose 2 quotes to summarize.  “The LOGO culture enriches and facilitates the interaction between all participants and offers opportunities for more articulate, effective, and honest teaching relationships.” 

The second quote shares a hope for future education, “Seeing ideas from computer science not only as instruments of explanation of how learning and thinking… work, but also as instruments of change that might alter, and possibly improve, the way people learn and think.”  Powerful words to contemplate as educators.

To complete my role as reviewer, I found the sections of the book where Papert explained LOGO and gave examples of students’ learning to be the most easily accessible and exciting for the possibilities in my own classroom.  Some of the other sections became heavy and required an effort to keep reading, in anticipation of applications I can use to impact my own teaching.  Overall, I think Papert offers strong arguments for the need for change in education.  Though much of his book is related to math and science, its application is for the broader world of schools and learning.

  

Book Review Part II; Mindstorms by Seymour Papert

I found Papert’s idea of using computer language (in this case, LOGO) to help students to break problem solving into smaller pieces (“mind-sized bites”), to take control of their own learning process, to “de-bug” when solutions don’t work, and to relate to advanced concepts (physics and Newtonian laws) was significant in pushing forward the argument for students to work with coding in schools.  Quoting from Papert’s experience with a student who was having difficulty with school learning in general, (after using LOGO) “she emerged when she was ready, several weeks later, with a new sense of confidence that showed itself not only in more ambitious Turtle projects but in her relationship to everything else she did in school.”
  

Papert continues to put together compelling arguments for the use of coding and, specifically, LOGO to encourage change in our educational system; Amending traditional teaching methods that tend to emphasize learning of skills and facts, to include a procedural thinking that allows for initial intuitions, revision, and students’ connection to learning.

To quote, one more time, “Skills and the discrete facts are easy to give out in controlled doses.  They are also easier to measure.”  In our present state of testing and re-testing students on standards of learning and “core” knowledge, how much is being left out because these are “easier to measure”?

Book Review Part 1: Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert

Book Review:  Mindstorms. Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas.  Seymour Papert
Second edition 1993, Publisher: Basic Books (division of Harper Collins), 230 pages, $13, ISBN 0 -465 – 04674 – 6. Non-Fiction

Book Review, part 1
Although portions of this book feel dated (there have been a lot of changes in computers, the Internet, and education, even since the 2^nd edition), it still presents a powerful argument for the use of technology and, specifically, coding in education.

Even back in the 1970’s, when Papert was first writing this book, he saw the need for significant change in education.  His view was that students need to learn to use technology, and this use will create success in all other subjects.  “LOGO is a means that can be used by educators to support the development of new ways of thinking and learning.”  (Mindstorms.  Introduction to the second edition)

I need to preface my thoughts about this book with the comment that, though I have used LOGO as part of a graduate course in Geometry and again, more recently, as part of an exploration in another graduate course, I am not a LOGO expert.  I have not seen LOGO being used in classrooms, and have not used it myself.  That being said, having read the first half of Papert’s book, I am persuaded that I need to take a strong look at what and how I am teaching to find ways to incorporate LOGO, or some other form of coding, in my instruction.  I would go further to say that I need to influence other educators to do the same.

Seymour Papert was a world-renowned computer scientist, mathematician, and educator.  Besides working as a researcher, while at MIT he created the Learning Research Lab (MIT Media Lab).   It was while he was at MIT that he created LOGO, “as a tool to improve the way children think and solve problems.” (Wikipedia)   Papert worked with Piaget, building on Piaget’s learning theories to develop his “constructionism” theory of learning.  Papert’s credentials are clearly beyond question.

Papert’s style is, overall, easy to read.  He writes as a teacher, explaining the processes and giving examples to support his thinking.  He explains LOGO itself, so the reader can understand how the program works, and then gives multiple examples of how students have used it to develop their own thinking and learning.

One statement that struck me as I was reading is, “Many… people have not completely given up on learning, but are still severely hampered by entrenched negative beliefs about their capacities.”  As a math teacher, how many times have I heard, from parents, students, and even colleagues that they are not good at math?  The core belief that they never could and, therefore, never can learn math.  The culture of being either smart or dumb, in whatever subject.   There is often disconnect between the learning of math skills and their application to anything real.  As Papert calls it, “dissociated learning”.

In the first part of the book, besides explaining how students use LOGO in their learning, Papert makes a compelling argument for how LOGO becomes a tool for increasing students’ self-confidence, moving through failure, building connections, and internalizing understanding.  LOGO can be used to create the association to learning that educators so often struggle to find.  It is a tool that can be used to develop authentic problem-solving skills.  It can also be used to encourage student collaboration for better understanding.

In this 21^st century world where students are more interested in their phones, or going on the Internet than learning in a classroom, I’m interested to read how Papert builds on his discussion of LOGO in the second portion of the book.  Engaging students and preparing them for success is essential for all educators.

BLOG:  Introduction…  Coding in a Mathematics Classroom

I have been teaching mathematics at the middle and high school levels for 15 years now.  Most of my time has been spent in high school, with either Algebra 1 or Prob/Stat students.  There are a lot of constraints on our classroom time.  Curriculum is dictated by the county, and there are state-required end-of-year tests.

Even with all this going on, I feel myself embracing the need to move away from a traditional classroom instructional style toward a more authentic, problem-solving, blended environment.  To ignore the fact that technology has changed the world students live in is to set students up for failure.  They need to learn 21^st century skills.

I have, lately, been interested in coding (or, as it is sometimes called, computer programming).  Although I cannot, yet, call myself an expert, I am excited by the possibilities it brings.  In learning coding, students are involved in authentic problem solving.  Students need to learn the language of coding and apply it to, in many situations (LOGO or Sphero, for example) moving either an online “turtle” or an actual mini-robot.  They see direct results for their work.  They learn that “failure” motivates making changes and eventual success.  They are involved in authentic, problem-based learning.

I am in the process of learning about Sphero for myself.  I’m at the bottom of the learning rung right now, but I’m excited for the possibilities.  We’ll see where I am in a month or so!