Education is a lifelong journey, even for teachers. It is one of the reasons why District 742 wants to stay ahead of the game. Today, Apple education development executive, Charles Duarte, is tutoring teachers on the latest technology while using their new Mac laptops.
Duarte asks the teachers, “What is the willing drive for change?”
A Kennedy teacher responds, “We’ll lose them [kids] if we can’t keep up with technology.”
Which is exactly the point. Duarte stresses that today’s children have a perception that technology is not new. It just is.
“Technology to them is like electricity to us,” explains Duarte.
Duarte challenges teachers to place themselves in three categories when it comes to technology: catch up, keep up or lead.
District 742 is in the mindset of lead.
St. Cloud Area School District just received an $87,000 grant from the Library Services and Technology ACT (LSTA). District 742 was one of eight recipients to be awarded the grant for computational thinking.
Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) states, “The federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) is administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Through its Grants to States program, IMLS provides funding for libraries to develop and deliver innovative services that address local and statewide needs.”
“The role of the librarian has evolved,” says Angie Kalthoff, tech integrationist, for District 742.
Libraries are not called libraries anymore. They are media resource centers.
The era of a student receiving support from a librarian to check out a book has evolved into a student receiving online technical support, electronic device support and now robot support as well.
With the grant money District 742 received, robots, computer chips and drives were purchased for schools to use in kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms.
Meet Dash and Dot, a robotics team used by second-graders. Dash and Dot are designed to reenact stories written and coded by students. Dash and Dot can work independently or together. They respond to voice command, can sing, dance and navigate objects.
“Kibo [a second robot] is all about explorative play,” says Kalthoff. “Kibo does concepts and vocabulary.”
With Kibo, students use blocks that have code written on each side. Kibo scans the blocks and then becomes alive with the touch of a button.
Raspberry Pi is a computer chip and Sphero is a drive. These two are used by the fourth and fifth-grade students.
Raspberry Pi is used to make projects that can be displayed on a mirror or screen, scroll news or social feeds on a screen or any other imaginative thing a student designs.
Sphero is in the shape of a ball. It runs around on a student-designed course on the floor. It looks much like the new R-2 unit in the movie “Star Wars.”
“I’m ecstatic about it [having Raspberry Pi and Sphero]. It’s amazing and fabulous,” says Jessica Moore, media specialist at Discovery Community School. “It’s a three-year plan, and to get it rolling is very forward-thinking. It will grab the attention of neighboring districts. To my knowledge, no one else does it around here.”
Moore describes how Raspberry Pi and Sphero will enhance computational thinking, in other words, problem-solving skills.
“These really work well with the growth mindset. Failure is not a bad thing. It gives the students the opportunity to rethink how to do it [and come up with a better plan],” says Moore.
Moore agrees with Kalthoff, the role of the librarian has changed.
“It is really about promoting all different kinds of literacy. Working with these [chips and drives] is just another form of literacy. The media center is always a safe place to try something new. Media time is not graded, so they just get to try things.”
Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are able to dig into a project in a hands-on, collaborative way. And it’s the next step in 21st century learning and literacy-interacting with robots and computers.