How to be a Minecraft Mom?

A great question from a podcast I follow, Offline with Jon Favreau, posed during an interview with Ana Kamenetz:

"...author of "The Art of Screen Time" and NPR education report, talks with Jon about what a healthy amount of screen time looks like for our kids. She teaches Jon the leading research, talks about how the pandemic changed her understanding of screen time, and offers a road map for raising kind, thoughtful kids in an increasingly online world".

Fascinating discussion, one I often consider when I teach kids tech, as in, how can we make tech a family shared experience, rather than a specialty silo skill generationally defined that once away from the classroom, becomes an insidious attention sap. Ana says we all stereotypically understand what a "soccer mom" is, yet how do we teach parents how to say "yes" to tech for their kids that allows them to be the soccer moms of that medium? I wonder if my teaching should hew to THAT audience, more?

 ArcGIS and more!

Working on my curriculum deep dive, check out some of these cool GIS history and development resources:

GIS Overview:

https://gisgeography.com/history-of-gis/

summary: Since the 1990s, GIS audience increased due to improved access to affordable, powerful computers, business and personal, as well, advances in satellite and remote sensing technology. From 2010 forward, GIS technology as open source (public use at no cost) grew exponentially to where GIS access is now everywhere (think: your cell phone!).

In particular, I like this quote that equates GIS as an "Intelligent Nervous System", that the 2020 forward technology holds to "See what others can't. We see patterns. Relationships. When you use location technology, you can see where things happen - before they happen".

And because I am UVa inspired, the UVa library holds free public virtual workshop series:

https://guides.lib.virginia.edu/gis

Finally ArcGIS is a free download, and it looks like they have a beta site (soon to be retired), that I'll follow and learn as inspiration for future posts:

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/educators/

With the nicer spring weather, I'm looking forward to creating GPS enabled pictures and videos using my new Samsung A32, as well, experimenting with a free commercial product, Equilab, that utilizes GIS to track, save, and plan the training program with my horse to build her fitness!

 GIS (Geographic Information System Mapping), or as I like to call it, "Get it in Sequence"!

As you all know, I like to teach "fusion" technology use, as in how can we take what we know about individual applications and use them together, in sequence with each other to build a really helpful utility. That's basically what "build an app" is all about, when you download software that pulls together some individual tools and mashes them up through an interface where in one click, you get what you want. Such as apps that call Google maps to give you locations for a specific service, rather than you having to click around google search.

You all also know I teach using "case study", meaning I give you real life experiences to back up the "why do this?". So, I'm working on a curriculum to teach GIS using a real life experience I'm going through to solve a real life problem! In this case, I'm having an ongoing dispute with someone who is saying their dog is not on my property, even when I caught the dog on video on my property. Right off, I'm experiencing what is common in GIS; inaccurate coordinates. Per this really helpful discussion group:

https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/77929/does-the-strength-of-gps-weaken-in-rural-areas/77930

You can see there are a lot of reasons GIS is not accurate, especially for a dispute like mine, where the accuracy of the latitude (aka "parallels" that measure N and S of the equator such as 38º11'12.08”N which reads 38 degrees North at 11 hours, 12 minutes and .8 seconds) and longitude ( aka "meridians" that measures E and W of the prime meridian, such as 78º24'30.94” W and ready as the example above) is dependent on:

Are you inside, outside, or underground 

Atmospheric conditions, such as weather

",,,

Visibility of satellites

Signal strength

Distribution of satellites/spreading on the sky

Especially, ...(distribution of satellites)...can result in bad accuracy in populated areas with skyscrapers and high buildings. So the ...(phone) might "see" 3 satellites, but they are mostly in one line (not distributed by at least 4 unique points, the standard for best accuracy)... which makes it very difficult to produce proper results... Another aspect might be bad ...(cell) signal/noise ratio...also take into account that a GPS receiver .. (cell phone) will need time to "fix" (getting the satellite atlas and solve equations ...(calculating where you are across multiple satellites)..."

https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/77929/does-the-strength-of-gps-weaken-in-rural-areas/77930

So, in my case, a picture taken by my phone inside my house, which is in a rural area, places my location as over a quarter of a mile away from my actual location! Not super helpful when you are trying to identify, within a 2 acre lot, the actual location of a dog. 

Over the next several weeks, I'll be working on a curriculum to pull together resources and projects while I work on the solution to my dilemma!

Keep searching!

 "Patience, know-how and a sense of adventure required!"

Hi all - it's been quite some time since my last post, which I regret. It's funny how 2013 - 2017, the period the inception of this blog largely covers, it's like we all experienced personal tech mania. Cell phones became more like tiny laptops, businesses gamified customer service apps, and as the Wall Street Journal article, "Can 3-D printers mint you money?", 24Apr 2021 concludes: "Back in 2013 it seemed like a 3-D printer was about to become your next home appliance". But, it never came about, that is, until the COVID pandemic. According to WSJ,  new found 3 D printing technologies springs now from:

"...renewed interest amid the pandemic from healthcare companies looking for help in producing medical supplies.. to create nasal swabs, critical-care ventilators and face masks to bridge the gaps caused by supply shortages and delays from  traditional manufacturers".

The WSJ goes on to surmise that global supply chain disruptions could also drive renewed interest as companies "... reconsider how they manufacture goods longer term, with some looking more toward onshore production to prevent supply issues and shortages."

However it seems large scale 3D printing for now, will remain "niche", even a resurgence largely limited to "...relegated to applications that require low-volume production, a high degree of customization and flexible material selection."

In conclusion, WSJ wraps up the new 3D trends: "...the industry could have three dimensions of cool, but they just aren't there yet. Your next COVID test swab may be 3-D printed, but your next car will remain mostly factory-made."

Interesting and hopefully I won't wait 5 more years to follow to see if this prophecy bears out ;) 

Happy 2019 animators! New is Scratch 3.0. Click here to check out this release note summary. And from the official Scratch 3.0 wiki, full details.

I had the pleasure of teaching a couple of Hour of Code Scratch sessions in December, and from them, got an introduction to micro:bit!

Right off, a couple of things to be aware:

**Your old Scratch 2.0 projects still run -- I tested a few and found no glitches
**Scratch 3.0 animates using HTML5, no longer java, so you won't get that right click to enable java run command
**Because of some of the new plug ins, like micro:bit, your PC operating system must be current and running on a supported web browser. For example, Windows 10 on Chrome. You can't run Scratch 3.0 using Windows 7 or using any version of Internet Explorer (no matter how current).
**If you don't have the required operating system, you can still download and use the Scratch 2.0 offline editor (scroll to the bottom of the web page and you'll find the 2.0 and 1.4 desktop install software)
**There is new plug in software you must download and install to run micro:bit. The link above explains this step by step.

And for true techies, click here to follow this Scratch blog gets into developer details.

So, stay tuned for my updated videos posted to my Youtube channel for new projects, tips and tricks ;)

Welcome Teachers Pay Teachers subscribers!

It's always great to expand my learning dojo, and today, I launched my "Scratch in a Box" series on the TpT website. The series is made up of 6 videos that gives you everything you need to teach a 10 week Scratch series to upper elementary and middle school learners. As promised, please feel free to contact me through this blog for questions, suggestions, or to chat about anything ed tech ;)
Depending on the response, I'll look into creating "in a Box" series for MIT App Inventor, Kodu, Tinkercad, and Twine. As you can see, this blog is full of learning tips and tricks across these platforms that I like to keep new and fresh, so keep the feedback and requests coming.

123 Catch in action!

For all those followers who joined my 3D design SEP class in 2015, take a look at this cool use of 3D imaging used to bring shipwreck salvage and artifacts to life. And the amazing use of commercial 3D printers to make metal objects.

Back in 2014, there was great hope for personal and mid-sized 3D printers to revolutionize creating on an "as needed", day to day scale, that really didn't happen. But on a larger scientific scale, such as 3D printing in space technology, the future is very promising. We covered in class back in 2015 how the international space station already uses 3D printers to make replacement parts for itself in space. In this case, however, 3D printing technology has evolved to successfully making rockets. Big ones. Check out the start up, Relativity, who recently created the biggest 3D printer in the world, Stargate, with a goal to develop using it to create the "3-D-printed Aeon 1 rocket engine as the heart of its low-cost Terran rocket, with an eye toward starting commercial launches in 2021". They currently create fuel tanks and engines using Stargate and recently created a 14 foot tall fuel tank in a few days, whereas in the past, not using 3D tools, this type of tank would take up to a year to create! And in turn, reduce the cost of launching rockets into space by 80%.

Additionally, other new startups, such as Desktop Metal (founder John Hart is from the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity at MIT) have developed a printing process they say is 100x faster than single head laser technology. In fact, they claim they have a printer that can make 150 metric metal tons of metal in a year for use, starting in 2019, in the vehicle/machinery manufacturing industry (BMW and Caterpillar are early adopters). And machine learned design, where 3D software creates designs for high stress parts without hot spots, meaning through algorithms, the software "knows" how to reinforce weak points through design to reduce potential product failure (such as cracks and breaking points).