Code in Every Class: Sparking Student Interest

Coding sometimes is intimidating to students, especially high school or middle school students. According to Brookhouser and Megnin (2016), dispelling the myth that if a student is bad at math, then they cannot code. It is crucial that teachers send a clear message that anyone who invests time and practice in math tools can excel in coding. Coding is about trial and error, and the more a student fails, then more learning can take place. "Coding is fixing, and failure is fun!" (p. 65).

Here is a TEDTalk video Let’s Teach Kids to Code by Mitch Resnik of MIT Media Lab. Resnik (2012) outlines that "coding isn't just for computer whizzes, -- it's for everyone. It's almost like students have learned to read with digital devices, but they haven't learned to write with digital devices. When you learn to code, you can code to learn.”  

Another way to spark student interest to coding is to "welcome non-programmers [and programmers] from their community" (Brookhouser & Megnin, 2016). Also, show them with field trips and guest speakers that "tech pays off," as well as flexible working hours, playful work environments, solid opportunities for professional growth, a sense of autonomy, and intangible projects that could change the world (p. 36).

Why not practice a healthy debate in the classroom regarding what tech careers are needed, and whether or not the students feel they could get such a job? According to Hicks (2013), healthy argumentative dialogue is paramount for digital literacy. This skill is important for our students to not only identify factual information, but to share that information on social media and be able to defend that information with research based evidence. Teacher should discuss the path to computer science careers by using an Info-graphic, like the one shown below. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/623607879637755845/

According to Hicks (2013), to accomplish the goal of an effective video text one must use the MAPS--mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation method. The TEDTalk video I posted explains why coding in the classroom is vital for sparking student interest. I posted the infographic to show how important it is to set a tone in the beginning that coding can be a lucrative and important career choice for the students in the future. In conclusion, infographics will force you to extract the most important features of your lesson or course, and similarly, they can encourage students to summarize the information they’ve learned.

References

 

Brookhouser, K., & Megnin, R. (2017). Code in every class. S.l.: EDTECH TEAM.

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. 

    
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Resnik (2012). TEDTalk video Let’s teach kids to code . MIT Media Lab.

 

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents to 

    
read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

 

 

Social Interaction on the Web

Social media can be the "civic forum" to teach students to "read, write, and participate 
in thoughtful, engaging ways" (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 116). According to Hicks (2017), 
students are able to create their own identities on a living archive of work while at the 
same time learning cyber citizenship.

One social media platform in particular, Pinterest, is a useful tool both for random linking 
and for targeted searching. The education community on Pinterest is significant. Boards 
are filled with lesson plans, activities, and general ideas for enhancing the classroom. 
These boards are a great place to learn how to use the search features on Pinterest: Users 
can link through interesting pins to find related boards, and they can add and subtract 
search terms to refine a search and better target relevant content. Also, this much-pinned 
infographic sums up some ways that teachers use Pinterest – to curate content, organize 
ideas, collaborate with others, and for student projects.

As Hicks (2013) states that possible purposes for social media can be to "follow 
the collections of others and offer constructive feedback" (p. 149). Teachers can 
set up a Pinterest page for one particular class or a series of classes with Pins that 
focus on themes or subtopics important to the lesson at hand. Below is an exampl3
Pinterest Pin for school technology. Pinterest is a visual tool that inspires creativity 
and ideas that text cannot, an educational hub of boards and pins, less personal 
than other platforms with a streamlined profile, and there are no limits to how many 
followers you can have. It also encourages quick collaboration between teachers on 
all sorts of subjects and interests.

Here is a YouTube video introducing Pinterest as an educational tool below.

References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. 

    Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Peterson, L. (2018). Using pinterest in the classroom. Retrieved 

     from https://edtech.worlded.org/using-pinterest-classroom/ 

Pinterest Logo. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pinterest_Shiny_Icon.svg   

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents to 

     read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Re-Submission of Introduction Video

Animoto

     My first introduction video was just a webcam interview of myself, stumbling through the words in my head as I spoke, cringing at the idea of this going live for everyone in the class. However, for the purpose of the first class assignment, it worked. After exploring the Hicks (2013) and Turner & Hicks (2017) texts, I can see how this would not work for capturing an audience's attention for learning. My technique was sorely lacking of tone, written text, and engagement of an initial impression. 

     According to Hicks (2013), to accomplish the goal of an effective video text one must use the MAPS--mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation method. This method allows the writer to determine the why, how, and who of the video they are producing. I decided to use narration, transitions, and music to enhance the audio quality. This was done with an online web based tool called Animoto. Animoto gave the choice to do voice-over narration with or without background music, and it had a library of transitional with audio choices to enhance sound quality. 

Adobe Spark

     I chose to enhance the introduction video according to Hicks' (2013) video mentor text of technique by using written text, animated graphics, and an animated cartoon video. In order to import a collage of pictures into Animoto, I used Adobe Spark to first create the collages. I also made the cartoon video with infographics by using the web based tool Powtoon. 

Powtoon

     My video aligns "is a composition of a short, personal introduction" with audio voice over telling my personal memoir, or a narrative genre (Hicks, 2013, p. 109). I followed the craft element according to Turner & Hicks (2017) includes the ability to create a video procedural knowledge of form, which must have video clips and still images, text in written form of titles and captions, and text in oral form with voice-overs. 


                         

References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. 

    Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

  

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents to 

    read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Presenting Visual Arguments with Infographics....

"There is no excuse for 'power pointless' presentations, instead students 
have endless opportunities to prepare presentation for both real-time and 
on-demand delivery" (Hicks, 2013, p. 61). Because of the visual appeal of 
presenting complex information quickly and clearly, infographics have become 
popular tools added to presentations. The term "infographic" is combined from 
the words, "information graphic." According to Hicks & Turner (2017), 
infographics provides evidence, as well as visual design. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/istlibrary/2304444220/lightbox/ (Stripling, 2003).

A focus on the visual design of presentations provides a way to cut through  
the overload and help people make sense of the data that's available online. 
In the average Internet minute: 

• hundreds of thousands of tweets
• tens of millions of messages via text
• hundreds of millions of emails

There's nothing that says you know your stuff like sharing some data-rich 
research and analysis!

As shown here in this presentation example of my teacher introduction video, 

an infographic series is used to introduce the topics of Science, Technology, 

Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with evidence. The concepts of STEM are 

massive, and might be overwhelming to a student. The infographics used in this 

presentation, helps to summarize the data. 

 
https://www.edutopia.org/stw-college-career-stem-infographic

     A cool teacher web-based tool to create a free infographic maker is Easel.ly. It will spice up the content, is easily shared, and turn wordy content in to engaging visual design.

In conclusion, infographics will force you to extract the most important features of your lesson or course, and similarly, they can encourage students to summarize the information they’ve learned. In addition, infographics are engaging, creative, and are easily shareable. They can be a great tool for students to keep track of your class content or for them to express the knowledge they’ve acquired.

                                              References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. 

    Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

  

Stripling, B. (2003). “Inquiry-based learning.” Curriculum Connections through the 

    Library, ed. Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell, 3-39.

  

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents to 

    read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Writing an Argument of Substance…

It is becoming more and more important to produce digital citizens and for teachers
to teach valuable digital arguments. Debating is a long tradition of human nature, 
and today with all the “fake news” and sensitivity to opinion on social media, our 
students need to learn to be productive citizens and to use the opportunities 
available with digital writing for the greater good (Troy, 2013). 

“Posting a selfie or retweeting someone else’s post is one thing. Creating one’s own 
valuable piece of writing that offers an argument of substance is quite another. We 
want students to create content, not just redistribute it. More than ever before, 
students need intelligent, compassionate conversational partners, because 
conversations—some of which are truly interactive and dialogic, and others that are 
didactic and one-sided—are happening all around them, all the time. Teaching our 
students to craft digital arguments is, again, more than a skill for college or career. 
It is a skill for life.” (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 14).

Check out this #sschat Tweet about creating listening spaces for credible sources in productive classroom debate.

According to the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the term fake news means 
the “printing and dissemination of spurious news.” Sometimes stories are shared 
that are several years old, from sitaric websites and not credible sources, or just 
one-sided opinions. Also, we have moved passed the respective ‘there are two 
sides to every story’ and jumped right into ‘I do not agree with you and therefore 
we cannot be civil.’ Students are in need of a ‘think before you share’ workshop 
where there are steps utilized to promote healthy research based arguments. 

Here is a TEDTalk video on how fake news does real harm...

Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia‘s forthcoming manuscript, Annotation, in that they 
request that commentary adhere to the following: 

• Civil. We can disagree. And when we do so, 

  let’s also respect one another.

• Constructive. Share what you know. And build 

  upon ideas that are relevant and informative.

• Curious. Ask honest questions and listen openly 

  to responses.

• Creative. Model generative dialogue. Have fun. 

  Contribute to and learn from the process.

In conclusion, healthy argumentative dialogue is paramount for digital literacy. 
We as teachers should practice debate in our classroom where students see 
both sides with research based facts. This skill is important for our students 
to not only identify factual information, but to share that information on social 
media and be able to defend that information with research based evidence. 

References

Busari, S. (2017). How fake news does real harm [Video file]. Retrieved from 
https://www.ted.com/talks/stephanie_busari_how_fake_news_does_real_harm

How Is 'Fake News' Defined, and When Will It Be Added to the Dictionary? (n.d.). 
Retrieved from 
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-real-story-of-fake-news

Kalir, R. (2019, June 22). An Annotation Annotation Invitation. Retrieved from http://www.theamericancrawl.com/?p=1745

Troy, H. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and 
genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: teaching adolescents 
to read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.