The Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) recently announced a strategic partnership with SETDA as part of a three-year pilot affiliate program to serve, support and represent the interests and needs of the state education agency leaders with respect to the use of technology for teaching, learning and school operations. "Building relationships across regional, national and international organizations are critical for the success of implementing policy and practice that supports 21st century learning and teaching throughout the education ecosystem. NCCE becoming an affiliate member of SETDA will support the ongoing success of both organizations as well as those that they support," stated David Walddon, Former President of the Board of Directors, NCCE and Current Treasurer of the Board of Directors, SETDA. In order to qualify to be a SETDA affiliate, NCCE had to be a regional (multi-state), non-profit membership organizations that serve public K-12 education. NCCE serves educational institutions across the United States and US territories by providing professional learning opportunities to educational professionals. "Supporting our state education leaders in the Northwest and representing emerging technology interests and needs has always been a key mission for NCCE," stated Heidi Rogers, CEO/Executive Director of NCCE. " We are excited to be the first nonprofit organization to join the new SETDA Affiliate program.  It just made sense for us to be strategic partners with SETDA and represent our members in ID, MT, OR and WA." The post From the NCCE News Desk: NCCE is first northwest organization to join The State Educational Technology Directors Association Affiliate Program appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

With one of the worst travel days of the year coming up this week, tech-savvy teachers will be asking their cell phones to work beyond their typical work day.  How do you keep your phones up and running when they are running low on juice?  We have two quick strategies to share. First, the tech-savvy teachers always put a rechargeable battery pack in their go bags.  They are inexpensive, portable, and can be useful in a jam.  We like these two battery packs:  The Zilu Smart Power Portable Charger and the Anker Astro Ultra Charger.  Both have enough juice in one charge to refill even large phones more than once and you can also power up an iPad or other tablet along with it.  You can match this with a short cable for your iPhone or Android phone for a wonderfully portable power system on the go! Second, you should understand how your phone works.  Some applications are incredibly draining on your battery and a couple of quick tweaks when your battery is running low before the end of your day can mean squeezing out additional hours when needed.  We like turning off Bluetooth or wifi, or turning down the screen brightness.  There is an excellent article from the Guardian that can walk you through this for your phone… using two or three of these strategies in a pinch can really make a difference. Travel safe this holiday weekend!  Good luck keeping your devices charged up and working right! The post Tech-Tip Tuesday: Save Your Cell Phone Battery appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.  The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. This year’s Hour of Code even will take place the week of December 8th - 12th.   We are working to highlight some teachers from the northwest actively participating in this year’s Hour of Code.  Watch the blog next week to see educators from around the northwest participate in this global event. In preparation for next week the following video starts you on the basics of holding an event at your school: To learn more about Hour of Code visit: http://hourofcode.com/ The post Hour of Code is coming next week! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

The Tech-Savvy Teachers LOVE trying new apps!  However, despite our strong belief that many apps are underpriced, risking the development of future apps, apps that are discounted or temporarily free can be a great way to built your library without rocking your wallet. There are dozens of apps and web pages that track discounted or free apps, however, our favorite is the daily post from the team at Gawker Media, hosted on their Kinja platform.  Daily, the Commerce Team pours through apps on sale or free apps and posts them in one handy location. For example, on Tuesday of this week, there was four free iOS (including this beautiful stargazing app!) apps and two free Android apps that were worth over $15 dollars combined. I check every day.  This allows me to explore different apps each day and keep on with the cutting edge of apps in all platforms. Happy hunting! App Deals via Kinja The post Great Tip: Daily Free or Discounted Apps from Kinja appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

During the Hour of Code Vocareum (A first look feature this summer) is offering a course created by teacher Alexandra Vlachakis and student Ty Simpson of Sandy Creek High School in Georgia. 
Designed to familiarize students with JAVA, a language that is used in the professional world. The course consists of three simple assignments: Hello World - Your very first Java program, but with a twist Transforming Images - Build your very own Instagram Create Your Very Own Flag - Build your own Hour Of Code flag If you are a Middle or High School looking for a way to participate in the Hour of Code event next week this is a great resource. Sign up at: http://www.vocareum.com/hourofcode The post Vocareum offering free Hour of Code activities appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

NCCE and the Tech-Savvy Teachers are proud to celebrate the Hour of Code this week.  Throughout the week, we will be visiting teachers, professionals and schools throughout the Pacific Northwest to talk about code events around our region and novel ways to reimagine lessons or even whole classes with a focus on logic, problem-solving and code. To get started this week, we’d like to start with this excellent TEDx talk from Jeff Patterson, the Director of Informational Technology in the Great Falls Public Schools, called "Code is Beautiful:" In the same way we celebrate poetry, the essay, short stories, pictures, songs, symphonies and even skill in a school, we should celebrate code and the language that enables the world-changing revolution around us. Are you coming late to this celebrate and want to get your students involved this week?  Here is a starter’s guide to help you along your way: The Hour of Code website is an excellent place to get started!  It describes the philosophy behind the worldwide event and provides links to excellent tutorials to help get students started. Code.org has excellent, full courses for K-12 students, including full curriculum guides for classes in Computer Science. CodeHS offers instructional materials with a support infrastructure to help teachers integrate those materials in the classroom. Kahn Academy offers excellent courses in JavaScript and making webpages. Microsoft Imagine has excellent resources and tools to start students in thinking about making apps and games. How are YOU celebrating Hour of Code this week?  Hit us up in the comments, or find us on Twitter! The post NCCE Celebrates Hour of Code This Week! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

We sat down with Dale Johnson, Computer Science teacher at Woodland Middle school, in Coeur d’Alene, ID to discuss how he has brought coding into his school. How did you get started teaching coding in 6th grade?  That is awesome especially since most schools in HIGH SCHOOL don’t even have coding opportunities. Where did you get your first "AHA" moment that ignited the fire? My first aha moment was at the NCCE conference in Seattle in March 2014. With all of the new technology now available and wifi everywhere, new apps on smart devices have become ubiquitous in our society. The need to teach students coding became very apparent as I attended the sessions at NCCE. While taking my son to college this summer, I noticed all of the coding classes that were being offered for students and teachers at Stanford University. If the kids and teachers from the Silicon Valley were making coding a priority, why can’t the students and teachers in our area of Idaho make coding a priority as well. Upon returning to Idaho I signed up for a Coding class to learn about Scratch with Dr.  Julie Amador at the University of Idaho. The class was outstanding and I was ready to start my quest to teach coding in the upcoming year. My students would have access to 33 Chromebooks from the JKAF in the upcoming year and how could I integrate coding into the current math program as well as the one six- week course I teach on digital literacy.  I attended a JKAF meeting in September 2014 and heard another speaker talk about using coding in the Classroom with Scratch and Khan Academy. Shortly after the JKAF training I recruited seven students, two 6th grade, three 7th grade, and one 8th grade students to begin using Scratch and Khan Academy on their own. 1st quarter trial/testing period with current students and former students. I have had students testing curriculum materials, and tutorials for Scratch and Khan Academy Computer Programming before implementing the 2nd quarter. I met with them periodically to discuss how to write a scope and sequence that would be fun, engaging, and teach coding. I introduced our first Scratch Project to my digital literacy class and my two afternoon math classes on Nov. 17.  Students have three choices, create a cartoon or story, game, or an animation by the Dec. 15 deadline. During the time leading up to the deadline I will be showing certain methods of coding to help build their basic skills. Many of the lessons can be learned without direct instruction by using the Scratch Getting Started Guide pdf  I downloaded and printed 20 for free from the Scratch website. I also created over 100 laminated Scratch Cards from the Scratch site that can be used. Scratch also has video tutorials and a wiki that are linked from my classroom web page. The Khan Academy also has a built in coding section that is a little more advanced than Scratch which students have really enjoyed using. The Khan site is the second step in the development of learning how to code. Are the kids understanding and enjoying coding? Do boys like it more than girls? Both girls and boys like coding. Boys seem to be drawn to a different style of programming. They really like the shooting or sports aspect. The girls seem to not have a favorite area but enjoy the programming just as much. I have made an effort to encourage the girls that this is not a man’s world. They can succeed at coding too. What resources/curriculum are you using to teach coding? Here is my 6 week course for 6th grade students. I also incorporate the Scratch/Khan Academy into my 4 regular math classes as time allows over about 16 weeks. I have found that coding is a natural and meaningful way to teach mathematics (coordinate plane, negative numbers, angles/degrees, etc…) as well as a skill needed in many industries in the future. The scope and sequence for the 6 week course is below: Steps to Teach Computer Programming Intro Video from Code.org-Intro from Khan Academy on Programming Index card activity with commands on tile floor in cafeteria (group work) 20 step program on code.org Login process on scratch.mit.edu Show different types of scratch, See inside command in scratch Free exploration of scratch, check out see inside Show help sections in Scratch and direct links on teacher website Show the basics of Scratch Interface to include (use scratch booklets the Stage Sprite List Blocks Tab Costumes Tabs Sounds Tab Backdrops Tab toolbar sprite info Paint Editor—new lesson Set Transparent Color Saving a project uploading a project from scratch book (.sb2) Khan Academy CS Site Intro to Khan programming Practice doing the built-in Khan tutorials and projects What type of projects to assign Here is what Dale Johnson’s sixth grade students are saying since they started coding a few weeks ago: I enjoy coding because you get to use your own imagination, it’s kind of like painting your imagination. (Paris L.) Before, I didn’t know anything about coding, but Scratch and Khan Academy have taught me so much and it’s really fun to make games and programs. (Travis J.) Watch news coverage of Dale’s Hour of Code Event Dale Johnson is an educator with a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Sacramento and a Masters degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in technology from the University of Idaho, Coeur d’Alene. He began teaching with technology while working as an elementary teacher and technology coordinator in the Plummer/Worley School District for five years. Mr. Johnson worked as a staff development specialist at the University of Idaho, Coeur d’Alene from 1998-2003. He worked on grant funded projects for classroom technology integration in surrounding districts in Idaho as well as schools in the Washington and Montana. Mr. Johnson was one of the primary authors that assisted districts to secure more than 1 million dollars for technology projects while at the University of Idaho. Mr. Johnson returned to the classroom in 2003 as a technology teacher in an eighth grade consumer science at Woodland Middle School. While teaching eighth grade, Mr. Johnson secured several technology grants to fund projects for his students. The Quest Foundation awarded one of their nine grants for $9,745.00 to fund a video production project Mr. Johnson had written. Mr. Johnson also secured more than $12,000.00 in other grants from EXCEL Foundation and Ironman CDA for various projects around the implementation of technology. The post Idaho’s Dale Johnson’s Hour of Code appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

In our continuing week long series around the Hour of Code we sat down with Jamie Ewing, 5th grade teacher from Mount View Elementary School, in Seattle, Washington.  We were excited to talk to an elementary teacher who has done so much with coding in the elementary environment.  Enjoy Jamie’s thoughts on Hour of Code Activities, coding in elementary, and the overall importance of coding. What events you are planning for the Hour of Code week?  The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders will be using Scratch and FlexiMusic to create a "Video Avatar and Opening Theme Song" about their life. Students will also have the option to use Processing.org and write actual code to draw pictures of themselves. I like to keep the options open as students gravitate toward different tools. I have been teaching with Scratch for over 7 years and LOVE this tool. I use it in math, reading and now in a media arts specialist role where we integrate art, music and technology! Discuss that partnership with code.org and the impact on your school culture. I have a personal connection with code.org as I am the only educator that is featured in the code.org original short film I have am a huge supporter of their work! Our district last year had a connection with code.org and worked with them to support teachers who were teaching coding in the classroom. Can fifth graders really code? Many people link of coding as a high school or college and beyond skill, why are they wrong? I actually started with my third graders coding today and I know of students as young as kindergarten that code in their classrooms. It is really a mindset, if you think they can…they will! I really think that teachers are more afraid of it than the students. My students love using it as a tool, an endless road of possibilities. Don’t think of it as teaching coding or programming, that is the wrong way to approach it. Think of it merely as a vehicle to do so much more in your classroom. I’ve used to in science fairs to have students present their work than make it available for viewing around the world: a global science fair. I have students put all of their understanding from math into presentations or create games for learning! Students create eBOOKs to help teach younger students to learn their alphabets. The key is to get students to understand that this is just a simple tool that they can make huge. Possibilities are only limited by yours and their creativity! Here is a video I made for the science project: What differences have you found between girls and boys and coding? It is interesting, I find my female students are much more creative and will take more chances being wrong than my male students. This results in much better work from the female students. What I hope for is more female students going into this field, writing their ticket! The students that I see doing the best work and making the most growth are Special Ed students and ELL students. Programming is very literal and these students excel! (WHICH makes them experts in the class and brings their confidence to a whole new level) When I ask one of my Special Ed students why it was so important that we learn this way she replied, "I feel smart!’ If, for no other reason, is why we need to teach coding and programming at the elementary level. Why is it important for kids to code? The simplest of reasons: it builds problem solving skills and critical thinking. That’s it! I can’t say it is going to prepare them for the 21st century or a good job, I have NO idea what the jobs are even going to be when they get out of high school or college. But I can say that it will prepare them for a world that doesn’t exist yet. To make them ready for a work environment that we are just starting to see develop. I can say that my students are prepared to be global citizens.   Jamie Ewing is a National Board Certified Teacher, a 2013 Innovative Teacher of the Year recognized by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Education, a National Education Association (NEA) Fellow, and an NEA Master Teacher with Better Lessons. Microsoft inducted Ewing into its Expert Educator Program last year. Jamie was named a 2014 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) LearningMedia Digital Innovator. The fifth-grade teacher is the only Washington State educator among the 100 teachers from around the country selected this year. Ewing was selected by PBS for his dedication and passion for innovative teaching practices that integrate digital media and technology in the classroom. He has developed a number of digital media and technology programs at Mount View, including: Curriculum for all fifth-grade students at Mount View that teaches basic computer programming and coding skills. Virtual science fair, which allows students to explore earth systems, design related science experiments, and present their experiments as interactive web games, videos, or PowerPoint presentations. An engineering project that allows students to design and build two-wheel tractors. Partnership with BING to provide students an opportunity to create career- and college-focused photography projects. The eMAGINATION LAB after-school program, which focuses on animation and computer programming. The post Washington’s Jamie Ewing Hour of Code appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

Jessi Anderson is a a science teacher at Powell County High School, oceanography teacher at Montana Digital Academy and is a co-founder of #MTEdchat, a weekly informal professional development Twitter chat that regularly engages teachers across Montana and the nation along with Montana’s Governor, Lt. Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction. Jessi put together this brief video to describe Hour of Code this week in her science classroom: You can read more from Jessi at her blog, Master of Curious. The post Montana’s Jessi Anderson (@triscicurious) and Hour of Code in the Science Classroom appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

We wanted to wrap up our week long feature on Hour of Code with a view into the future and to give you all some ideas of where to go next in the coding movement.  Kiki Prottsman (@thinkersmith), a prominent voice on Computer Science across the K-12 curriculum, was kind enough to spend some time talking about the steps she is taking to continue the coding movement year round. What is the mission of Thinkersmith? Our mission is to introduce all ages, races and genders to the fun, passionate and creative side of computer science and computational thinking. We strive to provide a positive, low-stress, and energetic environment where any student can safely explore their high-tech curiosities. Through these ideals, we aim specifically to increase equity in the computer sciences as we work to attract and retain girls, women and other non-traditional computer science students. We believe that computers are a tool and that they should neither replace or hinder physical activity, environmentalism, nor philanthropy." In your Indiegogo campaign you talk about "unplugged" lessons in computer science.  What are these "unplugged" lesson and what are the advantages of integrating these lessons into more traditional computer science lessons? I am a traditionally trained Computer Scientist. One of the things I am sure you have noticed is there are currently not that many women in the field. When I was the chair of Women in Computer Science, I wanted to try to find out why there weren’t more girls in the field, because early on (1940′ and early 50’s) women dominated the field. By the 1980’s, boys started to get to drawn to it and assumptions were made that they were predisposed to coding. Meanwhile, girls wouldn’t even be exposed to coding until college. By the time students reached college there was a huge divide in perceived ability, not actual ability, perceived ability. As I researched further, it became more and more clear that in order to keep women interested and really believing that they could be successful, you had to present it early, before middle school when self doubt sets in.  This meant exposing girls as young as kindergarten to the concepts. At the time (2010), there was really no Computer Science curriculum for young students. Everything was being tailored for college level students. Even at K-12  education conferences, Computer Science was being discussed as a High School level course. I would actually get laughed at for daring to bring it down to the Kindergarten level and people thought that it would never happen.  What I saw was that people needed help to become passionate by watching their children code, and little kids wanting to do this as a fun activity. I started thinking how could we make these activities relatable to young children? Especially little kids who didn’t have access to computers. Also, Tim Bell had brought out his CS Unplugged items.  They were fun little activities that you could plug onto the end of high school lessons. I thought, what if I did this to create hour long lessons for kids. I started camps that were themed, like pirate day, where we would make pirate booty with their names on them in binary. We would navigate maps on the ground and it would turn out that they were finite state machines. They would be doing automata theory as 5 and 6 year olds and it was widely successful.  It took a lot of trial and error to make sure things scaled well, but the lesson we hit on really worked well.  Once students worked through 6 or 7 lessons you could really see their entire perception  of themselves as a student, just, change.  Their thinking, how they thought about their intelligence, and their ability to stick to a problem all changed. One of our lessons is simply, "This is going to be hard". The lesson works at letting kids become comfortable with the idea of working through frustration to solve a problem. Children are so conditioned now to give up if something is hard. This lesson lets kids explore frustration by identifying frustration points with a group to demonstrate that everyone is experiencing frustration at different times.  Computer Scientists experience frustration 100 times a day.  That is how progress is made and how new things are invented! Once children realize this, their whole perception of frustration transforms, which can only be good for the rest of their lives. You have written about the need for computer science to be thought of as a core subject in schools at all levels. The Hour of Code is a great step in raising awareness around the need, but what "next steps" do you see that schools need to take to make this more of a curricular shift vs a week long project? With the Hour of Code we have the opinion that anything is better than nothing as far as getting kids excited about coding.  Obviously, the more exposure the better. There is a caveat, though, we firmly believe that this can be taught incorrectly and that is detrimental to the movement. With young students, if a teacher gets in their head that this is cool and wants to bring more coding into their school, there are some great steps that can happen immediately. What we have seen with teachers we are training through Thinkersmith, once they realize they can teach this, is they find ways to "sneak" it in everywhere throughout the day. Teaching through Computer Science is a great way to hit many Common Core standards across all subjects. The "unplugged" lesson are a great way to start introducing the concepts of Computer Science and then if you can get into the computer lab the next week, using sites like code.org, you can reinforce these concepts. Many of the well vetted lessons are self paced and allow for students to work at there own pace. There is a website: csisfun.com curated by Thinkersmith.  The idea behind the site is to combine all kinds of Computer Science lessons from the best people in the industry in one place. There is something for every grade and talent level. They are appealing to both boys and girls. Even just having this site as a resource to your class gives your students the ability to start exploring in the world of Computer Science. Then next step after bringing it in individually is to start a movement and get your community demanding it. We have found that parents want these concepts in school. They just need to be shown a model of how these concepts can be integrated into the day or after school program. Kiki is the Executive Director of Thinkersmith and former computer science instructor at the University of Oregon. A Member of Mensa and former Chair of Women in Computer Science, Kiki is a world-renowned specialist in computational thinking. She was recently named one of Lane County’s 20 rising stars under the age of 40 and has graced the cover of Open For Business magazine. As a champion for responsible computing and equity in both CS employment and education, Kiki works with many organizations to improve the experience of girls and women in STEM. Her landmark work with the hands-on Traveling Circuits computer science curriculum helped Thinkersmith receive the 2013 Google RISE Award for excellence in Science and Engineering. She currently writes for the Huffington Post, sits on the Education Advisory Council for Code.org, is a member of the Advisory Board for Play-i Robotics, and is a vital member of the Leadership team for the Oregon Girls Collaborative Project. The post Oregon’s Kiki Prottsman (@thinkersmith) on Hour of Code and the Future appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.