Computer Science Resources Recommended by eSchool News

During Computer Science Week or Hour of the Code Week, whichever you want to call it, loads of great ideas were published to help teachers bring computer science understanding into their classrooms. A good example is an article, by Laura Devaney of eSchool News, who compiled a list of ten resources and facts to help with programming. They include Daisy the Dinosaur (free app), Cargo-Bot (puzzle game), MIT Inventor (build apps), Hackety Hack (learn computer science), Codecademy (learn to code site), Computing in the Core (facts), Computer Science Unplugged (learn computer science without a computer), w3schools (examples, quizzes, tutorials, etc), recruiting girls to computing classes (suggestions), and Dot Diva (suggestions for girls). Devaney offers links to the ten resources in her article.

Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Big Bird’s Words: eSchool News App of the Week

It comes from Sesame Street, works on Apple and Android devices, and features Big Bird, games, and fun. Big Bird’s Words, an eSchool News and Metro Bistro App of the Week, encourages children ages four and up to learn vocabulary and read written text.  The App ($.99) uses Big Bird’s wonderful Word-O-Scope to get children hunting for words in their real-life environment. Finding words is fun, especially when they get to use their devices’ camera to click on images of the words—like cereal on their breakfast table. Wired Magazine recommends it as a great app for children who are just starting school. Take a look at the demo reel from Qualcomm to better understand what this app does.

Smithsonian’s Wiggle and Stomp

Send your youngest students on a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park with the free app, Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp. Using the app, your students, with the help of Ada, the Zookeeper, learn about flamingos, lions, mole rats, pandas, and so many more animals. They use the virtual Shutterbug camera to snap pictures of animals they find on their journey throughout the game. The app is designed to be used by individual players; it will adapt itself to the level of the user.

If you like Shutterbugs, you’ll want to keep a lookout on the Smithsonian Science Education site for the upcoming games, Habitats and Memory Watch.

EDUCADE: Lesson Plans & Teaching Tools

EDUCADE Beta is an online community designed to help you create what you want for your students and share your work with other educators. You’ll need to sign up to create lessons, resources, and materials, but it is free. You can search for lessons by subject, tool type, topic, and platform, or you can enter a keyword. Available lessons will be listed, along with a summary of each. Lessons include objectives, Common Core alignment, resources, 21^st Century skills, step-by-step guides, and more. As an example of what’s available at EDUCADE, take a look at the lesson featuring electrical engineering for Grades 4-9. It uses MaKey MaKey circuit board kits. Impressive.

Letting Go of Control

Control. That was the way of schools and classrooms not long ago. We wanted to have our hand in everything—to know everything and to guide everything. However, the more we use technologies in our schools and classrooms, the less control we seem to have. It is simply impossible to keep up with everything students are doing on their computers and digital devices. Use of technologies has helped students to take responsibility for their learning. School culture is evolving as it recognizes students as important partners in education.  Principal Eric Sheninger, TL Advisory Blog, tells us, “Giving up control and empowering my students to take ownership of their educational experience has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

Super Scratch Programming Adventure

Using Super Scratch Programming Adventure, students learn computer programming while creating their own games. The Adventure is available from Super Starch Press in print (under $30) and eBook (under $20) format. Students learn about variables, flow control, subroutines, and more by programming arcade-style video games. With interest in programming increasing, the Adventure is a great way to get students started with a programming experience that they will master and enjoy.

Edudemic: Connection Education & Technology

Looking for loads of great information that will help you and your students? Try Edudemic. It’s filled with teachers’ guides, the best in educational technology, and information for both teachers and students. Educators who are migrating to eBooks for their courses and want to publish their own text should check the article “How to Publish a Class E-Book Using iTunes”.  Some of the October 2013 articles you may want to browse include: “How to Gamify Your Classroom”, “5 Fabulous Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom”, and “7 Signs Your School Needs a Technology Makeover.” You’ll also enjoy the “best math chart ever” and learning about innovative ways students are using technologies. Nice site.

Grammar with Tech

The TL Advisor Blog is always packed with useful information, like Ozge Karaoglu’s suggestions for great grammar tech tools.  Some of those recommended are the Grammar Ninja, Free Rice, Road to Grammar, and Grammaropolis. There’s also Noredink.com (No Red Ink) where you can create classroom materials featuring apostrophes, fragments, hyphens, subject-verb agreement, and all those confusing words such as its, it’s, accept, except, affect, effect, than, then, and loads more.

Fun With Language Arts

The Children's University of Manchester in the United Kingdom hosts a very nice language arts site for students and parents. On the site, you'll find an introduction to words, a world language map, jigsaw puzzles, and fun with nouns, adjectives, pairs, and much more. There's even a timeline of the English language. —And, if you don’t know what an EPONYM is, you should head to this very nice site, which also includes fun with history, science, and art and design.