To kick off the month of February, we’re excited to introduce our community to our newest Eduporium Featured Educator! Anna Blake is a technology integration specialist in the Elizabeth Forward School District and a big fan of coding education. She certainly knows the importance of equipping students with relevant STEM skills and has done quite an impressive job. For instance, one project her students have tried involved combining coding and drones using Swift. Creating programs that pilot their drones through a hula hoop was the main objective of this particular challenge. Once creating the right kinds of learning opportunities, Anna has helped get her students future ready in the classroom!
Anna Blake
Elementary Tech Integrator, Greenock Elementary, McKeesport, PA
Q&A:
Please share any innovative coding education or EdTech project(s) you've completed with your students or plan to complete.
My students compete in an in-school RoboOlympics every year, so they can showcase using both problem-solving and coding skills together. I challenge each student team to program a drone to take off and go through an obstacle course. My fifth-graders have been flying Parrot drones through hula hoops and obstacles using Apple's language-based Swift Coding, for example.
It's definitely amazing to watch students become empowered in their coding education and when working with EdTech in this way. Therefore, the most important result of the competition is not winning—but the experience of teamwork in completing a mission. Connecting these classroom experiences to the real-world uses of drones in delivery and flying, above all, was valuable. As a result, students have begun to understand and experience how technology can ultimately change the world.
What is a challenge you faced or are facing with your EdTech use?
What resources have you used in coding education or are in need of?
Of course, keeping up with EdTech every year is the hardest challenge for any teacher. Working at a rural Title I school, I've found my students need many different resources to prepare them for the 21st century. For example, with computer science skills, my students can more easily reach their full potential. Generally, in this type of coding education, they gain problem-solving experiences and lessons in perseverance along the way. If I had a limitless budget, however, I'd engage my students with every kind of EdTech from AR to VR and immersion technology.
With big-ticket items, teachers usually need to work within a budget. I feel confident students are trying different computational thinking and computer science elements in both hands-on and screen-based coding education. In a limitless world, on the other hand, I wish my students had the option to sample new technologies, but they're often too expensive. As I continue to find grants, I hope that I will gain more in terms of my budget. That would certainly go a long way in helping students soar above their own perspectives and see what technology can really do.
What are some of the real-world skills you've seen your students develop through regular EdTech use and coding education?
How could they be applied in the future?
My class called ‘Computational Thinking and Computer Science’ is awesome. Students get to practice some key hands-on 21st-century skills. In other words, I know they will need them to take on a world that will have changed so much by the time they are adults. So, the CTCS class is designed to prepare K-5 students to problem solve when met with any future challenges. We've talked about things like developing a vaccine and making sure that the supply chain doesn't falter in the future. Most importantly, it's helped students get a sense of some of the most pressing real-world problems and some potential solutions.
So, how do you prepare these students for things that we don't yet know ourselves? In short, we work on building skills—problem solving, perseverance, understanding one another, and ultimately collaboration. I am building leaders, but I'm also building the future by giving my students a tool belt. I feel lucky that these kids will become leaders and have chances to put the skills they’ve learned to use.
What interests you most about Eduporium?
How can Eduporium's services provide value?
Eduporium is certainly a leader in providing teachers with professional development and opportunities. They've helped to expand student understanding of computational thinking, computer science, and many other STEM-related areas from their booth at the ISTE conference to the informational emails. Above all, I feel the opportunities provided by the Eduporium team are important to keeping coding education flowing with the influx of EdTech materials. Thank you!
We thank Anna for sharing her thoughts and experiences with us and for the efforts she puts forth so her students can enjoy relevant learning experiences. We hope these features continue to inspire other educators to try some new things as well! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more updates on all of the great things educators are doing with technology. Also, if you’d like to apply to be highlighted on our blog and social media channels as an Eduporium Featured Educator, we’d love to have you fill out the application!