In June of 2016 Massachusetts approved a new curriculum Digital Literacy and Computer Science, and shortly the new 5-12 teaching license in DL & CS will be available. I am not sure if I have wrapped my head around the real implications of these new standards. Schools have not added a new discipline to the K-12 curriculum in centuries. People tend to focus on the computer science aspect of the curriculum but it is Digital Literacy and Computer Science in…
A couple of weeks ago the New York Times had article Where the STEM jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t). As a former science teacher and now a technology specialist I am acutely aware the difference between the S in STEM and the T. Even the T takes on multiple meanings. Engineering technology and Computer Science related technology. I have noticed as many grants come out to support STEM and schools announce their renewed focus on STEM there is not…
As many of you know Pokemon Go was all the rage the last few weeks. I don’t normally play games but thought I would give it a try and was enjoying playing with my young adult children. It got us out of the house and doing something together, it was more a side note to our family outings. Steve Dembo has a good post summing up initial thoughts on Pokemon go. It was fun. Today as a result of the…
This June the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education formally adopted new Digital Literacy and Computer Science Curriculum Frameworks. A good portion of the digital literacy frameworks overlap with the literacy standards regarding research, analysis of information, collaboration and presentations. These standards place added emphasis on these skills and the tech tools needed to meet them. What is significantly different is the much needed addition of computer science; computing and society, digital tools and collaboration, computing systems and, computational…