The Student Reporting Labs of PBS Newshour has been going strong for years. Now is educators’ chance to usher in a new era of reporting.
Journalism needs us now more that ever. With the blistering attack that the media is getting from the left and the right, whether it’s the non-stop sputtering of Hillary’s emails, or Sean Spicer unloading “alternative facts” in a White House press briefing, the role of the journalist has never been more in question. At the same time, good journalists have also never been more necessary. We need people who aren’t afraid to ask tough questions, learn how read between the lines, and get to the heart of a story.
We need good journalists.
On my wish list would be scientifically literate journalists, ones that can look at facts, data, can make inferences, then report on those facts. Ones who don’t just take people at their word, but do their research, look at pictures, data, interviews, and look for evidence to back up their facts. …
Helping teachers to grasp new technology has, over the years, been a challenge, as any school technology coordinator will tell you. Sitting in staff meetings when the proverbial naysayers question the direction of technology in the classroom is a routine part of the process. You listen, and continue to point the train toward the future.
In my role as STEAM Coordinator and tech educator for that past 10 years, I’ve seen classroom technology evolve from webquests to Web 2.0 to collaborative documents spearheaded by Google Apps (now known as G-Suite). Google Apps were all the rage in 2009, and I got accepted into the Google Teacher Academy that year as a Google Certified Innovator. …
President Obama, in a presidential proclamation, proclaimed the week of June 17th, 2016 as the “Week of Making” all across the United States.
Having just returned from The White House for the kickoff to the Week of Making and witnessing the Champions for Change event, celebrating makers from all over the United States, the winds of change are moving in the direction of creating community makerspaces.
What is a makerspace, might you ask? A makerspace is a gathering place for creatives, business developers, tinkerers, do-it-yourselfers, artists and more- to design and build things. It’s a place where people from the community can work on their ideas, use 3D printers, laser cutters, woodwork, metalwork, design. It’s a place where budding entrepreneurs can come to flesh out their ideas, collaborate, and build the next great idea. Imagine you had an idea for a new kind of toothbrush- you could walk down to your local makerspace where a facilitator would help you design it and print out a prototype. …
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