MIT program gives NH high school teachers a course in coding

Manchester schools, UNH Manchester, Dyn team up for ‘TeachCode Academy’

June 23, 2016

Edie Allard,

New Hampshire high school teachers had the opportunity last week to sit in the students’ seats for a change at UNH Manchester, where MIT professors taught them about code and code-based resources they can bring back to the classroom.

The workshop, called “TeachCode Academy,” was organized by Dyn and MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program, in partnership with the governor’s STEM task force, STEAM Ahead NH and the Manchester School District.

According to Wendy Huang, program manager for the Scheller Teacher Education Program, the purpose of the workshop was mainly to equip teachers with new skills and to pass those skills onto the students and to spread computational thinking techniques.

“Teachers can go back to their schools and become advocates for design … and bring that excitement and enthusiasm,” she said.

The high school teachers had the opportunity to work with four different applications that were developed by MIT: The MIT App Inventor, a program used for building Android apps; Gameblox, used to create games; StarLogo Nova, used to build 3D games and simulations; and TaleBlazer, used to create mobile games that incorporate a player’s physical location on a map.

On June 14, the first day of the workshop, facilitators briefly introduced the participants to each of the programs. The next day, teachers had the opportunity to use the program of their choice and even start developing a project to bring back to the classroom.

“This isn’t a typing class. This is about creating ways of thinking,” said Carol Urbano, project manager and outreach specialist at the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program. “[The participants] learned the principles of computation, the process of analyzing the things in our world, to analyze patterns. It’s more about problem-solving than it is about coding.”

Urbano said she hopes the teachers will be able to bring the principles of computational thinking back to the classroom.

Litchfield educator’s new teaching model vying in $50 million national competition

Socrademy focuses on app-centered model of collaborative education

A proposal for a new model of public education, designed under the direction of Justin Ballou, a teacher at Campbell High School in Litchfield, is a finalist in a $50 million national competition that aims to reimagine high school education. Partnering with Salem-based Extreme Networks, Ballou and a large team of people from both inside and outside the school developed Socrademy, a competency-based, personalized learning platform and program designed to connect qualified educators with students. The idea was submitted to the XQ Super School Challenge in February and was named to the group of finalists in May. The XQ challenge was launched by Lauren Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in September 2015, with the goal of “reimagining and redesigning the American high school.” Ballou has been teaching behavioral sciences and world history to juniors and seniors for the past 10 years, and in that time he said he saw a need for change in the way high school students are taught and learn. After speaking to the students in his psychology class, he realized that they too were looking for a more fulfilling education. That’s why Socrademy was developed. It is a new way of approaching classroom learning that allows for students to become more immersed in their education and to develop a deeper relationship with the material. In return, students receive credits at the high school and collegiate level. “People want to innovate and move forward. Socrademy allows us to collaborate with other community members, schools and businesses that helps build up a better system,” said Ballou. The victorious teams, which will win $2 million per school per year to implement their models, will be announced in August. If all goes well, said Ballou, Socrademy will launch in September 2017.

New resources, ideas

Though the project took place in partnership with the Manchester School District, some schools outside Manchester also had the opportunity to take advantage of the program.

Chuck Patterson, an earth and environmental science teacher at White Mountains Regional High School in Whitefield, attended the workshop. He said he’s hoping to incorporate skills that he learned with StarLogo into lessons on climate change.

Patty Dwyer, an English teacher from West High School in Manchester, chose to work with the program TaleBlazer. She said her students with special needs who have trouble sitting still in a classroom will benefit from the opportunity to go outside and physically walk around in order to move through a story.

“For [my students], to create a game or to learn from a game, that’s amazing. This is much more relatable to them,” she said. “This is by far one of the best workshops I have been to.”

Bob Baines, director of Dyn’s community relations and a former high school principal, said that instilling new resources and ideas into these schools is vital for creating quality professional development for students.

“[Education reform] is something the business community needs to pay attention to,” Baines said. “They need to be highly engaged with the higher education community and the public education system. If they don’t do that, I believe it’s at their own peril.”

According to Urbano, MIT and Dyn are considering plans to continue the workshop series, including virtual sessions throughout the summer and another potential gathering for late August, though public and financial support is still needed to make that happen.

Funding for the first phase of the program was provided by Dyn, the NH Charitable Foundation and Granite United Way.