The 6th graders have been working hard on learning the program Scratch, developed by MIT Media Lab. This is their first classroom experience with programming, and many of them are taking off and really enjoying it! So far, they have completed two of the four sets of challenges, and by the end of the unit, they will be able to use the program to create video games, animations and more!

7th grade has been working to develop their skills with spreadsheets, and are currently making their own “battleship” game with Microsoft Excel. This week we worked on using the “if” function with numbers and text. Pretty soon, we’ll be able to match up and play our games.

8th Grade has taken a little bit of a hiatus from the tech lab since they snowshoe on their day of tech class, but pretty soon we will be working to develop a survey for the entire school on uses of different technologies both in and out of the classroom. They started by thinking about how they effectively use technology at school and the different ways teachers at Billings use tech in the classroom to enhance learning.

7^th graders worked in groups to define technology terms in their own words. Definitions included “a network of information that most computers can access” and “the giant digital information superhighway” for Internet; and “a program that lets you connect to the Internet” with examples of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox for Web Browser. Other terms we defined included WWW/Web, Cloud, Web Address/URL, Program, Search Engine and Address bar.

6^th grade has been spending time reviewing Internet use expectations and understanding passwords. In what has become a Billings tradition, 6^th grade heard the story of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington and his experience when many of his online accounts were hacked as a result of poor password choice.  The class worked together to come up with different passwords based on everyday words. Kangaroo became k@N6aro0, computer became c0Mpu+3r and technology became T3cHn0\o6Y.  We decided that good passwords include lower and UPPER case letters, numbers and symbols.

8^th graders were introduced to the Hurt Square and were presented with various scenarios to rank on the square. We decided that sometimes actions online are less hurtful and more annoying, but they still have an impact in our lives.

Congratulations go out to all the schools that entered – it is heartening to think that there are so many students in the world that are taking responsibility for the future and present of our planet.

Learn more about the contest on the National Wildlife Federation’s blog.

Ronan, Peter and Rebecca took the time to organize our thoughts into a song, and they were joined by Eli, Abe, Mason, Tati, Kyri, Rowan, Isabelle M, Isabelle B, Ben C and Ben B to record.

Here is our result: Eco-Code

And the lyrics:

Hey it’s Billings,
School environmental,
Earth day all year round,
Now roll the instrumental…

Perfect lawn, our school don’t need it,
Catch roof run-off and reuse it,
In the lunchroom we compost,
reduce the waste, recycle the most.

Energy is what comes when you recycle
Don’t waste this world, it’s just a cycle.

Playing at the park,
Watering the rain garden,
Having some fun too,
These are all the things we do.

Take a ride, on the Spud,
a bio-diesel bus that we all love,
Takes us places we can’t walk,
Trucking graceful, like a hawk.

Get on a bike reinvent your life,
Save the world, fight the good fight,
Feeling good on your commute,
Do the math, it all computes.

Green hour, gain some power,
Play outside for one or two hours,
Get unplugged and have some fun,
Feel the rain, soak up the sun.

All our actions are connected,
The Earth is precious, help protect it.
Take a moment to reflect
On your life, please show respect.

Playing at the park,
Watering the rain garden,
Having some fun too,
These are all the things we do.

There were entries by students from Eton, Whitman, McClure, Vista, Woodinville Monessori and Catlin Gabel. Billings students represented the interactive category, with websites and games. Ben and Cooper entered their Battle of Fredricksburg film, which was well received.

We were honored to be joined on our journey by Noah, a Billings alum who helped found our DigiArts program and one of the organizers of the first Maker Faire trip that we took 2 years ago. Thank you Noah!

In tech class we’ve been using Google Earth to examine trail conditions, weather and tide charts. We’ve been learning to create custom maps and embed video and photos as well as taking advantage of the databases of info already available through the software.

As a result of the hack, there is a class-action lawsuit filed against Sony and the U.S. government wants answers too.

Sony’s stock price has dropped as a result of the intrusion, and on Monday they announced that another 25 million older accounts have been hacked as well.

While some students felt this story didn’t pertain to them personally because they don’t have a Playstation Network account, we quickly realized that there are many online locations that have similar databases of customer information.

Here is a list of places that students shop online, places that keep records of our address, name, birthday, credit card numbers, phone numbers, etc:

• iTunes music store
• Amazon.com
• XBOX Live
• Facebook
• eBay
• anywhere online that we shop!

Every time we buy from an online location, we are trading the convenience of instant gratification for the risk of losing control of our personal information. Sony is an incredibly unfortunate example.

Since the database breach occurred, Sony had to switch off their Playstation Network until they can fix the security issues. This means that millions of people can’t play games online with friends or buy new games. This results in millions of lost revenue dollars for the company and many angry customers.

Will this problem cause Playstation to lose the console battle with Microsoft? Will people be able to trust Sony with their personal information after such a news story?

iTunes' media organizer actually looks just like a spreadsheet, complete with a header row.

7th grade took a look at two popular programs that store information in a database and then drew similarities between spreadsheets and databases.

This work follows our previous learning about Spreadsheets and Excel.

Google Earth's databases don't look like a spreadsheet, but it is clear that every entry must include a photo, text, links, supporting organization, latitude and longitude. These are essentially columns in a giant spreadsheet.

While in Google Earth, students realized that the program includes references to the primary sources for photographs, just as we do when writing a research paper.

In tech we are easing into the topic by getting a sense of the location of these tiny islands and scoring the primary database of Google Earth for video, articles and photos of the area. NOAA has posted a film that discusses what has happened to the people who live on the Pribilof Islands as the world learned of the seals that live there:

People of the Seal from NOAA Ocean Media Center on Vimeo.

“People of the Seal’ explores the centuries-old connection between the northern fur seal and the
Unangan natives of Alaska’s Pribilof and Aleutian Islands in the middle of the Bering Sea.
Aquilina Lestenkof traces five generations of her own family’s history in this remote part of the
world, weaving together native, Russian and American cultural threads. At the heart of the story
are the fur seals. Like the Unangan, the fur seals are struggling to survive. As Aquilina says, “if
they’re not here, then we won’t be either.”

*Special thanks to community member Pam G. who introduced us to this topic.

Facebook is way too addictive. I have it because I’m becoming more of a social person and I enjoy talking to my friends.

-8th grade student

Someone friended my girlfriend and said mean things about me so she broke up with me.

-8th grade student

Social networks are a big part of my social life and have helped me in a lot of ways.

-8th grade student

I’ve thought about deleting my Facebook account – depending on my mood and what’s happened both on my account and in my life.

-8th grade student

I’m a different person on the internet than I am in real life.

-8th grade student

Two years ago I spent over 30 hours a week on electronics, and now I only spend about 20.

-8th grade student

I use a fake identity and then reveal another fake Identity to my close online friends as an extra measure.

-8th grade student

People are way too obsessed with Facebook!!!!

-8th grade student

I don’t want stalkers to look at my photos an videos and other information I have.

-7th grade student

I do say things in chat that I wouldn’t say otherwise.

-7th grade student

I am very careful online, and check and edit settings.

-7th grade student

I did “delete” my facebook once. But when I wanted to access it again, everything was there. So you can’t really delete it.

-7th grade student

I don’t usually watch tv.

-7th grade student

Facebook is quite pointless, and I don’t see what is so interesting about it.

-7th grade student

I generally think games alter teens’ personalities, but not a excessive amount.

-7th grade student

I spend many hours on the tv and computer a week.

-6th grade student

I am in denial about video games and how they affect your brain.

-6th grade student

I don’t use online stuff and do no social networking.

-6th grade student

COMPUTERS RULE!!!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!

-6th grade student

Since our first introduction last Wednesday (6M views, like/dislike buttons disabled) to today (39M views, 1:10 ratio of like to dislike) she has been:

• interviewed on national news programs, including Good Morning America
• appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• been the topic of an interview with Lady Gaga
• is rumored to have made $25,000 in iTunes downloads.

Today students wrestled with the question is this fame worth the criticism she is receiving?

We spent most of the class looking at her production company, Ark Music Factory. This group of producers, choreographers and marketers seem to have a specific musical and visual idea of what might be successful online. They’ve drawn a lot of criticism in the last few weeks for charging families to make music videos for their children.

Finally, we watched another video from one of Ark Music Factory’s artists. Student debated the quality of the music in comparison to Rebecca Black, noted the guest appearance of one of the producers in the video again, and looked at ratings and viewing history for Alana Lee:

In technology we take a deeper look at the idea of digital identity - who we are based on electronic information that exists in the cloud. One person’s DI can look quite different depending on what type of information a viewer finds: text messages, social networking profiles, search engine queries, gaming stats, etc.

We spent class looking at 2 young people who are intentionally shaping their digital identity with the help of adults. We also looked at the consequences of this process.

MattyB

Matty B is an 8-year-old rapper. He has a large YouTube presence (over 46 million channel views), a schwag store (do-it-yourself t-shirt print-on-demand storefront), and a Twitter handle. Matty B raps to popular songs and takes opportunities to interact with music and dance stars to gain attention and promote himself. 

Students can’t find any proof that Matty B is making money off the project so far, but they theorize that as he grows up, his digital identity might turn into a recording contract.

Rebecca Black

Rebecca Black was a regular 13 year old until about 10 days ago when her music video was uploaded to YouTube. The next day a couple of comedians sent out links to the video along with disparaging remarks, and she is now up to over 30 million views!

Rebecca’s video has spurned tens of tributes/copycats, most of them mean-spirited. Is fame worth the price of people asking you to end your life? Students doubted the ability of themselves to stay strong under such overwhelming criticism. We also discussed her ability to turn this experience into a positive one – she has already been interviewed by Good Morning America and been labeled the “next Justin Bieber.”

Facebook begins streaming video – we discussed how brick-and-mortar stores compete with mail or instant download/streaming video services, the death of the DVD, and how many BluRay DVD player owners don’t actually own BluRay DVDs.  General consensus was that impulse purchases are most likely to occur when streaming video.  Facebook’s approach to streaming video is a little different than Netflix because you can use US currency or Facebook currency.  Students point out that once you invest in Facebook currency you are bound to their service – a clever and scary proposition. Also, watching movies in Facebook will drastically increase some people’s Facebook time…this provides more time for Facebook to advertise to the viewer, thus increasing their profits.

Apple announces iPad 2 – we compared the features of Apple’s new offering to the iPad 1 and the iPhone. Students decided this is clearly an evolution, not a revolution. Even though the technology might not be ground breaking, students think that the tablet in general is fairly revolutionary because it is increasing the amount of screen time a person engages in.  Tangential conversations turned to the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Google’s Android OS.