Billings Beta
technology with intention
Tech Tuesday kicks off
354 days
by Jac de Haan
in Projects
Declan and Ben C. Have been looking for extra time to engage in independent programming. Their solution was to start a Tech Tuesday lunch club – and today was the first meeting!
11 students showed up and worked on projects that ranged from HTML, JavaScript, Alice, FLStudio and Scratch. Next meeting is scheduled for March 1st.
Intro to 3D programming
355 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
6th grade students have graduated from their 2D programming in Scratch to 3D. Today we ran through a couple of tutorials in Alice and learned about objects and methods. As with most of the programs we use, Alice is a free download – there is a link on our student programs homepage.
Take control of your online you
359 days
8th grade students at Billings are always involved in helping younger students and each other keep digital identities protected. In the past they’ve conducted surveys, presented to our parent community, built a webpage and created video.
Staying up-to-date with Facebook’s changing privacy policies can be daunting. An 8th grade parent recently wrote in to let everyone know about the new https option for logging in. Mashable just published a new guide to staying in control with Facebook. Follow their advice to stay in tune with the latest Facebook settings, including the https change.
Egypt’s use of digital tools and social media
361 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
The lesson of Egypt is that the tools themselves are not as significant as the changed role of the individual in society that they reflect.
إن الدرس المستفاد من أحداث مصر هو أن الأدوات نفسها ليست بنفس أهمية الدور المتغير للفرد في المجتمع الذي تعكسه هذه الأدوات.
It took the unbelievable act of closing an entire country’s access to knowledge and communication to teach us that the power of new media is not found in Google’s algorithm’s or Twitter’s feeds or Facebook’s walls – it is more fundamental than the platforms, more fundamental than the internet itself. The power of new media is ‘lower in the stack’- to invoke a geek metaphor- it is in the recognition that we the digital generation have come to regard society itself as a read/write medium. We are all authors now, and the privilege to collaborate and revise is not simply a web protocol, not simply a human right, rather, it has become a human attribute.
لقد تعلمنا من خلال انقطاع أجهزة التواصل والمعلومات عن البلاد أن قوة الإعلام الجديد لا تُستمد من الحلول الحسابية التابعة لجوجل أو التعليقات على موقع تويتر أو الرسائل على الفيسبوك، بل هي أكثر رسوخًا من هذه المنصات ومن شبكة المعلومات نفسها. إن قوة الإعلام الجديد تأتي من المستويات القاعدية، وتُستمد من الاعتراف بأن الجيل الرقمي بات ينظر إلى المجتمع على أنه وسط يستطيع من خلاله قراءة وكتابة الأحداث. كلنا كُتاَّب الآن، ولعلنا تعلمنا بأن شرف التعاون والمراجعة لا يقتصر على كونه بروتوكول لشبكة المعلومات أو حق إنساني، بل هو سمة إنسانية بامتياز.
author:Ed Bice
source document
Digital communication and social media in Egypt
361 days
by Jac de Haan
in 8th grade
8th grade students took time during Tech class and also Integrated Human Sciences to dig deep into the latest news from Egypt and the unrest of the last weeks. In Tech class, we looked at the impact of social media on this event, and the Egyptian government’s attempts to block communication by reducing internet connectivity.
Students worked in small teams to read and analyze several news stories, and then presented to the rest of the class. Here are links to the headlines we used:
- How Journalists Are Using Social Media to Report on the Egyptian Demonstrations – Mashable.com
- Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard – Official Google Blog
- Old technology finds role in Egyptian protests – BBC News
- Egypt Forced Cell Phone Company to Send Pro-Government Text Messages During Protests – GeekOSystem.com
To many students this seemed like a story out of a movie – something that is hard to imagine from our location and upbringing in the US. We ended the class by learning about a news story that ties the chain of events in Egypt to our country:
- Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Legislation Back in Play – Wired.com
More information about Egypt’s media war can be found on Meedan.net. Thanks to 8th grade teacher Rebecca’s coordination and resources for this joint learning experience.
Unrest in Egypt - photo by James Buck
Mid-winter break animation opportunity
362 days
Billings students tend to get pretty excited about all the animation and video projects we do. In a couple of weeks a local Seattle non-profit is offering an Animation Camp that sounds like tons of fun! We have quite a few alum who have spent their summers empowered by the incredible teachers at ReelGrrls, here are the details:
Mon-Fri, February 21 – 25, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Reel Grrls New Media Lab in Seattle’s Central District, 1409 21st Ave, Seattle WA 98122
Ages: Open to young women ages 9 – 19. Beginning and advanced media-makers welcome!
Cost: $275, or pay what you can. No participants turned away due to lack of funds.
Registration: Register Online OR Download a printable registration form to send in via email, fax, or post (coming soon).
Open to beginning and advanced animators! Learn new animation skills and styles from professional women animators. Explore different styles of animation and complete a short animated film in an all-girl non-competitive environment. Get hands-on experience with state of the art technology and support from adult women mentors.
ReelGrrls is also offering a weekly class that meets Wednesday afternoons.
“Lights, Cameras…Reel Grrls”
Afterschool video production class for girls ages 11-19 starting February 19. Girls will use professional quality cameras, learn Final Cut Pro editing software and create basic stop motion animation. The program meets Wed. afternoons starting March 2 (plus a few Saturdays). Full scholarships available for any Billings student receiving full or partial financial aid. To register or for questions, check out the ReelGrrls website.
Details on dates and times are:
February 16–6 PM Family Orientation (recommended but not required). Saturdays: February 19, March 19, April 9 10 AM to 4 PM
Wednesdays: March 2 through May 4 4 PM – 6:30 PM (no class April 20)
Location: Reel Grrls New Media Lab in Seattle’s Central District, 1409 21st Ave, Seattle WA 98122
Programming in Spanish
362 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
6th grade students have spent the last month putting their programming skills to the test in Spanish class. We’ve used logic statements, broadcasting and variables to create fun human-computer interaction experiences. A selection of the games will be published online, please enjoy Rachel H.’s finished product:
Info graphics out in the world
366 days
by Jac de Haan
in 7th Grade
Ever since the 7th grade began learning about information graphics, they seem to be everywhere! A few days ago during break, students in the tech lab were surfing YouTube to find responses to the recent State of the Union Address from our President, and they came across this cool enhanced version of the speech:
Independent Projects: Spreadsheets
367 days
7th grade has studied Spreadsheet functionality for a couple of months now. Finally we get a chance for some free exploration and to follow our personal interests. For 4 classes, students choose one path and try to bring an idea from concept to completion. The choices for these independent projects are:
- find a data set and use formulas and graphs to make the data interesting and easy to understand
- example – figure out how many basketball courts there are in each zip code in Seattle
- write some custom javascript to make the spreadsheet do something it doesn’t already do.
- example – a prime number tester that asks for a number and then tells you if it is prime or not
- create a game in a spreadsheet that uses formulas and/or scripts to make it cool.
- example – battleship that is automatically set up when you click a button.
- example – battleship that keeps score and tells you when you win.
- build a survey that dumps results into a spreadsheet and then analyze the results
- example – find out what the most popular cell phone service is and what kind of texting plan most students have.
And here is a breakdown of what students actually chose. It seems like option #1 didn’t enough creativity to capture attention. The majority of students chose to create surveys – what a great way to use technology to interact with other people and learn more about your world.
Samples of work will be posted on the blog as projects are completed.
Spreadsheets: essential skills with BATTLESHIP!
369 days
by Jac de Haan
in 7th Grade
7th grade spreadsheet mastery continues with some essential skills that allow students to effectively manage data and control the way it looks. We took some time to learn how to:
- resize rows & columns
- delete rows & columns
- merge cells
- control the color & size of text
- change the background color
- change colors with rules
- reference cells with coordinates
What’s a fun way to learn this stuff? BATTLESHIP! Students used the above skills to build spreadsheet-based BATTLESHIP boards and then paired up to play. There were plenty of ideas for improvements, some of which will be attempted by students during independent projects. Abe mentioned an auto-scoring system that uses formulas to figure out who is winning. Mason is attempting a BATTLESHIP board that is one-player and allows the spreadsheet to counter-attack.
Below are Kallie and Enzo’s finished boards:
