Friday, February 28, 2014

#edtechbridge survey responses part 2: Teacher / Entrepreneur Collaboration Experiences


SXSWEdu is quickly approaching and Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I (@mr_isaacs) are presenting a problem solving session, Bridging the Teacher-Entrepreneur Divide.  The goal of our session is to work with participants to create an artifact that can live on after SXSWEdu and provide a community space for EdTech Entrepreneurs and Educators to collaborate in order to better meet the needs of our students and create effective products.

In preparation of our session we have created and distributed a survey to recruit ideas and generate interest in teachers and developers who would like to participate in this community.  If you have not completed it already, please take a moment to do so.

As of today, February 28, 2014, we have received 29 responses.  I would like to share the data as it should serve as a great conversation starter as we move forward.

The survey consisted of 15 questions.  I will share the responses over the next few blog posts.

Survey Question: Please describe any teacher-entrepreneur collaborations you've been a part of (focus groups, in-school playtesting, etc)

Responses from Teachers:

  • I've beta / field tested a number of products including QCraft for #minecraftedu, Real Robot High for e-line media, GameUp! for brainpop, etc. I have been involved in product surveys for Common Sense Media (graphite). I have become involved in creating and curating content related to learning resources for YoYoGames / GameMaker. I've been involved in Steam for Schools / Teach with Portal since the beta and have developed curriculum and presented at conferences. The list goes on :)
  • None. My wife, who teaches in a private school that is 1:1 iPad has had great access to such collaborations. I, on the other hand, have never been able to have this experience.
  • I haven't been involved in a real "direct" collaboration, although in my role I'm constantly playing around with things to see if they'd be worth a teacher's while. Movenote comes to mind, as well Discovery TechBook. I've met with quite a few textbook company reps and tested their websites.
  • I organize the Seattle EdTech Meetup, have participated in collaborative conferences like SXSWedu, work regularly with edtech startups from beta testing with my students to brainstorming ideas and classroom needs.
  • I've done focus groups, in-school playtesting, researchers visiting my classroom
  • I have not been involved in any collaborations yet
  • Edmodo
  • In-school playtesting with Gamestar Mechanic 2.0 in 2014. In-school beta testing with Time4Kids on NearPod fro iOS.
  • I have participated in focus groups and well as some beta-testing. The best experiences have been those where the company/startup approached the process as a learning experience (to learn more about what teachers need and want) rather than from the stance of "here's our new product and here is how it can solve your problems." I have also been a part of the Google Glass Explorer program and Google has done a fantastic job of providing a community platform for explorers and Google to discuss experiences, questions, how-tos, wishlists, and more as the product continues to be developed.
  • It is the basis of my job to play entrepreneur (internally) to my organization. I work with administrators and faculty to meet their needs now and tomorrow (and ones they didn't know they had).
  • I've worked on games for learning with institutions like the Notebaert Nature Museum and the University of Alabama College of Education.
  • focus groups, playtesting, betaclassroom.org...
  • I've been involved with the CS10k NSF grant and online community.
    I do pd for teachers k-12. I help facilitate K-12 code activities.
Responses from Entrepreneurs:
  • Project Breaker http://www.projectbreaker.org/
  • None yet
  • Filament Games: conducting focus groups and formative classroom playtesting, coordinating formal evaluation of games

    Quest Atlantis project: Design-based research on game units. I designed games and assessments, and administered these in classrooms of collaborating teachers, over several iterations.
Responses from people that fit both roles (Entrepreneur and Teacher):
  • Ongoing communication with educators to enhance our current product (via suggested features, the UI, etc).
  • CAS (Computers at Schools) in UK
    I've also just come back from a visit with Google Education, MIT and Microsoft
  • We've used 3DGameLab extensive in several classrooms in our district over the past year. This has provided an opportunity for interested teachers to give feedback to the platform's designers on what works and what needs work. The responsiveness of the support team for any product (especially in its infancy) is critical to its success, especially when it comes to considering feedback and suggestions for improvement.
  • - Open/eTextbooks - in progress
    - Clicker software
    - Twitter as a backchannel
    - Social media strategies for departments and faculty
    - Website/blog development
    - Streaming media focus group
    - Lecture capture systems for developmental education
  • Only career presentations and mock interview sessions.
  • Beta testing and focus groups.
  • Lots of student centered play testing focus groups where students become design and UI advisors.
    Teachers/game developer/scientist and occasionally student design groups where everyone brings their expertise and practical experience to the table to create several video games driven by true science game mechanics.  
  • As an edtech person, I've done a number of playtest sessions in classrooms (usually one-day sessions) and I've also done one year-long program of teaching a once-a-week playtest group.
Responses from people that feel they fit neither role:
  • I am the principle investigator on a number of federal grants to study learning in digital games. We do design, development, and testing in and out of school.










More to come, but I believe digesting the open ended questions one at a time is probably wise.  Writing this post provided me with a great opportunity to really read through the responses.  Clearly, developers and educators want to work together for the right reasons.  That is not the question.  How we can facilitate this remains to be the question.  I am excited to meet with everyone at SXSWEdu, but see that simply as a starting point.  Beyond SXSWEdu is when the rubber hits the road.  There's no doubt that the desire for this collaboration is there.  Now it's time to make it happen in a significant manner.  

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If you know me, you know I am a HUGE fan of GameMaker as a tool for teaching game design and development. GameMaker studio makes game creation easy thanks to it's intuitive drag and drop approach.  However, as an introduction to computer science, students grasp the concepts in a concrete manner that is true to the coding constructs represented based on the required syntax. Students learn key programming concepts including conditional statements, variables, and loops.   The logic involved translates seamlessly to any programming language, including the built in GameMaker Language (GML).  Some students will stay with the drag and drop approach, but others will slowly (or quickly) gravitate toward the use of code.

I can't encourage you strongly enough to download GameMaker Studio while it is free.  This is the standard version ($49.99 value).  There is a free version that will remain available after this promotion, but the free version limits the number of resources you can use in your games.  This becomes a limiting factor for sure.

Learn GameMaker - I'll help!

I teach video game design and development at the middle and high school level.  Along my journey, I have created a number of resources that should help you to learn GameMaker.  The resources take you from the very basics into Intermediate concepts.  Mark (Garlic) Suter and I have been developing content and working with Indie developers to create a wide array of tutorials and sample projects for the Learn section of the yoyogames website.  Our content will be available there soon.  In the mean time, please enjoy some of our resources in their current form.

Resources:



Enjoy the resources and we can't wait to play your first game!

Friday, February 21, 2014

edSurge Tech for Schools Summit: BRILLIANT! #edtechbridge

Play. Explore. Listen. Share


If you've been reading my blog or following me (@mr_isaacs) on twitter, you will know that bridging the divide between teachers and entrepreneurs is close to my heart.  Well, edSurge is creating an amazing opportunity for teachers to meet with and interact directly with developers.  The Tech for Schools Summit focus on the edtech entrepreneurs that local teachers want to collaborate with.  There is a voting process and ultimately a number (around 30) ed tech companies are selected to attend.  Talk about a win-win!  This is not a conference, not a sales pitch, not a workshop.  Rather, the environment is created to allow for real authentic community building.  Teachers can try out products and provide the valuable feedback that will help developers create products that meet educational needs.

This weekend I will be attending the Baltimore event.  The event is free to teachers as well as invited school leaders.  The summit is co-sponsored by a number of local school districts as well as the Maryland Society for Educational Technology (MSET).  I'm excited to participate as a Brainpop Educator and interact with educators and entrepreneurs.

Look for future edSurge Summits.  Hopefully, one will make it to a city near you in the near future!

For more information on this weekends event, please visit the event page at: https://www.edsurge.com/guide/baltimore-edsurge-tech-for-schools-summit

If you'll be there, please stop by and say hello to us at the brainpop display.


Thursday, February 20, 2014

#edtechbridge survey responses (part 1): What would you like to see us accomplish?


SXSWEdu is quickly approaching and Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I (@mr_isaacs) are presenting a problem solving session, Bridging the Teacher-Entrepreneur Divide.  The goal of our session is to work with participants to create an artifact that can live on after SXSWEdu and provide a community space for EdTech Entrepreneurs and Educators to collaborate in order to better meet the needs of our students and create effective products.  

In preparation of our session we have created and distributed a survey to recruit ideas and generate interest in teachers and developers who would like to participate in this community.  If you have not completed it already, please take a moment to do so.

As of today, February 20, 2014, we have received 26 responses.  I would like to share the data as it should serve as a great conversation starter as we move forward.

The survey consisted of 15 questions.  I will share the responses over the next few blog posts.






When it comes to EdTech entrepreneur/teacher collaboration, what would you like to see us accomplish as a group?

  • I would like to see us build a community and an infrastructure for teachers and entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate to create awesome educational products. My particular interest is in game based learning and game design and development.
  • I'd like to open up the dialogue about innovative activities districts/schools/teachers are employing in the classrooms. What do teachers want to see? What are the trends? What do teachers THINK are the trends? (this can be very different from the actual trends). It'd be great to springboard discussion on how teachers and entrepreneurs can best work together to further student achievement and engagement. 
  • Figure out best practices to connect the two groups so that they can conveniently and effectively work together to create great learning tools/environments.   
  • I would like to see more formal and informal opportunities occurring online as well as around the country/world that enable educators and edtech entrepreneurs to more easily communicate, collaborate, and to just be able to find each other in general. In other words, how to we create space and opportunity for edtech entrepreneurs to more easily find educators who are interested in collaboration and for interested educators to find edtech entrepreneurs or startups that are actively seeking educators as collaborators (but not necessarily as employees -- lots of job search sites exist, but I'm an referring to something more along the lines of Match.com but for this type of collaboration)... And also how can we support these two groups with their communication and collaboration skills, methods, strategies, etc.
  • I'd love to work in collaboration with teachers to build better learning games.
  • Supporting each other in seeing each others' needs and goals, and supporting best communication. Helping to see pitfalls in quick off-the-cuff communication and solicitation
  • bridge the divide between educators & ed tech developers -- ensure teachers & students' voices are heard
  • Two way street of idea pitching (preventing shovelware)
    Best practices/guidelines (preventing shovelware)
    Events (G+ hangouts and/or physical)
    Collaboration of taking an idea to the market
  • Creating a community in which educators provide entrepreneurs valuable insight and feedback into the needs in education and entrepreneurs using this information to improve/enhance their product(s).
  • Subverting the dominant paradigm
  • Come to a consensus that the ultimate goal is engaged, student learning.
  • establishing connections with schools and entrepreneurs who are willing to test ideas. establishing connections with teachers who can give feedback and contribute to the development of better products
  • I'd like to see a greater expansion of gamification among administrators, teachers, and students. Additionally, a discussion into new and upcoming technologies would be a great springboard for future collaborations.
  • Provide honest respectful space for dialogue and knowledge sharing
  • Share Information, see new trends and solutions
  • Teacher development in technology and more tech in low-income schools. 
  • Partnerships and internship opportunities for students to gain valuable experience.
  • Making things affordable for teachers who have to pay for technology out of their own pockets because the district doesn't have enough money to support all the technology we want to use.
  • More opportunities to share ideas, collaboration opportunities and partnerships with existing startups, funding/grants for teachers to pursue projects.
  • Simple tools even reluctant teachers will use that have room for creative expression.   
  • I'd like the group to refine a set of best practices, and help build the reputation of this type of collaboration in both contexts as a valuable contribution to everyone's efforts in the education sphere.
  • A few things:

    1. Selfish Reason: The way we build better apps is having conversations with educators and being immersed in your world. I want being a part of this group to lead to better apps.

    2. Bigger Picture Reason: I would love to see schools continue to shift to prepare students for the kinds of careers we have. This shift would involve focus on iteration, learning as a process (not an event), and just being more production/creation focused in general. I know this is a challenge because there are a lot of external forces (politics, etc) that are pushing against it (standardized testing, etc). I think there is a lot of opportunity here though - the reasoning for these policies is similar (to prepare students for the future). There is just a mismatch between (in my opinion) what policy makers see and what businesses & educators see leading to this outcome. The opportunity is for businesses and educators to get together and plead our case.
  • Continuing to bring teachers together. Google hangouts and other online communication is great but doing a grant to get us together in person would be amazing.  
More to come, but I believe digesting the open ended questions one at a time is probably wise.  Writing this post provided me with a great opportunity to really read through the responses.  Clearly, developers and educators want to work together for the right reasons.  That is not the question.  How we can facilitate this remains to be the question.  I am excited to meet with everyone at SXSWEdu, but see that simply as a starting point.  Beyond SXSWEdu is when the rubber hits the road.  There's no doubt that the desire for this collaboration is there.  Now it's time to make it happen in a significant manner.  

Friday, February 14, 2014

#EdTechBridge: A Teacher's Perspective on the Value of Collaboration with EdTech Entrepreneurs



Teachers want to bring innovative and effective technology to their classrooms, and EdTech companies need teachers to evaluate their products from inception to launch. Both parties know it's important to work together to build good tools, but often run into the cultural divide that exists between educators and technologists.  The cultural divide is not intentional on either side, yet it appears to exist and the benefits of connecting educators and developers is clearly mutual.

I often question the root of this issue and as far as I can tell it purely stems from our inclination toward isolation, though, not intentional.  As a teacher, I see how educators are generally absorbed and consumed by their teaching responsibilities.  Likewise, I can only imagine that developers are typically focused on their vision.  However, when this is the case, developers miss out on a valuable partnership with educators that would ultimately result in a more valuable product that better aligns with the intended learning outcomes. There is no reason why this can't change.  

Over the past few years I have become quite involved in social media, particularly twitter.  It took me a while to warm up to social media as a professional tool, so I can see why others may have missed out on this opportunity.  Once bitten by the social media bug, it became widely apparent that this is where all the others who have left hibernation are hanging out.  I have made wonderful connections with developers from companies including BrainPOP (@brainpop), e-line Media (@gamestarmech), Kodable (@kodable), Hopscotch (@hopscotch), MinecraftEDU (@minecraftedu), TechSmith (@techsmithEDU), 1st Playable (@1stplayable), and many more.  This has led to opportunities for Skype sessions with my students (Thanks to Mike Wantanabe from brainpop, and Caitlin Keleher (Storytelling Alice / Looking Glass), field testing of software (QCraft, Looking Glass, Portal 2, Real Robots of Robot High), guest blog post (Brainpop Educators, TechSmith Education), Speaking engagements, and much more.  Getting connected has provided awesome experiences for me and enhanced my professional life immensely.  As I have seen it, this applies to both teachers and entrepreneurs.  On twitter, many have connected, so to discuss bridging this gap purely on twitter is akin to preaching to the choir.  This leads me back to the question... How do we bridge the gap outside of this group who has obviously chosen (or stumbled upon) this opportunity to connect?
I should point out that twitter or other social media channels alone are probably not the be all end all solution.  We can certainly create other opportunities to join forces.  Conferences and unconferences provide a good opportunity for initial connections to be made.  However, this might point to one key element in the divide.  As a teacher, it can be difficult to attend conferences as release time is not always available and travel expenses, not to mention registration fees represent another concern.  This may be an issue for developers on occasion, but it seems as though the culture and job responsibilities are more likely to embrace attendance at conferences.  Furthermore, some conferences seem to attract more teachers, while others more developers.  Granted, developers display their wares at teacher oriented conference, but this is typically their opportunity to promote a final product with the intent of selling it. So, this brings us back to the original question, how do we best foster collaborative relationships during the development phase?

This March, Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I (@mr_isaacs) will be conducting a working session on this topic at South by Southwest EDU (#SXSWEdu).  The goal of our session is to work with Entrepreneurs and Educators to create a living artifact that can facilitate the collaborative process and build community.  If you are attending SXSWEdu, we hope you will join us.  Whether or not you will be in attendance, please take a moment to complete our survey and join our growing community of people interested in bridging the gap between Educators and Entrepreneurs.  Clearly, everyone involved stands to benefit from these relationships.

I hope you will join us in developing an infrastructure that will make it easy for EdTech Professionals and Educators to connect and collaborate.  Education has so much to gain through collaboration throughout the process of development.