Coding Fun with 

Thimble & Piskel 

For my Web Literacy project, I chose Participating with the project #allthestickerz. Working with the Participation tasks on the Mozilla Web Literacy Map provides opportunities to practice the 21st Century skills of problem-solving, communication, creativity, and collaboration. 

The #allthestickerz activity emphasizes coding, composing, connecting, evaluating, open practice, remixing, synthesizing, sharing, and contributing.

The project works with two open source web applications, Thimble (https://thimble.mozilla.org/en-US/) and Piskel (http://www.piskelapp.com). The pre-set code and directions are in Thimble and the real fun is in Piskel where you get to design your very own pixel art. Here is link to my published project https://thimbleprojects.org/climb3mtns/261594/. Students can create more than one Piskel art to add to the pre-set code.

We will be using this project in various classrooms for an end of year activity in CTE, (Career Tech Ed) classrooms and a few Math classrooms. Using this type of project exposes students to coding and provides them the opportunity to understand what coding is and experience it first hand. Many students find this type of learning beneficial in helping them decide if they are interested in coding for a career. Others appreciate it for the fun and creativity it provides. 

To Code or Not to Code

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My Opinion Stands

In reading the two articles, Kids Need To Learn Digital Literacy-Not How To Code, (Larson, 2014) and Code Literacy: A 21^st-Century Requirement (Rushkoff, 2012) my opinion stands with no, we do not need to teach our students how to code. What we do need to teach ALL of our students is the importance of how to work with technology and the important difference between learning to code and learning about code. (Larson, 2014). The analogy used comparing the care and maintenance of a car as opposed to rebuilding the transmission as a requirement to learning how to drive is very relevant to coding and learning technology today.

Mitch Resnick’s TED Talk (Resnick, n.d.) explained that being able to express yourself with technology is fluency. He equates browsing, texting, and gaming as being able to read but not write. Coding in this sense should be incorporated into our classes for engaging projects to draw on prior knowledge and enforce learned content. 

The California Common Core State Standards for writing grades 6-12 define four areas that students should understand and be able to do. They are text types and purposes, production and distribution of writing, research to build and present knowledge, and range of writing. (Kirst et al., 2010). I list these as a small sampling of the standards to relate back to my recommendation above stating that coding can and should be used to reinforce prior/learned knowledge.

What we do need to teach our students is the basic technology skills to understand the devices, software and communication we produce with (not just use) daily. Computer Science courses that encompass these skills and include Web Development, coding and more should become core curriculum rather than infused electives.

Lastly, I would like to qualify my opinion with my many years of experience as a network specialist and CTE instructor of computer repair and networking certification tracks and a technology support and trainer of staff and teachers. We do not need to learn to code, we need to learn drive and maintain the car.

Kirst, M. W., Straus, I., President, V., Burr, S., Cohn, C. A., Holaday, B., … Williams Jack, J. O. (2010). California Common Core State Standards English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf

Larson, S. (2014). Kids Need To Learn Digital Literacy—Not How To Code - ReadWrite. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://readwrite.com/2014/09/08/learn-to-code-digital-literacy/

Resnick, M. (n.d.). Let’s teach kids to code. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok6LbV6bqaE&t=27s

Exploring Media Literacy in the Digital Age

Fact, Opinion, and Bias

In this lesson, students will experience the reality of fact vs opinion and the bias that can easily take place when reporting an event.

There will be two events that take place in the classroom:

Event #1 Three students will perform a roll play in the front of the class. One student will be sitting at a desk reading a book with a set of keys under the chair. The second student will walk into the room, pick up the keys and walk out of the room without any interaction between the two students. Student number 3 will videotape the event.

Event #2 Three different students will perform a second role play. One student will be sitting at a desk reading a book. There will be a closed notebook on the desk. Student number 2 will walk in the room and “snatch” the notebook off the desk and walk out of the room. Student number one will look up at the student after he snatches the book but does nothing. Student number three will videotape the event.

Create: Students will now play the role of news reporters. Assign Event #1 to half the room and Event #2 to the other half of the room. Using Google Docs/Draw/Slide or https://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp each student will create a news headline and 2 to 4 sentence story of what they just saw. Students will have time to add some visual content or color to make the story look appealing or newsworthy.

Ask several students to share their headlines and text with the class.

Now review Fact and Opinion

Fact is something known with certainty that can be objectively verified. A journalist covering a news story is sent out to gather facts - who, what, where, when. The journalist is not meant to add his/her own meaning to the facts but rather to write down or broadcast everything they see in great detail. Facts are descriptive in nature and can be supported by evidence.

Opinion is belief or conclusion not necessarily substantiated by positive knowledge or proof. This is where the person relaying the story guesses, speculates or fabricates the details about what happened by interjecting his or her own interpretations or judgments. (Strongly held preconceived opinions are referred to as bias).

Analyze: Watch the videos without commentary, to remind the class of what actually happened.

Ask these questions:

What opinions were included?

Did anyone write that the keys or notebook were lost or stolen?

Did anyone report the feelings or emotions of either student?

Did anyone report that individuals were good, bad or misguided?

That the student was going someplace specific with the keys?

Did anyone design their story with visuals that show opinion or bias?

Explain how personal bias, past experience, stereotypes, or a desire to sensationalize contribute to the blurring of lines.

Discuss the consequences of presenting opinion as fact. Does it matter? Do we care? Why?

Explore: Compare to what could be reported in a critical news event.

Lesson from MediaLit Lesson Plan Archive, Did you see what I saw?
Lesson modified to add a second event and visual creation to analyze opinion/bias in media representation. http://www.consortiumformedialiteracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=12&Itemid=24. Retrieved April 20, 2017