Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The State of Rockettech - April 2015

Rockettech has been an entrepreneurial tech club for nearly two years now. By the last day of
school, we will have grossed over $12,000, and we’ve already reinvested $8,000 back into the club for further growth. I’d like to summarize the last two years, and share my vision for the next two years.
I can’t emphasize enough that our founding was rooted in the complete expectation that we would fail, and that was ok. It was a challenge I made to a group of 5 students to prove they can hack it in the real world (pun intended). It was a challenge to myself to see if I could present professional concepts and protocols in a way that sustained high levels of effort and energy from students...and ultimately lead them to create work that would pass as professional. Once we established that grades were moot, and every day is instead about winning over real clients, momentum surged. Authenticity wins on all fronts.
The past 2 years, the students and I have worked very hard to create a productive and positive work environment, where “employees” feel safe to take risks. They then asked better questions, and WANTED to do a good job for the team and for themselves. Simon Sinek describes this phenomenon in his “Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe” Ted Talk. It has been this safe-from-ridicule environment that allowed us to feed off of each others’ energy and ideas. Expectations of individual performance and professionalism were set high, and students quickly adjusted to them.


Notable Projects the last 2 years
  • Code for Cash
    • Students completed Computer Programming lessons on CodeCademy.com to get
      quadcopter at a football game
      DonorsChoose.org certificates that they applied to earn Rockettech a DJI Phantom 2 Plus Quadcopter (Our aerial video setup)
  • Putnam County Courthouse 150th Year Anniversary Documentary DVD
    • On site filming, Ken Burns-style picture narration
  • STNA Certification Skills DVD - Diversified Technologies
    • 3 On-site film sessions of 26 skills (i.e. transferring patient from bed to wheelchair)
  • Ohio Northern University - Biology Department Website
    • Destination for current and future students in 6 different majors. Includes drone flyover.
  • Ohio Northern University - Football Team Recruiting footage
    • Mid Ohio Energy, many years of
      great projects with them!
      drone flyovers on campus
  • Habitat for Humanity of Putnam County - Video
    • Video story of the parallel between developing Putnam County Habitat for Humanity and Jodi Young, the owner of the 2014 home build.
  • Mid Ohio Energy Co-Op - Year in Review Videos
    • Presented at their annual co-op meeting regarding initiatives and progress of the year like this one.
  • Putnam County Community Improvement Corporation
  • Allen County Economic Development Group
    • Industrial Development Sites Drone flyovers video
  • Pandora-Gilboa School District Promotional Video
    • Organized by Rockettech
    • 1st Mock Crash at Pandora-Gilboa in decades.
As our club continues to evolve, I think it’s important to share what we’ve learned with other schools, administrators, and policy makers in hopes that more students will ultimately benefit from our endeavors. Below are the presentations that members and I have given.


Presentations last 2 years on Rockettech


From these ventures, our members have earned experience, respect, and a few ego bumps and bruises. Our club has earned enough money to reinvest back into itself in many ways.
Interviews on NBC Lima of Rockettech members
We have purchased 30 second advertising spots on NBC Lima, and online ads with The Bluffton Icon. We’ve purchased software to improve our efficiency and capabilities. We’ve funded a Kickstarter campaign to improve our tech lab’s decor. We’ve funded the travel to conferences and ate at fine restaurants. Our few splurges on food were simply a follow through of the latter part of the formula,  “Work Hard, Play Hard”. The students and I work extremely hard both in class and evenings to meet the demands of business clients that don’t fit the neat model of a 50 minute class period.
No, the Rockettech model of school is more like a startup business in the tech sector. We welcome the “I have no idea what I’m doing” mentality as long as it’s accompanied by a “But I’m willing to try.” one. The experience is intended to expose weaknesses and strengths through real-world interactions with businesses, to help students create their own identities. The least important thing the students learn is how to make a website, or how to color correct a video clip. The most important is what they learn about themselves as they relate to the rest of the world. Can they communicate complex ideas? How do they present themselves in a professional light? How does “networking” even happen? Other school districts right here in Ohio like Hilliard’s McVey Innovative Learning Center have already discovered and structured more personalized school experiences, and they know why. Rockettech is my way of adapting education in the same way. There are far better ways to prepare students for life.
Mock Crash in April 2015


Our entrepreneurial mindset does not simply mean we are looking for ways to make money. True entrepreneurs look for existing opportunities to expand, but also have the ability to CREATE their own opportunities through networking and finding needs not being met.  Dr. Yong Zhao of University of Oregon told us in a Skype call recently that pursuing new initiatives should not be dictated by the director, but be initiated by the students, and supported by the director. The Mock Crash has been completely student lead with only minimal assistance from staff members.


Mrs. Klass and the PG Engineering Club
Laser engraved coasters
by PG Engineering
We have pursued initiatives such as winning the Putnam County Video Contest and Shirley’s Popcorn Video Contest, helped launch and mentor the PG Engineering Club directed by the venerable Mrs. Jessica Klass. And for the first time ever, Rockettech will be offering a $1000 scholarship to a graduating senior based on character, professionalism, creating opportunities, and value to the club. This award is not based on who made the most money or holds an officer title.
~~~~~~~


Future:
The future of Rockettech is bright. Through a meeting of the member’s minds, we’ve established a holistic vision that develops students into tomorrow’s leaders, and provides opportunities for the club to grow on multiple fronts.


First, we will increase communications with current and past members through the use of an email newsletter (subscribe on Rockettech.org), blog posts on rockettech.org, and Twitter updates on @pg_rockettech.
Second, Our members and I will be serving on leadership boards and consulting on more projects. Students will help guide the direction of MakerFest 2015 in Lima, OH, a competition among the regions high schools, community colleges, and professionals in STEM centered events. We will help guide the direction of the 2016 Ohio Education Technology Conference as they seek to get more students involved.
Third, Rockettech will be presenting and publishing work that details how Rockettech functions in a public school setting, in hopes that other districts, administrators, and teachers can implement their own entrepreneurial clubs. This model can be applied to fields like design, engineering, marketing, or any scenario where students come up with a product or service that they develop into a profitable venture. See Yong Zhao’s “Creating World Class Learners” Chapter 8, Product Oriented Learning.
And finally, we expect to profit $20,000 over the next 2 years. We will achieve this through more efficient project management, higher profile clients, and continuing to raise the bar on what is possible in a small school club.
Closing Remarks

The past 2 years, amidst the public successes, struggles and tensions have  presented themselves. I view these through the lens that when something new, something different, is created that doesn’t fit an existing model, there will be resistance. It requires students, myself, and administrators to consider how this new “thing” fits into existing schemas, and whether adjustments must be made or not. It is very satisfying to know that the struggle has benefactors in the students and community. It gives me energy and motivation to bring up the next crop of tomorrow's leaders.

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Monday, September 1, 2014

Rockettech - An Entrepreneurial Tech Club


Last August, 6 high school students and I converted our tech club into a small business. We had no idea what we were doing. This is an overview of our experience in hopes that other teachers will feel encouraged to take the same journey. It’s an incredibly satisfying ride for both the students and the teacher.
Presenting our tech club's services at the Ottawa
Area Chamber of Commerce in September 2013

These students wanted more than the mock projects, so I challenged them, “What if you test your skills in the real world, providing real services in web and video?” They responded and that was it. We knew going in we would fail sometimes, maybe even miserably. I offered that they can forget about the grade, and instead focus on being a successful small business disguised as a tech club. Everyone gets an “A”. Now what? What do you have to worry about? No homework, no tests. It was a precarious recipe. One I fully expected to flop in my face. Of course, the inverse happened. The mutual risk taking of teacher and students fed energy into each day’s class, and we built on that.
The first week of school we frantically pieced together a master plan which included a formal business plan, marketing strategy, logo/branding, and how projects should be structured. Our business plan (available on rockettech.org) was developed with the free service from sba.gov, and clearly articulates what our services are, who our competition is, and what differentiates us from them. We create win-win-win situations that benefits the business, the students, and the school.
Our marketing strategy was simple: 1) Ask local businesses to give us a chance, even if it’s for free. The Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start. 2) Show the print, tv, and web news outlets what we’re doing and ask for a story.  3) Approach new businesses with our growing portfolio of work.

We decided each project would have a “project lead”. This student ultimately makes the final design decisions, ensures deadlines are met, and makes all client communications. As in life, they can use anyone or any resource (legally) to create professional work. They must learn to find and utilize resources other than the teacher, a ubiquitous problem that manifests as a line at my desk in some classes. Project leads OWN their projects, and take pride in producing a quality service. They are no longer playing the student role, and shift into the professional world.
Students shooting a video for Celebrate Recovery
Drug and Alcohol Support Group
By Christmas break, we had more projects than we had students, making some students balance multiple project lead roles. We had to review time management and I did my best to model what good professional communication looks like in email, on the phone, and in person. Every single student, even the straight-A ones, made massive improvements in these areas.

We were fortunate to make it through the snow and ice to present at the OETC conference in Columbus in February (“Gamify Your Tech Club for Fun and Profit”) and by years end we had a nice group portfolio that included churches, non-profits, a retirement home, individual entrepreneurs, a government agency, and a personal healthcare company.
Throughout the school year, I made a point to give as much control to the students as possible.  Specifically, I let the students dictate what we did with the money. I felt that if they truly did the work, and only needed me to consult with at key points, they really did earn it. I explained reinvesting in the club to get better equipment to land bigger clients, but the final decision was theirs. If they wanted $1000 worth of Skittles, fine. Maybe this approach only worked because this was a sensible group (we didn’t get the Skittles), but I believe they carefully weighed these decisions because they invested themselves into these projects. Their decisions finally mattered beyond a grading scale.
I encourage other teachers to integrate at least or some of the elements of our experiment into their own business, computer tech, or graphic design courses. Specifically, put kids in situations where their decisions matter and their work can be seen by a larger audience. The excitement reciprocates between student and teacher. Decide going in that it’s good to fail. A sign in my room states “Fail Harder.” asking that students fail big, take a risk, and come back from it with lessons learned.
Sarah and Brad await their turn in the spotlight on WLIO
in spring 2014.
Some word’s from last years students (verbatim):
“(the clients) walked out of the room feeling as if they didn't just deal with a kid in a tech class the dealt with a professional and my entire life i've been looked as the juvenile in the classroom and then i dealt with 2 powerful individuals and they treated me as an adult because i've earned the right to be treated as one because of my professionalism”
“...there's a calm yet exciting feeling I get, and I know THIS is where I'm supposed to be right now.”
“But in the end i still hate school but when i walked into my last period of the day and got down to business it didnt feel like i was in school i felt as if i was hanging with a group of my buddies having a blast earning cash”
“...forced me to interact with other students who I normally would not have the chance to, for reasons such as grade differences, conflicting class schedules, and even differing cliques.
...all it takes is that tiny spark of curiosity to start a wildfire of imagination and ingenuity.”
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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Differentiation in Tech Class

2-3 Week Student-Designed Projects

You could fill a lifetime with computer tech class and never teach the same thing twice due to the evolving nature of the topics. So, how do you teach a 7th grade "computer tech" course without it being irrelevant by the time they graduate?

Creative Problem Solving

Last week students filled out a Google form asking them to plan out an individual project with 3 easy, 3 medium, and 3 difficult goals (in two weeks, the first 6 goals must be met for a CHANCE at an A).

 Some of the work from individually designed projects:





Measurable Outcomes & Choices

I gave the class some suggestions of items they could work on, and opened up the floor to new suggestions. The examples of measurable goals I gave:
  • Crop, color correct, repair and save 5 pictures in 2 days
  • Build the bottom 2 layers of the entire school floorplan by day 5 (In Minecraft)
  • Write 2 page short story script for 3 characters, lines memorized by day 4. Filmed day 5-6.
I make very clear that I'm open to anything, so long as they can make a case that they will be learning meaningful skills (a sneaky way to develop their rhetoric and argumentative skills) and some students do pursue their own routes. One used Mixcraft audio editing/creating software to make and remix new songs:


There are usually a few students who don't know what to choose, and they by default become a very valuable asset to the whole experience: the "Documentary Team"

Documentary Team

This team roams around daily and hassles the other students for screenshots, video, and audio clips of their work. They write interview questions and learn about framing, lighting, solid audio capturing, and editing with lower-thirds titles. An unintended benefit was the various groups had more than just me hounding for accountable deliverables (finished products that can be shown off) they promised in their goals.





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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Video Game Design as an Intro to Computer Science?

We have coders. We need creative problem solvers that also code.

My high school students will likely need a job some day (I actively encourage them to not be dependent on the government if they can help it), and these jobs will likely involve computers in some way. While they may not become expert programmers developing software, the very pursuit of understanding the 1's and 0's will make them better problem solvers, systematic thinkers, and help them understand that the consumption of their daily technology is only a fraction of the overall picture.

Some say we're heading toward a major shortage of qualified individuals in computer science. We need to reverse this trend and get more students interested in computer science. I don't consider the use of games as incentivizing computer science. Rather, I consider it situated learning with real-world application, a missing component in many intro to CS classes.
GameMaker Studio software being used to develop game design
curriculum within 3DGameLab with ties to Computer Science

Why video games?

What I propose is "easing" students into computer science by first developing their confidence through positive experiences in the form of creating simple yet fun video games. This confidence has lead to creativity in my classroom, and more students that want to branch outside of video games into more complex programming languages (which I don't claim to understand). By working phrases such as, "IF my character has no health...THEN what all events should take place?", students become accustomed to identifying and planning the steps of a game program, and have been able to transfer this thinking into beginner-level Python programs as young as 6th grade. During a Python turtle exercise I heard, Without prompting, one student tell another, "remember in your game, where as long as ammo is greater than zero, your guy will keep shooting...and each time he shoots ammo goes down one...that's like what 'for i in range' does in turtle".

Is Game Design "Computational Thinking"?

By the CSTA's definition of "computational thinking",
game programming seems to be a good fit.
The Computer Science Teachers Association  uses a working definition of Computational Thinking that can be boiled down to using a computer to solve problems using models and simulations through an automated series of steps (an algorithm) that can then be transferred to other, more complicated problems (Computer Science Teachers Assocation [CSTA], 2011). The complete definition is here.

Creating video games using the freely available GameMaker Studio for example, addresses this definition in that:
  • "use a computer to solve problems" - all work is done on a PC, Mac, or Linux. The problem is both any particular feature of a game the designer wants to include in their game, and those mistakes that arise from mistakes. For example, the power-up dot in Pac-Man that temporarily changes how collisions between characters behave.
  • "...using models and simulations" - The game being created can be ran in debug mode which allows the programmer to simulate the player's perspective, playing the game. Debug mode gives a behind-the-curtain look at the status, position, and other variables of game objects and what they are doing while the user plays the game. It also provides errors in layman's terms that help find the fault, aiding the programmer in troubleshooting.
  • "...through an automated series of steps" - GameMaker code runs 30 "steps" per second. It can be automated by using if-then statements, alarms (like alarm clocks that trigger another set of actions), and other methods that provide game programmers control of how the program behaves without intervention from the player, all within a pre-programmed sequence.
  • "...that can be transferred to other, more complicated problems" -  The use of loops, variables, and if-then statements are concepts many programming languages have in common. By mastering these early, students use these ideas to solve increasingly difficult problems. For example, the initial "if can_shoot = 1" allowing the player to shoot can later increase to control a boss character's patterned shooting with a more complicated series of delay-and-shoot patterns that vary as boss_health decreases.

While potentially a conflict of interest, Mark Overmars (Original creator of the GameMaker game design software) described the use of game design to teach computer science concepts as actually covering several aspects of computing, including, "computer graphics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, security, distributed programming, simulation, and software engineering" (Overmars, 2004). Familiarity with these topics are essential for students hoping to land one of the one million jobs that will go unfilled in computer programming due to a lack of qualified candidates (code.org, 2013).

Video Games are Engaging

It seems that teens like to play games. According to Pew Internet 
Research (Lenhart et al., 2008), making them prime candidates for playing the role of designer to make their own games. Teen boys and girls both play games, with 99% of boys and 94% of girls reporting playing games in the most recent week (Lenhart et al., 2008). Presenting a game design curriculum to younger teens may prove even more successful in 5th through 7th grades as they were even more likely to have played games yesterday than the their older counterparts (Lenhart et al., 2008).

 Creating these games can also be engaging...when a student has enough confidence in their working knowledge to apply it as challenges pop up. I was initially turned off to programming as my experiences as a student involved the skimming of fundamentals that I didn't internalize, leading to a bunch of programming challenges that were endlessly frustrating as I didn't feel I had any idea where to start.

Still a theory

Relatively little research has been done on whether a student learning to program a video game correlates with learning computer science. Likewise, it may be a matter of interpretation on whether understanding programming concepts through a drag-and-drop design interface constitutes a foundation of computer science knowledge in the first place, and further, whether it leads to a higher enrollment in college CS.

Researcher credentials? Meh.

We educators on the front lines can implement and test such a teaching strategy as effectively as those with more letters behind their name. While more formal researchers may have deeper statistical analysis and better channels to disseminate results, we classroom teachers aren't half-bad at creating a curriculum using games as learning tools.

One such study about students creating video games as a means to teach computer science actually determined that students were divided on whether or not the use of GameMaker software helped them learn computer science concepts (Ernst & Clark, 2011). While this could be attributed to teachers inconsistently tying what students have learned back to the overarching CS concepts, it is worth reading if considering this approach.

Possible Implementations

Steve Isaacs
Game Dev Teacher Guy
1) In August 2013, a colleague of mine, Mr. Steve Isaacs (he teaches game development to his blogs about game development in education) and I will be joining with gaming-in-school pioneer Lucas Gillispie (The Wow in School and Minecraft in School guy!) to work with teens at the online Teen GameLab summer camp. We'll be hosting live sessions (like this one last night using GameMaker tilesets and multiple enemy health bars)on digital storytelling and designing video games, but much of the work will be done by the "campers" asynchronously through the quest-based learning platform 3DGameLab.
students and

2) Another teacher, Mike Skocko (and his exemplary educator site The Mac Lab)in California is
Mike Skocko
aka "boss"
utilizing student talent to develop a quest-based learning Wordpress Plugin in-house to teach everything from game design and programming to video and image editing.

Next?

While a foundation of game-based learning research is being assembled, I'll just keep playing making video games with my students, learning more everyday. I've figured out the key is to never stop being a student myself, and it all stays fresh feeling and fun.



References


code.org (2013). What's wrong with this picture? Retrieved from http://www.code.org/stats


Ernst, J. V., & Clark, A. C. (2012). Fundamental Computer Science Conceptual Understandings for High School Students Using Original Computer Game Design. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research, 13(5), 40-45.

Lenhart, A.,Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, Video Games and Civics. Retrived from Pew Research Center website: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Teens-Video-Games-and-Civics/04-11-Who-Is-Playing-Games.aspx?view=all

Overmars, M. (2004). Teaching computer science through game design.Computer, 37(4), 81-83.



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Friday, March 15, 2013

3DGameLab - Back in Session


Let it Begin...

Mr. Suter 3DGamelab students creating Avatars like GarlicMy 6th graders are off to a good start. They created their character avatars using Hero Machine this week. I gave them a brief look at my Popplet (I haven't shared it publicly YET) that shows the progression of quests as a sort of "trailer" for things to come.
They are excited! Quests waiting for them to unlock include:


Getting Started

I removed last year's users and added all of this years by inviting them through the teacher Dashboard. To quickly invite them all:
  1. Using Gaggle.net (you could use any method to get a list of your student email addresses), I copy/pasted all their email addresses from my list of users (free for ~200 users, first must attend a webinar of sorts, then become an administrator, well worth the trouble)
  2. Set check the default group they should be in ("Mr. Suter's Level 6" in my case), then invite.
I used a similar method of copy/pasting email addresses from my teacher dashboard on Diigo.com (free educator upgrade) so students have a place to keep their own list of oft-used URLS.

Excited to be in 3DGameLab again, creating quests, creating new content alongside my students.


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