Category Archives: learning

Not “Just” Attending

April 22, 2016community, learningedcampnovawitchyrichy@gmail.com

I am looking forward to participating in EdCampNova tomorrow. The organizing team has done a nice job a getting the party started early with some daily twitter suggestions and I’ve already been learning and participating. It’s a great idea that I may borrow for future events. (Plus, I’m a little excited about picking up my t-shirt.)

Besides bringing some swag, I am “just” an attendee at this event. As someone who is normally in charge, that feels good. But, as I thought about that attitude, I decided being an attendee may be an even important role than that of organizer especially with an edcamp event where attendee participation is what makes the whole system work. Passion and inquiry are the foundations, and if you show up expecting to let others do all that work, I think you’re going to be disappointed. The questions this week mirrored the philosophy: what do you have to share? what do you want to learn?

But, that philosophy of attendee participation should extend to all events, even more traditional face to face conferences. It’s like most things in life: you get out what you put in. So, if you want to sit and absorb, that’s fine, and you’ll certainly learn lots. But, if you want to fully experience the power of a face to face experience, you need to step beyond that comfort zone and interact. Share ideas, ask questions, brainstorm solutions. There is no “just” before attendee: the organizers have taken a lot of time and energy to create a learning environment; now, go explore that environment and see what comes from it.

And, as EdCampNova has demonstrated: there is opportunity for community and learning to continue around the face to face event. If you haven’t checked out the hashtag #edcampnova lately, take a look. Even if you can’t get to the event, there’s plenty of learning and sharing going on.

Quick Reactions to #Satchat

April 16, 2016Education, learning, professional development, teacher quality, teachingpassionwitchyrichy@gmail.com

All of these could be longer posts but I need to go outside and battle the weeds some more, so for now, you get a punch list of things I am thinking about after being part of the #satchat Twitter chat:

1. I bristle whenever I hear someone say EVERY and ALWAYS whether it’s about testing or rearranging the room or, even, coding.

2. I believe you can be passionate about your work but also have other interests. Teachers who do not participate in tweet chats are not bad teachers. We shouldn’t make teachers feel guilty about not being passionate enough to devote every waking hour to their work.

3. If we–leaders, coaches, teachers–truly believe that collaboration ala Twitter or other media is an important part of professional learning and growth, we must find time for it in the work day. If there isn’t enough time, then we either get rid of something else OR we lengthen the work day OR we find some way to give credit for it like we do when you take a graduate class.

Am I Justifying a Colossal Waste of Time Or….Am I Learning?

April 12, 2016gaming, learning, UncategorizedZoombiniswitchyrichy@gmail.com

I had a long, busy week away from home last week. Lots of terrific meetings, both formal and informal, as part of the CoSN Conference and then a chance to play with robots and makey makeys with a bunch of K-12 educators on Friday.

I needed some down time this weekend. I gardened a bit, read a Steve Perry mystery, and played Zoombinis. I’m not a big gamer, but I have always loved solving logic problems and that’s the focus of Zoombinis. I fell in love with the first version of the game when it was first introduced in 1996. A new version was introduced in August 2015, and I signed right on.

I’ve been playing and reflecting on my progress through the game. I think the biggest lesson I’m learning is creating and implementing problem solving strategies.

Testing Variables: In the pizza trolls puzzle, you make a pizza based on the responses of the troll to various toppings. The first level is fairly straight forward but helps set the strategy: isolate and test each variable until you get the correct combination. Subsequent levels add more toppings AND trolls so keeping track of preferences requires a chart.

Enlisting Experts: I just couldn’t figure out how to succeed at the subsequent levels of the Hotel Dimensia puzzle. Multiple variables have to be applied across a grid, and the rules around that deployment just escaped me. The grid itself is really a chart, but the puzzle comes with a time challenge so you need to establish the important variables very quickly in order to get all the Zoombinis through. No leisurely musing on this level. I struggled and knew I need more help so I headed to the web. The Hotel Dimensia page at Wikia was very helpful.

Purposeful Practicing: Zoombinis includes a practice mode that includes all puzzles and all levels. I worked through several Hotel Dimensia practice sessions, developing a strategy that I could apply in the real game. I really wanted to get better at this puzzle because it is on the path to the Mudball Wall, my favorite puzzle. Somehow, the pattern in that puzzle is easy for me to discern. I think it may be because I used to play it as a stand alone game on the web so I got lots of practice and have internalized the various patterns that can be made.

Embracing Failure: With Captain Cajun, you have to arrange the Zoombinis on a boat and you may or may not have the right combination. The game warns you that you may have to leave some of your Zoombinis behind. You will fail despite enlisting help or practicing.

Overcoming Failure: But, I have discovered a strategy to solve the Captain Cajun puzzles. Stack the deck. Literally. Once you are into the game, you often have your choice of Zoombinis to take with you through the next leg of the journey. So, you can arrange the Zoombinis ahead of time to make sure you have a combination that will fill the boat.

So, I am learning how to play the game using a variety of strategies. Some, like testing variables, are strategies I’ve applied outside the game while others, such as stacking the deck of Captain Cajun’s boat, are game specific. My biggest question is how much transfer takes place from the game into the world. In other words, if kids figure out the “testing variable” strategy for the pizzas, will they internalize that particular strategy and use it to solve problems outside of the game? Does the game foster a general understanding of formulating strategies for problem solving?

Running Pi On My Mac

March 27, 2016learning, programming, technical skillsRaspberry Piwitchyrichy@gmail.com

I’ve fiddled around a bit with my Raspberry Pi in the past but wanted to be able to run it using my laptop rather than having all the parts (monitor, keyboard, and mouse) cluttering up my workspace. Yesterday, in between Spring cleanup and gardening, I managed to get it to work. It took several chunks of time: I would work on it, get to a stopping place of either a roadblock or success, go outside and play in the dirt, then return with renewed energy.

I knew I wanted to do it via Ethernet as that way I could do demos without having to worry about connecting over wireless networks. And the two devices had to be connected to each other rather than through a router for the same reason.

There was a lot of trial and error but by last evening, I was playing with python via my mac. The steps below are NOT in the order I did them, and I wasted a whole block of time trying to get a small screen I have to display before giving in and setting up the RPi workstation. (The screen issues had to do with the screen and not the RPi.)

I tried the first option here and that at least got me as far as discovering and setting network addresses on the two devices. But, as the site points out, without having a keyboard and display, it’s tough to test. Once I gave in to setting up the workstation, I was able to have both devices talk to each other through ping pretty quickly.

I installed a VNC server via this Instructables site. The comments led me to the X11vnc as well as the missing code in the original directions. I figured I had to get X11vnc to autostart so I followed these directions. I never did get autostart to work, but the other issue that stumped me for a bit was the fact that I had to login to the RPi after start up before I could view it on my laptop, and I wasn’t sure how to do that without having the RPi plugged into its own desktop peripherals. I followed some directions for auto login but that seemed to take away my root abilities. This was the point where I had to do some backing out, unediting a few files.

Finally, just as I was thinking it would have to wait for another day, I found this site by using the keyword “headless.” I had done a lot of the directions, but it was the ssh part that I hadn’t quite figured out. Worked wonderfully and left me wondering how much time I might have saved had I found this site first. But, I also learned a lot through the trial and error, getting comfortable with terminal windows and linux commands so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Now, I use the terminal window on my Mac to ssh into the RPi. I start up the X11vnc server, start up the the RPi graphical user interface and then use VNC to interact with it since I get an error message when I try to connect via the server command on my Mac.

Lessons learned? The Internet has a wealth of information and I am grateful to everyone who posted all the links above. However, it was not always exactly what I wanted or needed so I had to pick up bits and pieces from here and there. I did things that needed to be undone so a little ongoing documentation helped. (I have a paper journal where I can jot short term notes.) Finally, as always, knowing the language of the project helps to choose the right keywords.

Ozobot Out of the Box

February 20, 2016learning, programming, technologyOzobotwitchyrichy@gmail.com

I finally put “robots” on the top of the to do list for the weekend. Opened up the Ozobot Bit, did a little reading, and started drawing.

I started pretty simple with changing the speed. It slowed down correctly and made the left turn, but the turbo boost color combo didn’t do what I expected:

Exit Instead of Turbo from Karen Richardson on Vimeo.

I was also having trouble getting it to do U turns.

A little troubleshooting and I discovered that the blue marker I was using was too dark so the Ozobot couldn’t distinguish it from the black. Here it is hitting the turbo boost and then doing the Win/Exit dance: