Making things… Learning Things
"I am convinced that the best learning takes place when the learner takes charge…" –Seymour Papert
ChatGPT is a large-scale language model developed by OpenAI. It uses a deep learning algorithm called a transformer network to generate human-like responses to text-based inputs. The model has been trained on massive amounts of text data and can understand and generate text in a variety of languages. Preprocessing and Tokenization Before training ChatGPT, the... Continue Reading →
Where's the joy? Creating something, and sharing it, is an exciting and motivating endeavour. With the new 2020 Ontario Mathematics Curriculum now guiding mathematics in classrooms across Ontario, I think there is renewed excitement and potential to encourage creative learning with students, especially with coding activities. Unfortunately, after accessing and reading through a long list... Continue Reading →
Don't get me wrong. In the summer, I think it is essential for teachers to relax, unplug, take a break, spend tons of time with family and/or friends, and enjoy some sunny summer weather. The summer break makes us fresher in the fall and reconnects us to other parts of our lives, friends, family and... Continue Reading →
Scratch 3.0 and the same code in javascript This blog post is more of a curation project than a blog post. I have put in one place various statements, beliefs, arguments, for or against, the use of block-based programming/coding with students. Some are clearly pro 'text-based,' some pro 'block-based,' while others are mixed and point... Continue Reading →
No, I am not rethinking "empowerment" in the sense of is it a good or bad thing? But after reading a very thought provoking essay called Empowerwashing Education by Benjamin Doxtdator @doxtdatorb I am rethinking how I have used the term and what the term means and implies. The first thing that jumped at me as I started... Continue Reading →
Last year I posted an article called Turn the Hour of Code into the Year of Learning. This year, I wanted to share a few ideas about how you might do that. After checking out some hour of code activities with your students (this year, officially, December 4 - 10), take a look at the... Continue Reading →
During the summer of 2016, I read this book (left) edited by Yasmin Kafai and Mitch Resnick. I was inspired by Chapter 4 (called Learning Design by Making Games). In it, Kafai described her study in which a group of 4th grade students spent one hour per day (over a six-month period) writing, designing and... Continue Reading →
Okay... indulge me! Try this experiment (and try it with your students, too!): Activity #1 - Think of a topic in which you have a strong interest, and broad, expert knowledge/skill. Then, search the web and find three really good sources of information for that topic. Activity #2 - Think of a topic in which... Continue Reading →
I received an email from a teacher colleague last week and it contained a single sentence--a question: "I wonder if you might give me your definition of modern literacies?" I was intrigued, not only by the question but also by the reason behind asking it (which she explained in a later email). In any case,... Continue Reading →
Where is the math in coding? As much as I think that the connections between coding and mathematics are obvious, I think that there is a process involved in noticing and noting when mathematical concepts are demonstrated--some are clearly in use in students' code and are easy to notice; other concepts are also in use... Continue Reading →
Making things... Learning Things 