A Beginner’s Guide to Minecraft in an Elementary Classroom

“What’s it called again, Craftmine?” I wondered aloud with a confused look on my face to a classroom full of nine year olds, playing dumb the whole time. “It’s MINECRAFT!” they all yelled back in unison, smiling and laughing at how out-of-touch their teacher was with...

Toys That Teach Digital Citizenship (Course 2 Final Project)

The Beginning Some of you may have already seen my UbD planner because I wrote it during the first week of course 2. I came up with the idea based off of inspriation from the success of the Traveling Teddy project. My kids have really enjoyed following this teddy bear...

The Problem with Abstract Skill Outcomes: A Course 2 Final Proposal

Are all skills created the same? Are all concepts equal? These were just a few of the questions I left asking myself after a grassroots COETAIL group met at our school last week. We had just discussed whether or not a digital learning scope and sequence was necessary,...

Degrees of Separation: A googolplex of possibilities

Redefining Connectedness After reading Six Degrees of Separation, my first thought was that it was quite amazing how long this concept has been around. The second thing that came to mind was, if they had to use snail mail to test this theory in 1967, has anyone tried...

An Inquiry into Coding in the PYP

Should coding be a 21st century requirement? Could it be offered as a new foreign language? Might coding be the most important language in the world? These are just a few of the questions that have been at the center of many educational discussions across the world as...

The Case for Digital Manslaughter: Consequences for Online Abuse

12-year old Rebecca Sedwick, 13-year old Hope Witsel, 13-year old Megan Meier, 14-year old Viviana Agguirre, 15-year old Audrie Pott, 15-year old Amanda Todd, and the list goes on and on and on. All teenagers. All bullied. All dead. All by suicide. In breaching the...