“Technology makes the world a new place.”
 – Shoshana Zuboff

Yes . . . we’re celebrating another holiday. This one might be a little obscure, but it’s worth recognizing. October 3 is National Techies Day. Per Merriam-Webster, a “techie is a person who is very knowledgeable or enthusiastic about technology and especially high technology.” One would naturally assume that National Techies Day is all about those who love smartphones, smart watches, smart homes, and anything else deemed smart. And that’s true to some degree, but there’s also another aspect of it that is even cooler than the latest tech – promoting technology-based careers to today’s learners and future workforce. 

Topics: IN THE CLASSROOM, BEYOND THE CLASSROOM, IDEAS & INSPIRATION, ROBOTICS, Teacher Resources, Collaborations, Technology, Careers, Coding, Professional Development, Future Ready, TETRIX Robotics, 21st Century Skills

FIRST^® just released the new game for the 2019-2020 FIRST Tech Challenge season, SKYSTONE^SM presented by Qualcomm, and excitement and good vibes are starting to RISE^SM all across the country!

Towering Skystones

On Saturday, September 7, hundreds of robotics teams attended kickoff events around the country or watched their social media news feeds feverishly as the game was formally announced. They learned the important aspects of the game and engineering challenges that make the competition fun. The basic construct:

Topics: Competitions, ROBOTICS, FIRST Tech Challenge, Future Ready, TETRIX Robotics, 21st Century Skills

Have you ever had to sit at one end of the table to prevent bumping elbows with others at a restaurant? Do you constantly get ink smudges on the bottom of your hand as you write from left to right? Or do you have a tough time cutting with a pair of scissors?

Topics: BEYOND THE CLASSROOM, Culture, Science, Resources, Social and emotional learning

About a month ago, we were gathered for ISTE National Conference in Philadelphia with 20,369 attendees from all 50 states and 81 countries. There were 3,196 presenters, including 479 students and more than 500 exhibitors. All the new, upcoming, and breakthrough ed tech and 21st-century learning trends were on display. There were so many options –everything from 3-D printing to virtual reality to coding were there for administrators and teachers to try out, test, and see.

And as expected it was a connected conference – 123,479 tweets using #ISTE19, #ISTE2019, and #ISTEinPA were sent and Instagram stories were viewed 104,222 times, with messages such as how Ursuline School was super pumped to meet Mr. Robot. And TAG teacher David Lockett was happy to share the good news about Fable and Smart Buddies.

Topics: ROBOTICS, Technology, Trends, Coding, TETRIX Robotics, innovate, Conferences, 3-D Printing, Virtual Reality

This week we celebrate FreeBSD Day on June 19. This national day, unfortunately, doesn’t celebrate Biscuits, Sausage, and Donuts. While that sounds delicious, this day is a little lesser known but definitely appealing.

FreeBSD Day stems from the University of California-Berkeley in 1993. FreeBSD is an open-source operating system that is considered a pioneer in open-source technology and is seen through many different platforms that we recognize today. Better yet, it’s used by billions of people across the globe, and companies use FreeBSD in their products. (www.freebsdfoundation.org)

Topics: IN THE CLASSROOM, ROBOTICS, Technology, STEM, Coding, 21st Century Skills, Hands-on Learning, Workforce Development