192: Celebrate CS Education Week and the Hour of Code

In this episode of the Ditch That Textbook podcast hosts Matt Miller and Karly Moura share news about Magic School's new SEL lesson generator and a contest for sharing Ditch Summit. They discuss CS Ed Week resources including 20 ways to celebrate the Hour of Code and explore creativity with AI and NASA's Space Jam. They also provide tech tips on creating fill-in-the-blank image generator prompts and using virtual versions of robots. Matt and Karly share quick teaching strategies like writing a message in binary for students to decode and asking an AI assistant for common misconceptions about content. They also share a template of the week and ideas for using it.

News and updates:

• Magic School has a new SEL lesson generator!  Other new-ish tools from MagicSchool.ai include their Real World Connections Tool and the Standards Unpacker Tool.

• Win prizes for sharing Ditch Summit?!?!? 

Here’s how you can participate …

1. Go to DitchSummit.com and sign up.
2. In your Ditch Summit welcome email, you’ll get your unique referral link. (If you got an earlier welcome email, it might not have a link. Just sign up again.)
3. Go share your link far and wide! Every time someone clicks your link and signs up for the summit, you’ll get a referral.

Learn more in this issue of the DTT email newsletter.

The Big idea: 

• Computer Science Education Week Resources

  • 20 Ways to celebrate the Hour Of Code

  • Unplugged CS resources include Hello Ruby, Kodable Unplugged and the “Program the Teacher” activity from CSinSF.

  • Explore Boards Creativity with AI & NASA’s Space Jam

  • Flip and NASA Live Event

Tech tips:

• Create fill-in-the-blank image generator prompts with Microsoft designer. Check out this Tweet from Becky Keene for a link to an example prompt.

• Use a virtual version of robots or physical computing devices to enhance your instruction. Visit Bee-Bots online, Ozobot simulator, and MakeCode for Micro:bits.

• Robots you might want to try in your classroom:

  • Beebots

  • Dash and Dot

  • Ozobots

  • Micro:bit

  • Makey Makey

Quick teaching strategies:

• Write your students a message in binary and have your class decode the message as a warm up. Use Binary Translator and give your students the Binary Code Translator Key.

• Ask an AI assistant for common misconceptions about your content (#5 in this post Lesson planning with AI: Save time and get ideas)

Template of the week

• Learning awards template

Share with us on social media!

Use #Ditchbook or tag @jmattmiller or @Karlymoura on Twitter/X 

Don't forget to join the Ditch That Textbook email newsletter at DitchThatTextbook.com/join and be sure to subscribe to the show.