Twin Cities Start Up Weekend EDU 2016 - Creation Time- Part 3

A side rule in startup weekend is that if you have at least four people who are interested in creating a project, you can go ahead and create it! So, even though I did not make the top 10 in sticky note voting, I did have three other people interested in helping make my dream a reality!

Syeed, Michael, Jon, and I  created team DigiDoc.

Our core team spent the weekend creating a tool that could help teachers organize and track their CEUs, while storing them in a secure space. Throughout the weekend, we were able to work with other attendees and mentors to create our program. I was amazed at times when a handful of people would be working on the code to run our program.

It was exciting to me when I understood what was being talked about. Having taught lessons from Code.org's K-5 fundamentals courses, I now know basic vocabulary like function, loop, and algorithm.  Every once in a while I would hear these words and have a small bit of insight into what they were currently working on. 

Twin Cities Start Up Weekend EDU 2016-The Pitch- Part 2-

After making a pitch at Start Up Weekend, we could lobby or pitch for votes. I had a few sticky note votes on my poster, but not as many as other posters as I looked around. In the pictures below, you can see me selling my pitch to other participants. 

The people in the picture above are part of the group of participants whose pitches got the most votes. As you can see, I am not in this picture. My pitch had a few votes, but not enough to make the top 10.  Stay tuned to find out what happened next!

Google Expeditions

Last week we were lucky enough to try Google Expeditions. 

We had access to different types of viewers

             

Our students were able to explore the world from the bottom of the ocean to the moon! Teachers were able to pick from over 100 field trips and tie previous learning experiences to their Google Expedition experience. 

Students had time to explore images on their own and  we were able to focus their attention when needed. The software had built-in points for images with more information.  A teacher could simply touch a pin to focus the class. Students could follow an arrow on their device to focus where the was directing them. The teacher could read more information about that location to the class. 

It was a great experience for both students and teachers. I am excited for the future of this program and look forward to getting it in the hands of more students!