TIES 2015 Breakout Session

Using OzoBots and Osmos 
to Foster 21st Century Skills

Tuesday, December 15, 2015; 10:30am 
Hyatt: Lake Superior B

Check out the TIES15 Resource Page
for great information and collaborative notes!

Please don't forget to leave feedback! 
Use the Session Eval Page 
to give TIES and Dave some feedback on this session!

How to enter for 
DOOR PRIZES and DISCOUNTS!

Step 1: Follow me on Twitter

Step 2: Like and Retweet this post:

Learn how to engage students w/ #21stedchat skills using @PlayOsmo and @Ozobot https://t.co/Ut8rXvwlJN #TIES15 #edTech

— Davidson Blanchard (@000Dave) December 12, 2015

Step 3: WIN! Everyone who follows these steps will get exclusive discounts and 4 lucky followers will win a door prize kit from TangiblePlay/Osmo!

Everybody Gets Discounts!

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enter: TIES15 at pre-order checkout for $15 off! (LIVE now through 1/1/16!)



Email OzobotEDU for discounts on Classroom Sets

Don't forget to check back on this blog 
for more information about 
the 21st Century Skills and Technology class 
at Isanti Intermediate School | School for All Seasons (@IISSFAS @MarkZiebarth) 
a part of Cambridge-Isanti Schools (@ISD911)

Students Meet Osmo!

Please note: This post is long overdue, our Osmos are now an integral part of our class!

As a specialist teacher focusing on a "new" type of class, I have been very fortunate to have some great opportunities to work with some new edTech tools. One of the most amazing things that I have seen trending online is an iPad accessory called Osmo.

PlayOsmo.com

The Osmo is a specially designed iPad stand, reflector, sets of tiles and apps. I would classify the Osmo as an AR accessory... but instead of augmenting "reality" the Osmo allows reality to augment interactive apps.

The Apps:
The best part of Osmo is that all of the apps are free and are full of content! Some apps even allow for custom content.

 

Words

(this app uses tiles)

Best described as a challenging "hang-man style" activity, this app challenges learners to think critically about images to determine the correct word. There are different modes of play which allow for players of any age to engage in a challenging word/spelling activity which promotes critical thinking and creativity. An interesting twist to this activity is that multiple words can be linked to an image. A picture of a boat landing could include the words "boat", "dock", "water", "ship" etc... by indicating the number of letters in each word, this app supports learners by allowing them to grow from failure (wrong letters) and encourages learners by offering hints on certain modes.

Custom albums can be uploaded through an online "MyOsmo" account and can be easily loaded onto the app through a simple download. This feature allows for endless customization!

This app is simply amazing and engages my learners in great levels of critical thinking and collaboration!

Tangram

(this app uses tiles)

For decades teachers have used tangrams to challenge learners in spatial thinking and critical thinking skills. As a student and as a teacher, I love using tangrams - I love the challenge, the fun, and the different levels of difficulty... but I hated not knowing if a puzzle was ever done correctly - Tangram by Osmo solves this problem! This app uses hand crafted wooden tiles (they are quite durable!) to allow learners to slide, flip, and rotate their pieces to create the pattern on the screen. The Osmo app then chimes a short melody if the puzzle was successfully completed. 

The best part of Tangram is the different difficulty modes. The app differentiates the puzzles (over 600 are in the current version) into difficulty levels in two main way: 1) color coding the puzzles- yellow dot puzzles have colorful outlines on screen, orange and red dot puzzles use either a grayscale or black puzzle outline (perfect for challenges!); 2) Tangram breaks up the puzzles by placing them on different regions of a Tangram map. Some regions are open to explore and some need to be unlocked by completing challenges. My students love both features!

This app is so cool because it challenges all my students differently - yes, kindergarteners and fifth graders love it equally!

Numbers

(this app uses tiles)

Numbers is a great activity which challenges learners of all ages to demonstrate their understanding of different math concepts. The levels of this app are set up sequentially by skill - learners first count, then add, multiply, etc... This activity is great for any age and allows students to work together, collaboratively, to complete various challenges.

Masterpiece

(this app uses drawing/whiteboard)

Matsterpiece challenges students to engage in their creative side while also using their critical thinking skills. This app allows students to practice the artistic skill of contour drawing. By focusing their attention to the screen the students are able to see the image they are drawing overlapped with the live image the Osmo reflector is capturing.

There is a large library of images that work well with this app, but if you are looking for more or looking for something specific users can also take a picture or search for an image. The app will process the image and create an outline-based version of it for the user to draw!

This app even allows users to capture a picture or video of their project to share. The sharing feature is quite neat as it does not work through the Apple Mail app and is sent to a predetermined email from an Osmo email address specific to this app! Check out one of my student's materpieces... too bad she scribbled at then end! 

Newton

(this app uses drawing/whiteboard - caution app may make the premise of physics fun!)

Newton is a wonderfully designed app and is one of the apps where I see the most updates from Osmo! In this activity, users are challenged to direct the dropping balls to one of the goals. Throughout different challenges, users will also need to direct the balls to different goals, fan blades, portals, and more! This activity requires creativity and critical thinking to solve each unique challenge. Students seem to love this engaging activity and I love the fact that they are bending their brains around this amazing critical thinking puzzle of an app!

The battle of the whiteboard:

The the technology behind the reflector that allows the Osmo to interact with tangible items also tends to be sensitive to glossy whiteboards. Since both Masterpiece and Newton would require a lot of paper if used with a large number of students, it makes sense to find a whiteboard solution. After testing MANY whiteboards I found a product which works wonderfully with Osmo - WriteyBoard. I resurface old, scuffed up student white boards with the Matte WriteyBoard to make perfect sized work areas to use with Osmo Masterpiece and Osmo Newton!

I am incredibly happy to be a "Certified Osmo Advocate" - have a question? Ask me!

Keeping the Ozobots Juiced!

Quick Post - Keeping Ozobots Juiced 

with the Anker 5 Port Charger!

As a specialist teacher I work with about 150 students daily in 5 rotations. Using Ozobots in the classroom is incredibly engaging and provides great opportunities for critical thinking, learning from failure, and collaboration - if they are charged! 

Ozobots are super easy to charge and come with a micro-usb charging cable that is amazing. I am excited to share the Anker 5 Port Charger (Anker has a number of wall/desktop style chargers available). Anker chargers are great because they are well designed, rugged, and have great charging technology built in. This charger has 40 watts of power distributed though the 5 usb ports (enough to charge 5 iPad Airs at full speed!). The best part is a technology called PowerIQ, this ensures that each device gets the right amount of charging and is not harmed in the charging process (the charger will not be "too powerful" or "over-charge" devices)!

I generally charge 5 Ozobots over night, then swap them in the morning for my other 5 Ozobots to make sure I have plenty of devices for the activities I have planned for the day. The Ozobots charge in less than 1 class period (55 minutes) and are ready to go! I could add a second Anker charger to have everything charged overnight, but since I do not use all 10 at a time (yet) this is not a problem.

I know that the Ozobot Classroom Kit will be shipping with similar chargers (not by Anker), but for all of you that may have Ozobots in your classroom now - this is an awesome way to charge any type of device!

Ozobots in the Elementary Setting

With the second week of school in wrapping up, I was happy to take some time to reflect on the first two weeks week of school. I, fortunately, have the opportunity to "make" what I teach this year. Developing this specialist class is a fun, difficult, time consuming, and meaningful task.

The theme of this class has been updated to "What are 21st Century Skills" - throughout the entire year we will be focusing on Creating, Collaborating, Communicating, and Critical Thinking. This focus is based off of the ISTE Standards and I will be using the p21.org framework to engage learners and hone their skills! These skills are applicable to nearly any situation, topic, or lesson.

The first modern technology that we are using to explore, learn about, and practice our 21st Century Skills are Ozobots! I have written about Ozobots before and I will be writing about Ozobots in the future! Ozobots are line following robots (check out how they work!) that anyone can use within a few moments of exploration (so far I have used them with students k-5 and even a few siblings in pre-k). What makes these so special is that Ozobots can be easily coded using Ozocodes. These simple color codes are a version of programming that is developmentally appropriate for young learners and challenging enough to keep everyone engaged!

I am working very hard at expanding my sharing ability, hence the reason for blogging, and part of this personal goal is to write about my lessons and experiences in my new role. Below you will find a simplified version of my lesson that can easily be modified for k-5th grade.


Ozobot Intro:

To introduce the learners to this topic, first start with a brief overview of what line following robots are, and examples of where they are used. Line following robots are robots that can follow visible or invisible lines (on the floor) by using optical sensors that are mounted on the robot. These robots are used in many industries including food service (where line following robots act as servers in specialty restaurants) and warehouses (working in cooperation with employees that need to transport items across distances). If your learners are having a difficult time grasping this concept, you may want to remind them that trains follow train tracks, line following robots do the same type of activity.

Examples of Line Following Robots from the Ozobot Teacher's Guide

To get the class excited about this topic, I reminded the class that when working with robotics in school we have different versions of technology and that the line following robots we will be using are smaller than a golf ball and fit in the palm of their hands. This wowed students and reminds then that robots (in general/any and all robots) can be small and mighty! For older students, you may want to think about introducing surgical robots

Using a document camera, such as the inexpensive IPEVO Ziggi-HD, show the class the "anatomy" of the Ozobot. I reviewed the charging port, the wheels (we spoke about the gears inside), the optical sensor and lights, the power button, the "black bar" indicating the front of the Ozobot, and the LED lights.


Ozobot Exploration:

To start the exploration I found it very important review the types of lines... we talked about how it is important for us to use "bold, juicy, just right lines" because the Ozobots cannot find thin lines and do not know where to go on lines too thick (the Ozobots detect the edges of lines, thick lines are not detected by the optical sensor on the bottom), lines that are too sloppy cause the Ozobot to act erratically. A great marker for drawing "just right lines" are basic Crayola/Rosart BOLD markers. By using the diagonal side of the marker, these "just right" lines are easy to draw. Other great markes would include the Eberhard Faber 4000 Waterbased Marker or the chisel tip Sharpie line (I am going to try and test other markers throughout the year to determine the best quality/cost supply). By choosing a water-based markers teachers do not need to worry (as much) about bleed through or cleanup (of students or tables!).

For primary students I demonstrated drawing these lines, this seemed to help the students a lot!

Then it is time for students to get paper and start exploring! I would suggest providing some verbal examples of things the students could try...
 - different colored lines
 - types of lines
 - zigzags
 - corners
 - rounded lines
 - letters

A quick snapshot of #critical #thinking and #creating at #IISSFAS using @OZOBOT @ISD911 @MarkZiebarth #21stedchat pic.twitter.com/r1HKgpey1C

— Davidson Blanchard (@000Dave) September 17, 2015

Communication of Successes and Failures:

Everyone fails. Everyone has potential. Everyone is held to expectations. Everyone learns. 

Communicating our successes and failures will be an essential part of our time learning together. I believe this step is just as important as discussing our objective, participating in assessments, and reflecting (even though thinking about successes and failure is a part of reflection). While working with our Ozobots we we able to discuss the power of failure.
When we fail we have two options:
1) get frustrated and quit
2) learn and provide a learning experience for others

By communicating our successes and failures we are able to not only share what we learned as individuals exploring a topic, but we are able to learn from those willing to share. It is very important to build a classroom culture that accepts failure as an opportunity to learn. A classroom culture that embraces failures that were the consequence of hard work, planning, and trying new things.

Check out some examples:

#communicating our successes with @OZOBOT and #ozocodes! @MarkZiebarth #21stedchat #IISSFAS @ISD911 pic.twitter.com/PNiO9qhDIW

— Davidson Blanchard (@000Dave) September 16, 2015

Although the process of communicating successes and failures is incredibly important to share, I would like to leave that topic for another post that will be out soon!


Ozocodes:

Ozobots can be programmed through simple color codes. These codes are commonly referred to as Ozocodes, but may also be identified as "color language". These codes provide a simple way to program the Ozobots to complete many different times, moves, actions, or speed changes! The Ozocodes look easier to draw than they really are - it takes patience, self-control, and a steady hand. One suggestion is to use the side of a black marker to start making a track, then using the tip of a colored marker, draw a small square that matches the width of the track. Continue this method until the code is complete and then complete your code/track using black. This allows for a more steady hand and better control over the design. Another helpful resource would be the calibration page found on page 15 of the Teacher's Guide. This page not only provides a clean surface to calibrate you Ozobot's sensor, but also gives a template for the Ozocodes to be written. The small square pattern found on the boarder of this page is designed to work perfectly with those students that may get frustrated, need to build confidence, or have find motor skill needs.

Let your students explore the different things they can do with the Ozobots and Ozocodes.... Some students might be captivated with the basic abilities of these robots, others might start exploring their other capabilities such as how steep of a hill the Ozobot can climb (and they will discover that Ozobots work best on flat surfaces :-) )


Thoughts...

Learning, exploring, and teaching the 21st Century Skills is more about the learning experience and less about a specific curriculum. The ISTE Standards are skills that should be integrated interdisciplinarily  and should be taught within the curriculum to be most meaningful. To justify my role in the school, I will be working with fellow teacher to embed the ISTE Standards into meaningful content that aligns with the curriculum students are working on within their grade level requirements.

I hope that you found this post meaningful! Please make sure to follow me on Twitter and check back on this blog to see some of the other topics that we will be exploring through the year. I am very excited - I hope we all are!

ps - I was not paid or supplied anything for this post - I just think these tools are worthy to be shared! If you have questions about any of the items, ideas, or activities discussed in this entry, please feel free to email me, tweet me, or contact any of the mentioned companies!

Ozobots: The First Few Weeks of a 21st Century Technology Class

This year I'll be exploring a new role within my school, I'll be a specialist teacher that focuses on 21st Century Skills and innovative technologies with a STEAM focus. I'm quite excited about the challenges and opportunities this change in roles is going to bring. 

I'll be using the ISTE-S Standards and the P21 Framework to focus my units and instruction, but there is not really a good curriculum that is sitting on a shelf back at school (and I am glad about that!). With that being said, I have an INCREDIBLY supportive principal (go follow him!) that was able to make one of my topics of study (programing/robotics) come to life with the purchase of ten Ozobots! 

I think that I am going to start with a unit that is going to engage students in some critical thinking and creativity using Ozobots. These neat little (and inexpensive) robots use color sensors to not only stay on "track" but also read special "OzoCodes" that students can mark on tracks they can create using markers and printer paper. By using wide-tip markers students can create their own tracks (using black ink) that include these OzoCodes for the Ozobots to follow. As I was exploring what an Ozobot could do, I quickly realized that the students will need about 10-15 minutes to explore on their own, figure out the features, and practice drawing the tracks.

To bump this learning experience from "neat toy" to 21st Century Skill, I am going to need to add some critical thinking. I am planning on introducing the Ozobots with a small group challenge - each small group must complete a certain number of OzoCode based activities within a time-span. By engaging the student in learning about this piece of technology through exploration, we will be working on setting a tone of thinking, planning, doing, and making. I hope the students are going to enjoy this new style of specialist rotation!

A few things about Ozobots...
 - Ozobots can be purchased exclusively on Amazon ... this is perfect because you can add it to your wish-list or DonorsChoose project.
 - Ozobots work best with wide-tip makers - such as wide Crayola or chisel Sharpies.
 - Ozobots have partner apps for iOS and Android
 - Users can program simple actions into the Ozobot using the partner apps
 - Ozobots are smaller than a golfball and are usb rechargeable
 - When an Ozobot comes to a point in the track with 2 or more turn-offs, it randomly chooses a path unless programed otherwise.
 - I am super bummed because right after our Ozobots arrived, Ozobits were released. Ozobits are the second generation of Ozobots and can be programed (using more commands and programming skills) using OzoBlockly (a form of Google's Blockly software!) Oh Well - there is alway another day to purchase v3!

Learn more about Ozobots!

ps - I was not paid or supplied anything for this post - I just think these tools can change the face of "programming" in the primary and elementary grades!

Now is the time to share

So after many years of not blogging - I have decided that now is the time to share. By sharing in this format I am able to break the character limits of Twitter and share freely! 

I will be using this blog to share and organize thoughts, ideas, resources, and projects that I am working on. This year is going to be an exciting year because I have transitioned out of the general classroom and into a specialist position. I will be teaching a 21st Century Skills/Technologies class - although this is not a new topic for me, this will be a new format!