Since 2009, I have been developing digital literacy skills in students. While the technologies have evolved and updated throughout the years, here are just a few recent projects I have been involved with.
AP Computer Science Principles
“AP Computer Science Principles is an introductory college-level computing course that introduces students to the breadth of the field of computer science. Students learn to design and evaluate solutions and to apply computer science to solve problems through the development of algorithms and programs. They incorporate abstraction into programs and use data to discover new knowledge. Students also explain how computing innovations and computing systems—including the internet—work, explore their potential impacts, and contribute to a computing culture that is collaborative and ethical.” ~ CollegeBoard AP Computer Science Course Overview
Starting with the 2017-2018 school year, I successfully implemented the AP Computer Science Principles course at Murdock High School in Winchendon, MA. Utilizing personal recruitment and advocacy with administrators and guidance counselors, I have increased the enrollment of the course from 3 to 12 over three school years, including female and minority students.
Blue Devil Weekly
I successfully implemented a course at Murdock High School around creating a school-wide YouTube channel. Previously at the school, a daily news program was run using old TVs mounted in each classroom. As technology advanced, the program became obsolete. Utilizing student’s own devices, a 5-10 weekly episode was created and shared on YouTube for the school and town community.
In our first year, the BlueDevilWeekly channel grew to over 6,600 views, 200 subscribers, and produced 20 weekly episodes. Incorporating self-reflection, teamwork, time management, technical editing, and outreach, students worked both independently and collaboratively each week to produce an episode. The initial group of students had creative freedom to report on the stories they knew students would be interested in as well as designing the set and routines for the production. In future years, I hope to solidify further the soft skills students learn in the course, as well as grow the course to include other social media outlets.