AACPS OIT Byte

This year Computer Science Education week runs from Friday, December 6th through the 12th. Hour of Code, one of their main events, kicks off Monday, the 9th. Hour of code encourages students to code for an hour to hone their skills, but it also allows teachers to discuss careers in coding and computer science how students can explore their interests and plan their path to achieve their goals. Below are several suggestions for how you can get your students involved in CS week or Hour of Code. Hour of Code Activities for PreK through high school. No coding experience necessary! Filter topics by grade level band and then by content to find something that works for your classroom. Topics include Art, Music, AI, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies and more! Explore the Hour of Code library directly from Classlink. Minecraft Hour Of Code The 2024 theme is The Show Must Go On! Minecraft invites students to step into the theater to find the show’s missing star, unlock hidden gags, s...

by Tracey Brown Instructional Technology Academic Specialist Did you know that October 14th through the 18th is Digital Citizenship week? While it can be difficult to find time to add more content to your already packed curriculum, in today's digital age, it's essential for students to understand and practice responsible online behavior. Teaching digital citizenship in K-12 schools prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of the digital world including the permanence of your digital footprint, and critical thinking to evaluate the quality and accuracy of online information. If you can find some time during indoor recess, after school clubs, advisory period, or other flex-time, here are some ideas for what to do with students to boost their digital citizenship knowledge: Adobe Express Adobe Express contains multiple templates for students to create a Digital Citizenship pledge or to share what they know. Templates include posters, infographics and web pages. One en...

by Tracey Brown, Academic Specialist, Instructional Technology Adobe Express is one of our favorite digital tools for both creation of instructional materials and student projects. This fall (2024) it got even better with the addition of Classrooms.  As educators, we love it when a tool makes a process easier! That's exactly what Adobe Express has done with the implementation of their new Classrooms feature! With Classrooms, teachers can give students an assignment with or without templates and additional attachments, see the students working in real time, collect all assignment submissions in one place with no need to download and upload, and even provide feedback for students before returning an assignment for revision and resubmission if needed. It can streamline the process of giving students projects in Adobe Express and reduce the turn-around time for feedback. You can find Classrooms on your menu on your Adobe Express dashboard. Setting up a class takes just a few seconds, a...

  By: Koralina McKenna, OIT Academic Specialist Around this time of year I was always looking for something new and versatile to capture my students interest. I wanted something that I could use from simple things like one-pagers and then use later for their final projects. Which brings me to my absolute favorite tool on the OIT roster - Adobe Express! Whether you're having students create an infographic, one-pager, thinking map, video or presentation - Adobe Express has you covered. It’s simple and easy to use for any grade level, individual or in groups; it doesn’t matter if you start from a template or scratch what your students create will be polished and professional. Students will find exactly what they need from a robust image, video and audio libraries built right into the editor. Perhaps what is most conducive to building student capacity with Adobe Express is that the editor stays the same regardless of the type of project they create. Students can download their projects...