Robotics and educational STEAM company Sphero and electronic building block littleBits have announced that they are joining forces to provide STEAM and coding solutions for classrooms and homes worldwide. 

With the addition of the littleBits line, Sphero will now feature a portfolio of over 140 patents in robotics, electronics, software, and the Internet of Things. Teachers will have access to hundreds of thousands of community-generated inventions and activities, and over a thousand lessons tied to NGSS, CSTA and Common Core standards. 

SAM Labs

Kids use block code and wireless blocks to program, design, and create

Pros: Students will love the hands-on creation process and interactive features that bring their designs to life.

Cons: The site is slow to load, and costs for the various blocks and kits can add up quickly.

Bottom Line: With some perseverance, it's a great fit for PBL and STEAM, helping students learn programming skills and engineering concepts through invention.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Acer today is making available its new Acer Repair Certification eLearning Program to education accounts in the United States and Canada, giving high school students the opportunity to explore technology and build transferable skills in a hands-on setting.

Acer developed the Repair Certification eLearning Program so students can learn to perform basic hardware repairs on Acer devices deployed in their school.

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In addition, the program partners with education accounts to develop an experienced team of knowledgeable students to assist school technical staff in maintaining their fleet of Acer C738T Chromebooks, the first Acer product qualified for this program.

In the Repair Certification eLearning Program, students learn about Chromebook component functions, component replacement, post-repair quality assurance and hardware reconfiguration. Students interact with eLearning modules that include videos, resource materials and assessments to ensure student success. The modules promote student engagement using gaming elements like points, badges and leader boards.

For more information, schools can contact Acer Education at edu.pa@acer.com.

Did you ever wonder how music travels from a radio station to a radio receiver? How do the sounds travel through air and buildings and everything else in between you and the station? Celebrate National Radio Day (8/20) by learning all about radio waves.

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Courtesy of Knovation

Bird Brain Technologies is an incredible company, and they have some impressive new tricks up their sleeve. Bird Brain makes both Finch robots, and they make Hummingbird robotics kits. Out of all of the kits and maker supplies I have tried, Hummingbird is easily one of my favorites, and now they have added Microbit!

Hummingbird kits consist of a custom Arduino board, lights, sensors, and motors. The idea behind them is that a student can take the board, wire it with whatever they want, and add the electronic components to something they have made out of arts and crafts materials. It means students can make almost anything with them including some awesome robots. I have seen middle school students make coffee drinking robots, police cars, dioramas, UFO’s, and more. It is genuinely a maker activity that gives students endless possibilities.

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Adding Microbit capability takes it up one more notch. A Microbit is a $30 board that gives students a the ability to program its onboard LED’s, buttons, power ports, and sensors. Microbit has its own blockly coding program, but it also works with Python as well. Adding it to the Hummingbird gives you the ability to run the Hummingbird “headless” which can open up a world of possibilities.

Running it “headless” basically means that you can run the Hummingbird without it being attached to a computer. In the past, you would always have to connect Hummingbird to a computer through a USB cable and run its programming through one of the many software platforms it supports. Running it headless means I can create the program and detach the board to build standalone robots and items such as intruder alarms that use the Hummingbird sensors to take actions. It makes the Hummingbird kit more than just an incredible maker activity because now I can build tools for the real world that I can reuse. That’s important to show any kid!

Check out Hummingbird here

cross posted at www.bigguyinabowtie.com

David Lockhart is an edtech presenter, speaker, advocate, and coach with over ten years' experience teaching high school social studies. As an Education Technology Specialist with the Iteach Center at Kennesaw State University, he works with a metro Atlanta school district to personalize learning for students with the aid of technology. Read his blog at bigguyinabowtie.com and follow him on Twitter @bigguyinabowtie.

The Consumer Electronics Show is one of the biggest conferences for tech lovers. Tech & Learning asked Mike Fisher, Associate Director, Education Division at Futuresource Consulting, to identify trends he saw in the edtech space:

● Overall, K–20 edtech had a bigger presence at CES this year. The edtech exhibition space was in the Sands Expo, but there was an edtech presence in other halls as well.

● Coding and robotics were the main areas of focus.

● A number of products from both established companies and start-ups reflected the growing global focus on STEM learning and coding.

● LEGO attracted both crowds and press coverage for its LEGO BOOST product line, which is aimed at teaching younger kids to code.

● Robotics was a major theme, with everything from virtual assistants to toys, cleaning robots, and educational robots. Many, again, were linked to teaching kids to code. The KUBO robot, for example, accelerates learning not only in coding but also in math, language, and music, with its TagTile programming language.