Why We Collaborate: Dispatch from TED's Radio Hour

"The world has over a trillion hours a year of free time to commit to shared projects," says professor Clay Shirky, professor of Social and Economic Effects of Internet Technologies at New York University. But what motivates dozens, thousands, even millions of people to come together on the Internet and commit their time to a project for free? What is the key to making a successful collaboration work? In this hour, TED speakers unravel ideas behind the mystery of mass collaborations that build a better world." Over the last year, TED has launched a weekly radio hour modeled after their highly successful TED Talks. This collection of interviews, archived on the web, Clay Shirley asks: What motivates us to collaborate? And Jason Fried asks: Is too much collaboration a bad thing? , 

Stephens-Petrochko Geography App

When Tyler Pterochko GA class of 2014 was a freshman, he had a conversation with middle school history teach Mark Stephens that became the focus of his Academy Scholars Project developed over the last three years.  What began as frustration over finding good software to support middle school geography became Stephens-Petrochko An open-source project, designed to provide user-friendly and dynamic software for geography curricula.  Designed "to allow developers to create their own map packs without needing to know programming.  The software also allows teachers to customize their own quizzes, in support of a more collaborative, technology-empowered teaching community."  Petrochko is a self taught programmer and game designer who plans on pursuing a career in computer science.  He las already prototyped a Binary Array Linked - Data structure, and and an External Server Verification Method to Prevent Against SSL-Stripping.  And he reports that he regularly uses Design Thinking as his idea generation and development process.  As a Challenge GA Trainer in the Upper School, he became aware that the process he followed had a name in the design and engineering worlds.  To hear him tell it, "I was using Design Thinking the whole time I was developing the software even though I didn't know it.  I began this project because I empathized with Stephen's need for a better teaching tool.  Once I understood that need, I defined, ideated, prototyped, and tested. "

What We Are Watching

As a part of the TEDGlobal program novelist, Abha Dawesar adresses "Life in the Digital Now". She takes an interesting look at technology by talking about the self, immersive experiences, and our sense of time.  Her thoughts on this came out of her experience of living in Manhattan, post Hurricane Sandy where she lived without water and electricity for some time. Click here to see the TED talk where she she considers: "Have our lives become fixated on the drive to digitally connect, that we miss out on what is real?"

Fourth Grade Tinkers!

If you find yourself on the second floor of the lower school midday each Friday you are apt to hear the rustling of tools and the tapping of hammers in the fourth grade classrooms. In two, six week sessions, Lower School Assistant Teacher, Zach Posnan will be working with 4th graders in the newly formed Tinkering Club where students have the opportunity to take apart devices and appliances large and small, to see how they work.  Getting tools in the hands of children is a powerful way of teaching them how things work and builds confidence at the same time.  Girls and boys make up equal membership ing the club. According to Posnan, so many students wanted to participate, that he needed to run two sections of the club suggesting that interest in mechanical thinking, engineering, and experimentation in the age of hand held devices and screens is alive and well.

Got Code: Middle School Begins Coding Club

Ken Rogers, Head of the Middle School recently announced the addition of a new Coding Club in the Middle School following a self paced curriculum online through Codeacademy.  As club sponsor, Rogers will guide students on independent projects from webpages to gaming.  You can hear more about Codeacademy by its founder, Mitch Resnick, by clicking here to connect to his Ted Talk, titled Let's Teach Kids to Code".

Challenge GA: Design Thinking in Action

Upper school students have been busy these last weeks thinking about what makes a house a home. In particular, how to translate that feeling to McNeil Hall, their home away from home. Challenge GA, a year long design thinking competition got underway in late September and for the next seven month, students will wrestle with new of creative problem solving. Using a technique developed at Stanford Design School, by David Kelley, called Design Thinking, students will solve for the question by employing a process where they will:  Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.  Beginning with interviews of their peers, the first phase of the year long project is to understand and define what people need for a building space to feels like home. Working in advisories with solutions evaluated  by way of a house competition, the winning idea will be implemented in 2014-15.

Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education Paragdigms

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.