Ed Tech News Roundup: Sports, STEAM, and Coding

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of periodic ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Ed Tech for Physical Education

There’s no subject untouched by technology. And just as technology moves into many aspects of life, it’s also changing the way we teach physical education.

• Physical education teacher Jon Szychlinksi isn’t simply running students through drills, he’s having them reflect on health and fitness (with the help of technology). [Hechinger Report]
• At the higher ed level, art, athletics, and tech are meeting on stage, as dance education gets a lift from a National Science Foundation STEM grant. [Colorado Arts and Sciences]

Diversifying STEAM/STEM

• Longstanding knowledge and traditions meet contemporary science in an “Indigenous engineering” class at Salish Kootenai College, which serves the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreilles tribes of the Flathead reservation near Pablo, Montana. [Missoulan]
• Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the Urban Youth Racing School is helping find pathways into careers through high-octane STEAM learning. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Coding, Online and Offline

• Middle school students in Longmont, Colorado are trying a new kind of programming: screen-free coding. [Daily Camera]
• A new hourlong course is training teachers to facilitate coding lessons in Minecraft: Education Edition, and helping them earn Microsoft Educator badges. [THE Journal]

And Finally…

Wisconsin Public Radio raises an important question of the digital age: Should students still learn to write in cursive?