The Digital Adventures Blog
For parents, educators and students to discuss tech education for kids, best practices for teaching coding & engineering design to kids & emerging technology trends
Featured Posts
5 Important Design Characteristics of the Future Classroom
While curriculum and instruction are extremely important to developing the creative problem solvers of the future, it is also essential to make sure the learning environment evolves to meet their needs.Below, we have outlined 5 important design characteristics that are foundational for the classroom of the future.Small Class SizesThe costs to deliver great educational experiences for kids has c...
5 Great Reasons for Kids to try Tech This Summer
Over the summer, kids are released from school for 3 months. Parents who are accustomed to having their kids educated now need to find things for their kids to do. For some, their kids are enrolled in a multitude of camps. Other families extensively travel during the summer to give their kids a more expansive world view. If the kids are older, they may start a business or find an internship at ...
3 Key Behaviors of Great Young Technologists
Over the past several years, we’ve worked with a large number of students in our studios. During our classes and camps, we’ve been able to observe students with a wide range of experience, ability and expertise. What we’e found is that there are 3 behaviors that seem to be present in great young technologists. For those that have these behaviors, we work to strengthen them. For those that don’t...
3 Great Summer Jobs for 21st Century Kids
When I was kid, there were a few options that were popular for summer employment. I could either get a paper route or corral carts at the local grocery store. Since I had more time than money, I ended up pursuing both of these options.Currently, a much smaller number of households receive home delivery. And, more and more people are getting their groceries delivered to their homes. In addition,...
Microwave versus slow cooked technologists
For as long as most of us can remember, we’ve had a microwave in our homes. Given the immense time pressures that most of us have to juggle to keep our lives on track, heating a meal up in a microwave versus cooking on a stove or in the oven is not a luxury most of us can afford. However, we intuitively understand that a microwave meal is not going to be as good for us even though it fills the ...
3 ways to spark collaboration in kids
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." -African ProverbLately, our society seems to have overemphasized individual vs group performance especially during the developmental years for kids. This makes sense if you want students to perform well on standardized tests but not so logical if you want them to be the creative problem solvers that develop the inventions a...
Learn & Play in our Digital Sandbox
Technology literacy is no longer just an advantage, but a prerequisite to thrive in a complex, technology-driven world. Unfortunately, students do not have access to high quality technology education. Existing options are either too complex, boring or narrowly focused on low-level skills like programming syntax. These options might help students become coders who can translate someone else’s in...
5 Ways We Make Learning Technology Fun for Kids
Whether it’s playing sports or learning how to read, kids just want to have fun. This explains the popularity of educational themed shows like Sesame Street. They made learning fun by creating a mix of interactive and engaging characters while also being laser focused on delivering high quality educational content.At Digital Adventures, we have made a similar investment in prioritizing fun whil...
Why should I care about my kid learning tech?
As we discuss teaching technology to kids, we can often operate under the potentially faulty assumption that what we believe to be true is a widely held point of view. In reality, for any hypothesis that are often well-reasoned arguments both for and against a position. At that point, it becomes necessary to conduct an experiment to show whether the argument is demonstrably true or false. One ...
For best results, build your kid’s technology skills over time
Humans have an amazing ability to project forward but then not do much in the near term to prepare for the future. For example, nearly everyone knows that humans are living longer and longer, yet not enough people are investing in their physical health. Closely related to the benefits of health investment is the need to have financial security that lasts for an even longer period after retireme...
Creating is WAY more than just coding
Learn to code is definitely on trend. In fact, based on a recent survey, 9/10 parents want their kids to learn this important skill. Hour of code is a large and growing educational event that millions of students around the world participate in. However, exclusively focusing on coding limits the full potential of what future inventors and innovators need to learn in order to positively impact t...
Don’t underestimate the learning potential of Scratch
At Digital Adventures, Scratch is one of the many hardware and software platforms we leverage to teach kids how to build with technology. Yet, when some students come in they already have preconceived notions about the utility of this powerful language. They either say, I’ve already done Scratch or can we do a more challenging language? As an education technology platform, our goal is to make ...
Labels, Stereotypes & Truth in Tech
In general, there tend to be labels and stereotypes that are ascribed to activities and interest. As humans, these labels and stereotypes can help our brain group and make sense of large amounts of information so that we can take action. For example, in sports we tend to label participants as above average athletic. In addition, one stereotype is that athletes are just dumb jocks or below avera...
Let's Re-Think Education
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are no doubt aware of the college admissions scandal that resulted in indictments of 50 parents around the country who have been charged with paying an admissions counselor millions of dollars to get the children into the schools of their choice.While there is no doubt plenty of blame to go around, it’s also instructive in these situations to look at ...
3 Keys to Overcome the Challenge of Learning Technology
With the number of students we work with on a weekly basis, we are able to get a good sense of the challenges students face when learning technology. At the highest level, learning to build with technology is often a new experience for students. While they may have been around technology their entire lives, building a project can be very different. In fact, as we’ve previously discussed, lots ...