Next week, NewTechKids will begin our second year of teaching digital literacy programs at Wereldwijs primary school in Amsterdam Southeast. We learned a lot from teaching all 650 students in groups 1-8 (ages 4-12 on average). We taught the youngest students in Dutch and the older students in a combination of Dutch and English. Here are some of our takeaways: Our youngest students are using apps which should not be legally available to them. Students
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Digital literacy is not simply 'nice to have' in 2023. It is a fundamental skill that all primary school students need to develop in order to enhance their learning and function in the world around them. NewTechKids is happy to be sharing our knowledge and experience about teaching digital literacy during a free workshop for primary school teachers during the Mokum Maakcoalitie's Maaksymposium on November 14th in Amsterdam. During this hands-on workshop, NewTechKids will give
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Due to generous donations from our donors, NewTechKids is able to offer more kids from low-income families heavily-subsidized spots in our summer bootcamps. Already this year, NewTechKids has taught more than 600 kids from low-income families and communities and we're happy to continue this outreach through our subsidy program. We've partnered with teachers, schools, the Amsterdam Public Library and the content moderators of popular social media pages for kids in Amsterdam to spread the word.
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How is the Netherlands maintaining its innovation edge? By developing and prototyping new creative and design processes. NewTechKids is involved in one such research project aimed at mobilizing the creative industries to help transform high school students into tech inventors who make products and services which have a positive impact on society. The research seeks to answer the question "How can critical making contribute to technological citizenship and responsible innovation?" High School Students & The
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NewTechKids is pleased to announce that we collaborated with Atlas Workshops, a company which organizes international learning experiences around the world for students and educators and which partners with creative organizations around the world. On Saturday, June 17, we hosted a group of American high school students and teachers in Amsterdam and taught a robotics and coding workshop focused on 'the future of farming and tech'. The Dutch backdrop makes a lot of sense. Despite
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With every second news headline mentioning AI, ChatGPT, etc., NewTechKids has decided to launch our first 'Intro to Generative AI' after-school bootcamp for kids ages 9-14. The bootcamp of four weekly sessions will take place on Thursday afternoons from 16:30 - 18:00 at the Amsterdam Public Library near Centraal Station, starting on June 29th. Some schools have adopted a strict 'no ChatGPT' ban. Others are experimenting with restricted usage and creating new learning experiences which
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Yesterday was hot in Amsterdam! It rose to 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) in the classroom where we teaching and there is no air conditioning. We had planned a digital literacy lesson for four classes of students ages 6-8 focused on software: how the app store works and the role that branding and logos play in online usage. Students were supposed to use iPads to make a series of sketches during a series of
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Summer is around the corner so it's time to get planning you child(ren)'s activities. NewTechKids is pleased to announce that registration is open for its popular summer bootcamps. We will be teaching weekly bootcamps during the Dutch school holidays which take place from July 24 - September 1. Kids ages 8-12 will learn how to become tech inventors by designing, building and programming a series of robots and robotic prototypes using LEGO robotics tools. We'll also
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NewTechKids ended up making some important last-minute changes to our digital literacy programs for primary school students at Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam Southeast. Why? The explosion of generative AI. In their article "Teaching Digital Literacy is a 21st Century Imperative & This is Why", Miah Daughtery and Laura B. Hansen write "In classrooms, digital literacy enables students to access information in new ways and then communicate what has been learned with others, giving students
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NewTechKids is honoured to have kicked off the second edition of a Maker education initiative in Amsterdam called 'Plusklas voor Elk Kind' (Gifted Class for Every Child). Spearheaded by the Mokum Maakcoalitie, a group of maker education organizations led by the Amsterdam Public Library and its Maakplaats021 team, the initiative provides all students in groups 5, 6 and 7 at the Burgemeester de Vlugtschool with a year of Maker classes. This school is located in Amsterdam
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