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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Yesterday, NewTechKids kicked off a very exciting project: teaching digital literacy to all 475 students at the Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam southeast. We'll be teaching students in groups 1 - 8. Older students will be taught in a combination of Dutch and English since the language of technology is English. Wereldwijs has been designated an 'Excellent School 2022-2025' for primary education by the Dutch Ministry of Education in 2019 and 2022. Led by a
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NewTechKids is collaborating with Metis Montessori Lyceum, a high school in Amsterdam, to plan a student trip to Silicon Valley in February 2023. Thirty-five students in Metis' Coderklas will be visiting Big Tech companies as well as companies in different industries which are being transformed by technology. Students will visit Google, NASA, Blue River Technology and other organizations where they will meet leaders and technologists. This is another great way in which students can learn
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NewTechKids is excited to join an expert research group which is exploring how critical making (maker education tied to the ability to evaluate the consequences, implications and ethics of technology) encourages students to be active and informed digital citizens. The project is being spearheaded by Waag, a Dutch futurelab which critically examines technology, develops technological and social design skills, and encourages social innovation, in partnership with the Rathenau Institute, a Dutch research institute which researches
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NewTechKids is going out with a bang in 2022. We're finishing up a bunch of bootcamps at the moment and we've come up with a novel way to challenge our students to put their knowledge of computer science, coding and robotics to the test. We've been hosting a series of friendly robot races with a twist. In teams, kids design, build and code robots which can grab (wrapped) candies which are scattered on the floor
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New year, new opportunity to broaden the scope of our technology education programs. While we can't announce the full details, we'll let you in on a secret. NewTechKids will be teaching a new digital literacy program to all classes at an Amsterdam primary school next year: groeps 1 to 8 (kids ages 4-12). Digital literacy is an important part of a solid primary school education. We love the definition of digital literacy given by Hiller Spires,
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Nothing makes the NewTechKids team happier than showing the world what our students invent during our classes. This week, our classes for primary school students focused on space exploration, largely because the topic really ignites the imagination of kids. Plus, there's tons of great multimedia content to excite them: movies, video games, books, etc. We kept our class challenges pretty broad and provided a scenario that like Matt Damon in 'The Martian' movie, they have
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